Young Alumni Spotlight
This page is used to highlight accomplishments of some of our outstanding Rochester young alumni. If you would like to nominate yourself or a friend please contact Lisa Szczerba Eardman '00 at leardman@alumni.rochester.edu.
Please include your contact information, the name of the alumnus you would like to spotlight, and a paragraph describing his or her accomplishments.
Awista Ayub
Ms. Ayub received her Bachelors of Science in chemistry from the University in 2001. In addition, she was a Take Five Scholar in a tuition-free fifth year studying gender issues in science and engineering and wrote a thesis paper about the positive social benefits of women in athletics.
Ms. Ayub is the founder of the Women's Ice Hockey team at the University of Rochester where she played as the team goalie for three years. She also founded the North East Women's Collegiate Hockey Association serving as the league for the greater New England women's ice hockey teams.
During the Fall of 2003, Ms. Ayub founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange (AYSE), a non-profit organization dedicated to preparing Afghanistan's youth with leadership skills required to promote athletics into their schools and communities. In June, 2004, AYSE successfully sponsored eight young female leaders to the United States making up the first international girls soccer team from Kabul, Afghanistan. In April of 2006, Ms. Ayub brought four Afghan-American coaches to Afghanistan to successfully organize a girls soccer clinic in Kabul, working with over 250 girls through the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee. In July, 2006, a group of young, Afghan female athletes sonsored by AYSE received the Arthur Ashe Courage Awared at the 2006 ESPYS.
Ms. Ayub has been featured in a number of national news publications and programs including ESPN, Glamour magazine, and USA Today. Recently, Awista was featured as an ABC News Person of the Week.
Currently, Ms. Ayub serves as the Education and Health Officer at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C. She is responsible for fostering relationships with organizations, schools, and individuals that work with education and health issues related to Afghanistan.
Check out our previous spotlight profile, Joe Lanning '00.