Orubba Almansouri at the White House summit
At the invitation of First Lady Michelle Obama, Class of 2016 Salutatorian Orubba Almansouri, took her oratorical skills to Washington, D.C. where she was a speaker at the United State of Women Summit. She addressed the panel, ‘Let Girls Learn,’ at the two-day conference whose other speakers included President Obama, Mrs. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
The Yemeni-born Brooklyn resident received an award from the Yemeni ambassador in Washington, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, in recognition of her academic success.
Almansouri spoke passionately at City College’s 170th commencement on her fight to pursue her education as a woman, countering the tradition for females in her family.
She graduated from CCNY with double BA degrees in English and history and a 3.97 GPA.
Almansouri is now an advocate for other young women in her culture to stand up for their rights to an education.
She’ll begin a master’s in near eastern studies at New York University in the fall and after that pursue her PhD at the University of Michigan.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in the College of Liberal Arts and Science; Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; School of Education; Grove School of Engineering; Sophie Davis Biomedical Education/CUNY School of Medicine; and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.