 Over the last 10 weeks or so, we have been conducting our sessions for MGN here at MCC with our wonderful partners, 10 weeks of sessions with different facilitators, weeks and months of planning, and it was really exciting. It all came together and it was definitely an incredible experience. I'll say for me, as you know, as a first-time organizer, working with everyone and being a part of everything, really it was really eye-opening. It was also along with the students with how much that they learned and also our facilitators too. I learned in a credible amount too and I had the chance, you know, I was blessed enough to have the chance to lead one of the sessions with everyone, our poetry session or poetry about our family history and about our stories and it was really eye-opening for me and inspiring to hear how many of the back stories and the stories of our families, our immigrant journeys and making it here and what led us here to the opportunities and to being as happy and successful and being able to be as free as we are today. So it's been, you know, it's been quite a journey and from our first week with Sister Aisha all the way through our field trip last week and now seeing you all here, just really exciting to see all the parents, seeing family, seeing my colleagues, it's just incredible and it makes me, like I can't even explain, like I look happy but like I can't even tell you how happy, like I actually am inside. It's really just a big smile to my face and I also want to thank of course our partners at MCC whether it be working with Sister Sabine, Brother Munir, of course Sister Shazia who's back there, who's been by my side throughout the whole program and then also Brother Pasad who's here somewhere, somewhere in the back. He's the one that's been doing all the setup whether it's all the chairs, the tables, getting everything ready for everyone, preparing all the materials. Our team, you know, it's been a journey and we've worked incredibly well together and it was really a collaborative effort to get here and a collaborative effort to bring the program here. So it's been, I would like to say that Hamdur La it's been successful and I hope you all feel the same way and I hope that you all have been able to learn something whether it's, you know, even if it's one thing or I hope that you can take away, you know, important information and feel like you had a good summer also. I definitely have spending with you all every Sunday. But yeah, without further ado, as we got the slideshow playing in the back here also that I'm controlling, I would like to shortly here introduce our sister Zara who's our executive director. I have a little bio for you that I'll go ahead and read for everyone. So as we know, Zara serves as the executive director for the Council on American Islamic Relations Care. We've all been working with of course here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our office, our little intro, our office is the oldest care chapter aside from one DC. And since joining in 2009, Zara has led the organization through a period of six fold growth. And today she manages one of the largest care offices in the country with a team of civil rights and social justice advocates, like ourselves, dedicated to the empowerment of American Muslims through legal services, legislative advocacy, community organizing, and of course our youth engagement and our youth programs also. And under Zara's leadership, Care SFA has filed lawsuits against the United States Department of Justice, Abercrombie Fitch, representing American Muslims that have been facing discriminatory treatment. And our office has also significantly expanded its capabilities to provide know your rights sessions. Is the mic not working? Would you like me to turn this one on to both? Okay, sorry, everyone. But really quick back to it. She's also providing direct legal representation to Bay Area residents, faced with numerous civil rights violations, including FBI interviews, employment discrimination, airport harassment, school bullying, and hate crimes. So without further ado, Zara, if you'd like to join us. So I like them, everyone. It's a little bit strange to sit here by myself, which is why I'm standing. It's good to see all of you. I asked Osman to cut that entire bio and just say Sister Zahra from Care and he didn't listen to me, which is okay. That's about being young and rebellious. And I'm so grateful to him. I was thinking about what to say to all of you. Like really, you're here for the food. You're here for the celebration. You're not here for a lot of long speeches. For the young people, you've done that for 10 weeks. You've done the activities, the spaghetti tower, which I would fail at. You've done the walking tour and you've heard from so many incredible speakers. And so today is about just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. And so with that pressure, I'm like, okay, what can I still say? And I was thinking honestly about how jealous I am of all of you. And I think this every time I'm in a among a group of young people, particularly now, you're about half my age. And I don't remember the last time I was in a high school program or a college program and I had the opportunity to just learn, right? The opportunity to learn to absorb and to be in each other's company. And so I hope you will take advantage of the relationships that you built in this program. If you met someone new through MGM, you're all on a WhatsApp group together. You have each other's phone numbers. You probably have each other's social media handles. And I know there's this new social media platform like every week, someone just told me about be real. And I was like, this is so exhausting. I can barely keep up with Facebook, which I think most of you don't have anymore. But however you choose to stay in touch, please stay in touch. If you knew someone and you got closer to them in this program, I hope you will cherish that opportunity for a close relationship. When I look back at the opportunities I had in high school and in college, the friends that I did community work with, the friends that I went to the masjid with, those are the people I'm still friends with 20 years later, right? Those are the people that when I go into their town, I call them, I text them, I say, what are you doing? Can we get together? Those are the people that I call when I'm facing a difficult question. And I ask, you know, how should I approach this? What should I be thinking about? Those are the people I call for professional advice, for religious advice, and for personal advice. And so first and foremost, I hope you will cherish the relationships that you built through this program. The second thing I hope you will do is take the knowledge that you obtained, right? And one of the things I really love about MGM is it wasn't just 10 weeks of people talking at you. You had activities, you had hands-on experiences, you had difficult conversations, things that honestly privilege you over so many other young people in our community. If you have a family that supported you in coming to the masjid every Sunday, you are blessed. If you heard from speakers that honestly, Osman, I did not hear from MGM like speakers when I was 16, did you? Right? Like, I did not hear from Muslim elected officials, I did not hear from Muslim civic leaders, I did not walk the streets of Berkeley, I didn't get to do hands-on exercises. And so if you were here, you are really, really fortunate. Take what you learned in this program and share it with other people, right? Share it with your friends, share it with your cousins, share it with your family members, right? Some of the conversations you've had about your story, your family's immigration background, class, privilege, race, all of these civic engagement, nobody told me how to go to meet with an elected official when I was 16. I think I had to wait until I was about 19 to do that for the first time, right? And so share that information with other people. And then my last request of you, my last request of you or urging of you as you wrap up with us today is to please stay in touch. Stay in touch with care and stay in touch with your masjid. My parents were big believers in if all you do is go to the masjid to pray, but you're not volunteering, you're not in leadership, you're not donating, then you're missing out on the opportunity, right? It's so easy to just come and go and have no obligations, but it's when we make commitments to these organizations, to these massages that we can grow programs like this. MGM itself was founded by one of our young staff members close to a decade ago. And she said, you know, I didn't have certain things and I want to give back and I want to get involved. And she created this program that has led to this graduation today. And you're one of more than a dozen classes of students that have graduated from MGM across the state since she started, but all it takes is getting involved. And so cherish the relationships that you built through this program. Take the information and share it with others, right? It's only helpful if other people are thinking about these questions, if other people are thinking through these exercises that you've been through. And then stay in touch, stay in touch with care, stay in touch with the message and get involved, right? These programs take people like you to generate new ideas. These programs take people like you to volunteer and work for our organizations to do this work. And they take all of you continuing to show up. And so let today be a milestone, but not a farewell, right? Let today be one where we celebrate, we have good food, we take pictures, but not one where we say goodbye, right? It's one where we say we've accomplished something together and we will continue to deepen these relationships and do even more. Honestly, maybe most sincerely, separate from this advice and separate from telling you that I'm jealous of you because none of you, none of your graduates, like you didn't wake up with back pain today, right? Every, every parent, the graduates though, every parent felt it in their lower back, in their feet, in their arms. Every parent was like, I wish I could survive on four hours of sleep the way my young people do. You are here and I am here to celebrate you. I'm here because I'm a little bit jealous of you and I'm hoping that your youth is contagious through, through proximity. But thank you. Thank you for spending your summer with us. Thank you to the parents for trusting us. Thank you to the parents for being willing to have important conversations about race and class and privilege and civic engagement and immigration with your kids. And thank you, not even kids, thank you to this next generation of leaders for entrusting us with your time, your company, your feedback. And inshallah, we look forward to staying in touch. Congratulations. Okay. And just like a graduation, we're all, once you read your name, if you could please come up, join us up here. And we can always, you know, clap to hold our applause to the end or no, we can clap throughout. Yeah, make it embarrassing for all of us. Just like a regular graduation would be. But without further ado, go ahead and awesome. So starting us off with our first graduate, we have Ayesha Ghani. Let's start for pictures. And then Hajra Hassan. Yaya Hassan. Hannah Shukri. And Zara Azim. And Zayn Shukri. And then Halima Attiki, or Attiki. Sorry if I mispronounce Halima. I'm so sorry. And Safwan Mansour. And Rayan Muhammad. However works, whatever. And then Anaya Mia. And Rizwan Kudia. He's sick today. Okay, no problem. No problem. And then Janna Mansour. And Zara Rahim. Not with us today. It's okay. Amar Kudia. Opposite both. Great. And then Nuhakan. And Jibril Moinuddin. Not here. That's okay. Again. Dawood Mia. And Yusuf Berves. Awesome. And then Aya Hassan. And Ishaal Navid. Is Ishaal here today? No. Nuhah Maflahi. Nuhah also. Zayn Mustafa. And then Madiha Rahmatullah. Muhammad Popal. And then Hassan Muhammad. And Nuhah Fayaz. And Hamza Ali. And Harun Abdul Gader. Awesome. And Sumera Ferdows. And Musa Ashraf. And Hasib Yassid. And Rihanna Asifali. Awesome. And almost done. Janna Imam. Okay. And then Aya Mansouri. Did these folks work here? Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Should be a few. Great. And if we get a round of applause for everyone once again for all of us parents, everybody's students. Awesome. And then if I could, we would like to take like one real good group photo. So should we all, is there room for us all to come up front? Will we be able to? No. Two rows. Um, before we break for our food and to, you know, of course, celebrate all together, I would like to give a lot of few moments for our wonderful sister Humera from MCC. She'd like to say a few words before we break inshallah. So without further ado, if you'd like to join me. Assalamu alaikum everybody. I'm so excited that all of you decided to join the MDN program. When I first read the description of the program six, seven years ago, I wanted to be you. I'm not gonna lie. I wish I had these opportunities when I was growing up. I had so much to say, so many thoughts that I had, so many injustices that I saw around in Pakistan growing up as a young teenager and a young adult, and I did not have a platform. More than that, I did not have the words, what to say, how to say that makes an impact. But when I look at you guys, I feel excited. I feel so happy that you guys are learning those tools. You guys have the language. You guys have the opportunity to learn how to use that language, how to use these tools to make an impact. I wish you nothing but the best. So go out wherever you see an injustice. Speak up. If not for yourself, for your fellow human beings. Because remember, as Muslims, it's a right of others upon us to stand up for injustices, to say something, hold their hand. They may not have had the opportunity like me to have the words, the platform or the occasion. Somebody did not stand up for them. You do that. You are bright future. Go out and make us proud. I am very excited to see this graduating class and I'm looking forward to hearing wonderful things from all of you. Nothing amazes me more and nothing makes me more full of pride when I see kids from our community or neighboring communities in few years making a movie, writing an ad-op. You don't have to be a journalist. You can be a doctor, an astronaut, an engineer, and still pursue this passion. So please go make a difference. What you have learned, use it, utilize it. And thank you to Kair, Zahra, Uthman, everybody at Kair, and to Munir Safi at MCC for making this happen. Have a wonderful day. Thank you. Okay. So thank you all again. So as the students know, but we'll have food for everyone also. So our food will, unfortunately we can't be in here, but our food will be in our usual in the banquet area outside. I believe Sister Shazia is, we'll give it a couple minutes, but that's our graduation ceremony, the talking portion of it, of course, but for the rest of the time or for the remainder, you all are more than welcome to socialize, talk with us, talk with each other, and just have a little fun and enjoy it, inshallah. And in a few minutes we'll make an announcement for the food, but that's all, inshallah.