Samer Anabtawi is currently a Graduate Assistant and a PhD student in Comparative Politics and Quantitative Research Methods at the George Washington University. In 2013, Samer completed his MA in International Relations at the University of Chicago with an emphasis on International Political Economy.
Between 2013 and 2015, Samer worked as a Media consultant with Palestine’s General Delegation to the United States and had previously held internship positions at the United States Congress and the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ramallah.
As a Hope Fund Scholar, Samer graduated from Illinois College in 2012, Summa Cum Laude, with a quadruple major in political science, economics, French, and International studies. Samer graduated as Valedictorian of his class, and was inducted to Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most distinguished academic honor society. He is also a member of the International Economics Honor Society “Omicron Delta Epsilon,” the National Political Science Honor Society “Pi Sigma Alpha,” the International Foreign Language Honor Society “Phi Sigma Iota,” and IC’s Phi Alpha Literary Society.
Samer has taken a key campus leadership role in developing the social justice tradition at Illinois College. As president of the Progressive Action Coalition, and founder of Illinois College’s first Amnesty International chapter, he led campus-wide initiatives advocating for social and economic justice, as well as racial and gender equality. He was twice the college’s recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Peacemaker award and was named the Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact in recognition of his leadership role.
Through the Hope Fund, he developed a strong commitment to providing opportunities for Palestinian students to pursue quality education and has worked with current and past students to help them meet the highest standards of excellence in their careers. He hopes to build on his experience in higher education to contribute to the success of LE•O in offering academic and leadership opportunities to Palestinian students in the United States.
Samer is a LE•O representative for The West Bank.