My name is Colleen Hegarty and I am a currently a junior at The George Washington University double majoring in Middle East Studies and Arabic.  I have spent the past year studying abroad in Amman, Jordan and Rabat, Morocco, where I took classes on the history, politics, and religions of the Middle East North Africa region.  Before my travels abroad, I had been interested in the Arab-Israeli conflict, but it was not until taking an Arab-Israeli politics class in Jordan, recognizing how many Palestinian refugees live in Jordan, and travelling to Palestine that I realized the severity of the situation and became an avid supporter of the creation of a Palestinian state.  I am particularly interested in working with The American Task Force on Palestine because the organization aims to help Palestinians and create a Palestinian state through strengthening American-Palestinian relations, expressing the importance of the creation of a Palestinian state to Americans, supporting anti-corruption, good governance, and economic development in Palestine, and also connecting Palestine to the greater Arab World.  This approach is particularly exciting to me because it helps Palestinians from many different angles.

Follow Colleen on Twitter: @ColleenHegarty1