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September 28, 2021 11 mins

Yasmine Yehia Moustafa has an asteroid named after her, thanks to an amazing invention of hers'. Learn more about her accomplishments in this episode. 

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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff
I've never told you a protection of iHeart radio, and
welcome to another edition of Women Around the World. We
are back for more amazing women and ladies doing some

(00:29):
big things. And uh Anie, though, before we start, I
do have to ask you a question, Okay, and I
think I talked about this before. Yes, did you go
beyond just your local science fair? Did you, at any
point go into bigger competitions? I did? Okay, we didn't
talk about this part, and tell me about that. I did.

(00:51):
I was more I went to I know I've discussed
my spelling be experience in my geography be experience. I
did go and because I loved science fair. However, I
think I have discussed this before. I was sort of
notorious for I don't want to say thinking too big,

(01:12):
because that's what you should do, right, But I would
try to do these things that were really difficult to
pull off, and I would try to do two of them.
So I always came with like two projects, and both
of them were overly complicated in nature, and a lot
of times I got disqualified for that, and I kept
doing it anyway because I would just be like, I'm

(01:34):
not sure if this idea will work, well, maybe this
one will. And I could never decide on which idea
I wanted to go all in on, so I would
do both, and then I swear every time I would
I have one that I was like, this is the winner,
this is the one, because they would make me choose
which Okay, you can't enter two things, pick one, and

(01:54):
I'd always be like, Okay, this one, like might not
perform as well consistently, but when it does, it does
so much better than the other one, and it would
always fail every time the other one is the one
I should have stuck with. That sad oh, I mean
it makes me sad too, especially because there was this
one teacher who was very she's had a very sarcastic nature,

(02:17):
and I could tell she was like, and he has
done it again. She can never just enter one thing,
and she would kind of laugh at me every time
it was okay. I mean I had so much fun
doing it, And I am somebody who really likes puzzles
and like trying to figure out things and and like
really sitting with a problem and trying to come up
with creative solutions. All that to say this is a

(02:39):
long winded answer. I did venture out into some like
local science hairs, but I never went like, I don't know,
I don't know if to state or is even a thing,
but like I only ventured out in kind of local
science hair type things. But it was something that I
really enjoyed and really looked forward to, but also was
a force of stress. Yeah. So I think I've already

(03:02):
talked about the fact the only really good science favorite
project that I've ever done was something that a teacher
was like, here, I just do this, and it ordered
it for me and sent it home with me. And
I think I remember getting a prize. I did get
like a third third prize for it. Um, And that's
the only time I believe that was in the fifth grade.
Uh so that was my and it was my little

(03:23):
sprouts that I was I think, and using different types
of light to see what was the most effective and
growth and um, yeah, I can't remember, just so you know,
I don't know what the results were. Remember one, I
remember I won a prize. I didn't win it, but
I want something, and I just remember because I was like,
it was not my idea and I just could not

(03:45):
understand what I was doing. So what was your favorite
project that you did? I think that's a good question.
I really enjoyed I built a very elaborate volcano once
exploding volcano. Know, so it was like a much more
grandiose take on You're simple, you know, vinegar and whatever.

(04:06):
But I like built this volcano and when it erupted,
it erupted like it caused a scene based on that
people who were like backing away, and I made it
like it was like paper mache. But then I did
like this rock bass, so it looked like it was
made of rocks, and the rocks like all it everywhere.

(04:27):
It was cool. No, no one was hurt, no one
was injured because it was in a you know box um,
but it was definitely a more violent explosion that destroyed
the whole thing that I was anticipated. I was not
anticipating it was going to be that violent, and there
was smoke like everywhere, like oh, but I really enjoyed

(04:51):
that one. There was we had to build, like probably
a lot of listeners had to do this. You had
to build a cage for eggs out of straw us
and see who could drop it from the highest And
I came in second in that and that was one
of those that cost me a lot of stress but
also a lot of joy uh in the end because

(05:12):
it worked. I think if it hadn't worked, I wouldn't
be saying right right, I haven't been successful. And you
may be asking listeners why we are talking about our

(05:35):
fun times with a science fare. There's a reason, Um,
that is because we decided to come back into it
because I think between fictional women around the world as
well as we did the listener mill, we had a
little moment of like featuring a lot of people, maybe
a lot of different people, including the Olympic stuff as well,
that we were going to jump back into the world
of women in stem Uh and we wanted to talk

(05:57):
about the works of Yasmine. Yeah. He a Mustafa, who
is actually featured a think on the National Geographic documentary
Science Fair. And by the way, if you've seen the
preview for this, it looks like a banger because like
these kids are going dancing and having the best time.
So but anyway, she was featured on that because she
is a phenomenal woman in stem so let's talk about her. Yes, So,

(06:21):
Mustafa is a twenty three year old Egyptian from the
village in the Damietta government. With the encouragement from her mother,
Mustafa decided to attend a STEM school in Cairo, the
Madai Stem School for Girls, which is a newer school
that focuses on teaching women to become leaders of the science, technology,
engineering and mathematics realm anywhere in those fields, which meant

(06:42):
she had to travel outside of her home and attend
a boarding school. Right and uh. If you look at
any of her biographies or on her talking about her experience,
she talks about how it scary was to leave home
because it was rare for our young women to do this,
but she was so excited about being a part of
science and research she was willing to do it. Even

(07:02):
with all the naysayers. She went forward and um, it
is because of her own experiences in her hometown. With
the fact that her community used the water from the nile,
which is really highly polluted. She looked to improve the
standard filtration system, which she stated was not clean enough
at that time. Even though they were doing that, it
wasn't effective. So she did more than just trying to

(07:23):
fix the system. She went on to create a system
which was to burn rice straw to distill and purify
the water, and it was able to produce not only
clean water, but bio diesel and hydrogen which can be
used to help produce air pollution and can be used
as sustainable energy. And y'all, she did all of this
several years ago at the age of seventeen, right, Like,

(07:47):
I think about that, I'm like seventeen. What was I doing? Oh,
probably crying about Jesus somewhere. I feel like that's the
constant thing for me. But that was the thing um,
probably needing therapy. That's a whole other conversation. And with
her family and schoolmates behind her, she entered to INTEL
International Science and Engineering Fair and no surprise one with

(08:09):
the invention she titled rice straw Power. But her accomplishments
haven't stopped there, including the fact that NASA decided to
name an asteroid after her. So if you've heard of
the Mustafa three one nine one zero, that is her asteroid,
and that is so cool. I want an asteroid. I
have done nothing to earn it. So that's on me.

(08:31):
Um And she is currently going to school at the
Middle East Technical University in Northern Cyprus, studying petroleum engineering
and she has published a book to tell her story
when it comes to her life and love for science
and research, with over a million copies distributed to schools
and universities to inspire other young women who are interested
in STEM. Yeah, and just in case you wanted to know,

(08:54):
we mentioned the school that she was a part of.
You should go on research. And there are some amazing
things that they seem to be doing, including the fact
that they are making sure that it's fifty fifty, like
any of these programs are um boys and girls, so
that not one is favored over the other. So that's phenomenal,
as well as the fact that they are pushing for
more education and STEM and knowing that things like bioengineering

(09:17):
are important in making changes in the community. So that's
very cool. And yeah, we're excited to see all the
amazing things that she will continue to accomplish. And here
are a few words from her about the accomplishments so far.
She says, what I'm proud of the most is not
all of that, that being all the accomplishments, but changing
the mentality of the people who are refusing the idea

(09:39):
of quote a girl that will leave her home to
join a new school and the idea of the girl
who's traveling alone. Now these people are encouraging their children
to do the same, and this makes me more than proud.
And I love that, and I hope she does know
that this is so inspiring for so many in the
fact that she took a chance, and I love that

(09:59):
her mom was super supportive about that, and and she
even said too that her father, who had died when
she was young, was someone who really instilled into her
like being accomplished and asking questions um and researching and
and I think it's such a beautiful sentiment as all
well as the fact that she talks about the friendship
she has in this type of field and all of

(10:20):
them encouraging each other to do better and keeping up
with the projects and and taking chances in things like
entering contests when you think this is an international contest,
I can't win, but she did and she kills it obviously. Yeah,
it's so inspiring. And I've just seen so many stories
of young girls and young women recently who have made

(10:41):
these inventions, especially when it comes around comes to climate
change and sustainability, that I'm so impressed. Just amazing, amazing work,
amazing things happening all around and very yeah inspirational to
new generations and people who are watching and thinking maybe
I should try that, or right, I can do that well.
As always listeners, if you have someone you would like

(11:03):
for us to focus on in these segments, you can
email us our emails Stephania mom Stuff at iHeart media
dot com. You can find us on Instagram and Stuff
I've Never Told You or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast.
Thanks as oh It's to our super producer Christina also
in inspiration Oh Yes, and thanks to you for listening
Stuff I Never Told You subjection of iHeart Radio. For
more podcast on my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app,

(11:24):
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,

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