The middle daughter... "lucky"!

She was full of life, eager for knowledge since her childhood, everything she wanted to know, and everything she wanted to do, so she wrote, drew, innovated, presented scientific research, participated in many volunteer projects, and won advanced positions on the local and Arab levels, and had honorable international participations.

She was the middle daughter, and she entered school a year before the expected age, so she learned everything before her time!

She is Noura Al-Rabiq.. She entered school a year before her expected age, and she was devouring all the information eagerly, very grateful for being the middle child, as she used to join her older siblings in study sessions, and she used to force her mother to explain multiplication and division to her as she did with her brother.. So she learned everything before its time!

She was curious enough to read about everything, and everything her eyes saw was destined to be read and analyzed. To satisfy her curiosity, her parents arranged for her and her siblings to visit a library every month. She created her own library from an early age. The diversity of her library speaks volumes about her curious personality. It contains books on self-development, philosophy, civilizations, sciences, and novels as well.

Early experiences:

Little artist!

It is said that exposing a child to many and varied experiences stimulates the mind to make many connections between these experiences, and thus the individual develops creative ability, and this is what happened with Noura Al-Rabiq.

From an early age, she attended many educational and artistic events held by Aramco during the summer. She became interested in the art of drawing and participated with her paintings in the Aramco Art Exhibition. This encouraged her to continue practicing drawing in elementary and middle school, and her paintings are still hanging on the walls of her school to this day.

Noura was not only creative in drawing as a child, but she also excelled in writing. Noura says: I still keep many of the prose articles that I wrote in middle and high school.. and I still dream that the day will come when I will write my own book!

First time teacher!

Noura says: I tried being a teacher for the first time in the third middle school grade, in the presence of the entire school staff, including teachers and an administrative team. I had to explain a specialized science lesson about matter and its molecules. It was an exciting experience, no doubt..!

Such an experience certainly boosted Noura’s self-confidence, ability to communicate and influence the public, and deliver information in the easiest way...to then become a gateway for her to participate in the extracurricular forums that the school held on an ongoing basis!

Noura is very grateful for the intermediate stage, with all its opportunities and simple experiences, because it established her scientifically and skillfully, and was her first path to the distinguished achievements she has reached now, not only at the level of the Kingdom, but also at the level of the Arab world.  

The first step!

In the fifth grade, Noura was nominated to attend a course for gifted students on how to invent devices. From that day on, invention became her dream. She often imagined that she would be talented and special, that she would have different educational opportunities, and that she would be known in the future for her many achievements. What she had imagined and dreamed of happened when she received a letter from the school nominating her to take a measurement test. If she passed it, she would then be eligible to join the partnership initiative with schools. This meant that she would study mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer sciences intensively and differently. Noura says: “Although the test was a challenge in every sense of the word, I felt from that moment that my life would change, and that I had set foot on the first real achievements.”

Indeed, Noura was nominated to be one of the students of the Mawhiba Initiative for Partnership with Schools, and Mawhiba Summer Programs, where she joined the “Biotechnology and Infertility” program in 2010, while she joined the “Ibn Sina Medical Sciences Research” program in 2011. In these two programs, Noura learned many medical techniques such as: dissection, injection, and polymerase chain reaction technology. She also learned many medical techniques about cervical cancer, which increased her attachment to the scientific medical field, and encouraged her to work at King Faisal Specialist Hospital as a trainee while she was still in high school.

Dreams come true when we believe!

Noura always used to repeat Martin Luther King's quote "I have a dream!", and she strongly believed that nothing is impossible, and that with faith in God and trust in Him, and then trust in our abilities that God has given us, we can achieve any dream. Whoever wants something will definitely achieve it, it just depends on how determined he is. "There is no success or distinction, whether academic or social, except that it is the result of determination, struggle and resolve." And his struggle. Noura says: "There is no success or distinction, whether academic or social, except that it is the result of determination, struggle and resolve."

Noura also believes that some gestures such as trusting in God, having good thoughts about Him, and having sincere intentions for God - in addition to striving and working hard - can be reasons for God Almighty’s success and help.

With such beliefs, Noura won first place in the scientific award in the field of medicine and health sciences, the field of zoology, and the field of cellular and molecular biology at the Arab world level, and represented the Kingdom at the Intel ISEF International Exhibition in Los Angeles, California - United States of America.

She was nominated for the first stage of the Physics Olympiad among 20 female students at the Kingdom level in 2010, and in 2011 she was among the fifteen female students nominated for the same Olympiad at the Kingdom level.

In recognition of her excellence, Noura received an unconditional scholarship in any major from King Abdulaziz University for her academic excellence. In addition, she qualified in 2011 at the Kingdom level to participate in the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance in its thirteenth session - Distinguished Student Category - and she also participated in the award qualifiers for this year as well, 2012.

Not only that, but she also started to provide short workshops for students to introduce the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity "Ibd3a", in which she showcased her experience at the "Intel ISEF International Exhibition". She was also nominated to represent the education of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the "First International Conference on Total Quality in Public Education" through the implemented discussion panel, which was titled "Quality in Education from a Student Perspective, Between Reality and Hope" in the presence of students from different countries of the world.

Noura Al-Rabiq's projects:

1- Search “Where Is My Child?”

This research aims to find a solution to the problem of children getting lost in markets and public places, using GPS technology, where a small piece is programmed to be placed with the child, either in the form of a bracelet on his hand or attached to his clothes, and this piece is connected to a program that is downloaded on the guardian's mobile device, which contains Magellan maps or GPS. When the child is lost or misplaced, the coordinates of the point of his presence appear on the map with the separating distance, in addition to Noura Al-Rubaiq trying to develop the research to also include the possibility of alerting the mother when her child is away from her, and she made a model of this device and applied it, and conducted an experiment on 100 families in Riyadh to test the effectiveness of this device.

Noura won this research at the Riyadh region level in the Mawhiba Science and Engineering Fair 2010, and also qualified for the final rounds at the Kingdom level, which were held in Riyadh at Prince Sultan University.

2- Research: “Study of the physiological and histological effect of the insecticide chlorpyrifos on infertility”:

This research was born out of a strong desire from Noura and her colleague Sarah Al Nasser to prepare a scientific research to participate in the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity and qualify for international levels, which made them challenge their study conditions and work hard for a whole year to complete the research. Completing it required implementing a number of experiments in the laboratories of the Research Center, in the Department of Comparative Medicine, and the laboratories of King Saud University.

This research studies the effect of pesticide residues on the date crop in the Kingdom at a rate of 6 times the global rate permitted by the World Health Organization (WHO), which poses a risk to the consumer, especially since the Saudi individual ranks first as the largest consumer of dates in the world. On the other hand, the rate of infertility for unknown reasons, whether male or female infertility, is high in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, reaching 40% in the Kingdom compared to the countries of the world. These environmental problems were the basic and essential motivation for this research.

Noura says: “We conducted experiments to study the effect of this pesticide on the heel and fertility in terms of hormonal, histological and physiological effects, and three different doses 5mg/kg, 10mg/kg, 15mg/kg, by injecting female and male rats.”

She added: “With this research, we achieved second place at the Kingdom level in the scientific research track in the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity, Ibd’a 2011, and we represented the Kingdom at the Intel ISEF International Exhibition in Los Angeles, California, USA.”

“In 2011, we represented the Kingdom in the Intel Science Competition at the Arab world level with the same research, and we won first place in the scientific award in the field of medicine and health sciences, the field of zoology, and the field of cellular and molecular biology. We also won the second grand prize for the best scientific research at the Arab world level in various fields, praise be to God.”

Makers of the future!

Noura Al-Rubaiq was not satisfied with her distinguished achievements, but she believed that achievement and success are a trust that places many responsibilities on the shoulders of its owners towards their religion, country and society. Based on this belief, Noura participated as a member of the "Bayader Volunteer Team" affiliated with the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue, and worked with the "Let's Build the Future" Foundation in an educational project for children entitled "Rainbow". She also organized, with her friends Sarah Al-Nasser and Rahaf Al-Bathahi, a volunteer group called "Future Makers" with the aim of training young people and spreading the concept of volunteering. Through this team, they gave lectures to encourage female students to participate in the Olympiad. They also prepared other small projects for children in a mosque, such as: the "My Prayers Light Up My Life" project, during the holy month of Ramadan for three days, from which approximately seventy trainee girls benefited.

During the Hajj vacation of 2011, the Future Makers team launched a three-day program for children, in cooperation with approximately thirty female volunteers who joined the Future Makers team. The program was for children at a rate of 4 hours per day, and included two titles: “My Prayers Light Up My Life” and “With My Morals I Rise.” The number of children who benefited was approximately 240 boys and girls from the age group of 5-12. The success of the Future Makers program was well-known, as it was discussed in the “O Allah, with You We Became” program on the Holy Quran Radio.

Ambitious vision:

“We created pages for the makers of the future on social networks, Facebook and Twitter, and we also launched a YouTube channel for the team, hoping to reach 1,000 beneficiary children, boys and girls, and 500 female volunteers before August of this year, seeking to be able to achieve our ambitious vision of spreading the culture of volunteering, building a capable and professional generation, creating future scientists, and then bringing about change,” Noura says.

Noura, who still dreams of going on an exploratory trip to a distant island, diving in the depths of the sea, and flying like a bird... is working hard to qualify herself to be a scientist of the future, a member of the Shura Council, a member of UNESCO, and a person who brings about change in society and the world.

Related Links:

• To listen to the experience of the “Life Makers” team in the “With You We Became” program:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgn9JCc10A4&feature=youtu.be&a

• To listen to Noura Al-Rabiq’s experience in the “Ambition Story” program:

http://www.4shared.com/audio/GnoJzryk/__-__.html