As a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award through the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Program, I am privileged to have experienced a tiny ounce of the level and kind of work Prince Philip has undertaken in the past many years until he retired from public life. The combination of voluntary service, physical recreation, skills, and adventure all challenged and engaged me physically and mentally in an all-round development as a young woman to serve the world and be a global citizen of tomorrow. The very ideals that Prince Philip stood for was embodied in the award program and I am very glad to have experienced and put those ideals to practice in my life through this platform my alma mater, The Indian High School, Dubai offered me in the year 2014-15. I wish I got an opportunity to let the late Duke of Edinburgh know of my sincere gratitude to him for instituting this program on behalf of all young people who have benefitted from it. Prince Philip's vision to motivate the youth to engage themselves in various spheres of life outside academic and jobs has been quite crucial to many of us, inspiring us to push ourselves to go the extra mile and achieve bigger things that led us to the satisfaction of receiving the medal in the end.

I would like to use my positive, educational and challenging experience to inspire more people to embark on this journey as prescribed by the Award program. The activities I undertook, the people I met, worked and travelled with along the way not only just constitute a fond memory, but are an essential part of who I am as a global citizen. The values gained still continue to guide me as am I about to start the next phase of my academic life- graduate school.