Abeer Quinaibi

Abeer was raised in a society that placed more importance on marriage than education for women. She was married young but nevertheless continued in education and obtained her bachelor’s degree in mathematical sciences. She has been motivated to become a teacher through the effort of her own teachers to help her thrive, and she has seen it as her goal to devise new pedagogies to cope with the advancement of technology. These are based on the principle of collaboration and sharing an aura of innovative thoughts. She has helped create positive associations around learning with her “Mathematics Café” initiative, which aimed at creating a café-like interactive setting for learning, and her students continue to achieve highly in exams and Mathematics Olympics competitions.

She has pursued postgraduate study and focused on setting a good example for students. Abeer was ranked fourth in the Intel-ISEF exhibition held in the USA in 2012 for her role in supervising the “Crying Plant” project; this was the first prize ever to be won by Palestine in the exhibition. She has also enhanced local and international outreach by means of holding Skype meetings with various students from schools across Palestine, the USA and Saudi Arabia. In 2012, Abeer was awarded the Silver Medal for innovation and creativity by the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas. With the prize funds, she would improve the Mathematics Café, establish a foundation to assist needy high school students to continue their studies, and assist Palestinian children who have lost limbs due to the conflict.