Razan Al-Aqil is a Saudi student and alumna of the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program. She represented Saudi Arabia as a delegate to the 2016 United Nations Youth Assembly, in a session that focused on the role of youth in the implementation of the 2030 Vision. Razan is the first Saudi and first Arab woman to participate in the Youth Assembly at the UN, in which she also won the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award among of 1,000 delegates from 85 countries.

Mohammed Qahtani is a Saudi security engineer, but he is known for winning the title of the World Champion of Public Speaking by the Toastmasters International organization, in 2015. He survived seven rounds of a competition that lasted six months and included 33,000 competitors from around the world. He and nine other finalists competed at the Toastmasters annual convention in Las Vegas, and he took home first place for his speech, “The Power of Words”.

Haifa Al Mansour is Saudi Arabia’s first female director. Listed by Forbes in the second place among the 100 most powerful Arab women, she was the first ever Saudi movie to enter the Oscars as Best Foreign Language Movie for her film Wadjda, which made its world premiere at the 2012 Venice Film Festival, and which she had at times to direct through walkie-talkie from the inside of a van.

Zainalabdin Tawfiq developed an anonymous messaging tool called Sarahah (Arabic for “honesty”), which is now topping the charts for app downloads, finding its way into millennials’ smartphones worldwide.

Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi woman to climb Mt. Everst, at the age of 27, back in May 2013. She began climbing in November 2011 and in the space of a year, conquered eight mountains including Kilimanjaro. She was also the youngest Saudi to reach the top of the world and was part of the first Arab team to make the climb.

Hosam Zowawi is a clinical microbiologist with an interest in antibiotic resistant bacterial diseases, known as “superbugs”. He recognized the need to develop more rapid diagnostic tools to aid initial medical management and implement infection control precautions. He won many awards, amongst them are the Griffith University award for academic excellence and was one of the 2014 Young Laureates of the Rolex Award for Enterprise.

Adah Almutairi has many noticed achievements and holds more than ten patents in the field of nanomedicin. She has won the NIH New Innovator Award, phRMA Foundation Award, the Young Investigator Award, and was a Kavli Fellow for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2016.