Ishaq (Isaac) was born in Jordan. His grandparents were Palestinian refugees who came to Jordan after being displaced from their hometown Dayr Tareef in historic Palestine in 1948. Ishaq’s late mother, Sameera Alghoul, was born in Nablus and came to Jordan along with the second wave of Palestinian refugees in 1967. Both of his parents worked as teachers. They firmly believed in the importance of education and made it a top priority for their family of seven children.

At sixteen, Ishaq received the United World Colleges scholarship to attend Lester B. Pearson College of the Pacific in Canada. The UWC scholarship was awarded to only four students in Jordan that year. Two years later, he was awarded the Shelby Davis scholarship at Middlebury College in Vermont. He pursued his childhood dream of becoming a software engineer and graduated in 2011 with a B.A. in Computer Science. Ishaq went on to work at a number of technology companies and startups as a software engineer. He currently works as a staff engineer at Datadog in New York City.

Ishaq established this foundation because he wants to create educational opportunities for students in high-potential and high-impact areas such as medicine and computer science.

Hebba was born in Puerto Rico to Palestinian parents. Her father traveled from Gaza to Venezuela at a young age, before moving to Puerto Rico. Her mother moved from Gaza to Puerto Rico after they married. They settled in New York when Hebba was four years old. Her parents worked very hard to support the family.

Hebba went to New Dorp High School in Staten Island. After graduation, she received the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) scholarship to attend college. She studied psychology at the College of Staten Island. After graduation, Hebba served in various counseling roles, including crisis counseling for adults and children affected by Hurricane Sandy, ABA therapy in New Jersey, and case management at the Arab American Association in New York.

Hebba’s life-long dream is to provide therapy in the Gaza Strip, where counseling opportunities are limited. Increasing access to psychology and counseling education to passionate and talented students is her main motivation in starting this foundation.