Washington — The U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative has nurtured budding leaders across the Middle East and North Africa.

Better known as MEPI, the initiative provides training and grants to local groups and individuals for ventures that can help them bring change to their communities. Recipients aim to build democracy, empower women and promote opportunities for youth employment.

One MEPI participant is Algerian student leader Mouloud Kessir, founding member of Algeria's MEPI alumni network and president of the Algerian branch of the global youth group AIESEC, formerly known as the International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences.

"I had an amazing and life-changing journey," Kessir said of his MEPI experience studying leadership, economics, philosophy and public speaking at the University of Delaware. "The most valuable outcome one could get from such a program is not only skills, but also the opportunity to get out of your comfort zone, to share your ideas and challenge them." Kessir said he'll use his MEPI experience to help bring changes to higher education in his country.

Fellow Algerian and entrepreneur Amine Bounoughaz agrees. A MEPI alumnus who studied at Georgetown University, Bounoughaz said MEPI helped him unlock his leadership potential and bring positive change to his life. "The MEPI program completely changed my life," he said.

Jordanian Deema Al-Hamdan credits MEPI with giving her confidence. The MEPI student leader values MEPI teaching her how to perform community volunteer work in a team setting. Later, while volunteering in her community, she learned how to set a path toward achieving her long-term goals. "MEPI simply gave me the keys to a successful life," she said. "What I need to do now is only to look for the right doors to open."

Iraqi Payam Naqshabandi also studied at the University of Delaware. He used that connection to get a grant from the university to help him bring awareness of violence against women to communities and policymakers.

Iraqi physician and MEPI alumnus Ali Salim Alshati is president of the Iraq MEPI alumni chapter. He studied at the University of Delaware and visited cities on America's northeast and west coasts, even participating in the 2010 re-election campaign of U.S. Representative Mike Honda of California. He finds his volunteer work with local and international nongovernmental organizations fulfilling.

With a MEPI grant, Alshati runs There Is Always Hope, a nonprofit that rallies students to visit children with terminal cancer hospitalized in Baghdad, bringing video games, musical instruments and smiles. There Is Always Hope received startup funding from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq.

"I expected to find myself a different person than before and that's exactly what happened," Alshati said. "I started to think in a different way. ... An image of a true leader was what I gained from my participation in MEPI."

"More than three years have passed since I came back home form MEPI," he said. "I am so proud of saying that I'm still impressed and still in contact with the unforgettable professors and friends who significantly helped me to be a different person."

MEPI's student leaders program is administered by the U.S. State Department. It selects young people from the Middle East and North Africa for six weeks of intensive study at academic institutions in the United States, where they learn leadership and how to apply the democratic process in their communities. Student leaders have the opportunity to meet American peers, engage in local community service activities and take part in the governmental processes at local, state and federal levels.

Through the MEPI network, more than 11,000 of its alumni regularly connect with each other to share ideas about advancing civil society reform.