Founder of multiple youth organizations, Natalie Magness is a 17 year old high school graduate who is a keen contributor to the community at a local and international level. Aside from her various passions and talents such as being a musician, Ms. Magness is the founder of two youth organizations -  The Sapien and the Qatar Youth Power (QYP) conference. 

 

A conference meant to develop, connect and empower young people through expanding their knowledge in areas that are not mentioned in the normal academic syllabus such entrepreneurship and  gender equality, building connections to start achieving their passion. The Qatar Youth Power conference is a platform founded by Natalie Magness which invites dozens of individuals who are pioneers of their field such as artists, businessmen and activists. 

 

The Qatar Youth Conference is also holding a SDG7 competition held on Discord for young people to digitally design the most innovative and sustainable energy-harnessing system, aligning with the 7th Sustainable Development Goal - Affordable and Clean Energy. 

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Sign up if you want to compete or watch the event through the link below!

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Arising from the pandemic lockdown in the August of 2020, Natalie Magness founded The Sapien youth organization to  teach topics and discuss what she is passionate about and make friends from all over the world.

 

Originating from the scientific name of humans, The Sapien is derived from the word ‘Homosapiens’, which is why it teaches topics related to the human centered ranging from philosophy to societal issues. Ms. Magness chose this field of knowledge to talk about as her university degree is Human Sciences which is an interdisciplinary degree linking biology and the social sciences to study humans and societies. She states that one of the many reasons why The Sapien was created was due to the lack of people she knew that are familiar with her interest - human sciences.  Through the creation of The Sapien she created a space where people with similar interests as her can have constructive conversations and meaningful discussions. The mission and vision of The Sapien is to create a world where youth from every geographical location can be virtually connected with this shared love for learning. “We want everyone to be able to learn more about the world and the humans in it”. Reflecting upon this point, Ms. Magness’ organizations and conferences are all free of charge and are accessible to anyone around the globe. All you really need to attend these events and sessions is internet connections and a go get attitude!

 

One of the many things that make The Sapien unique is that it prioritizes the engagement of the audience, allowing them to input their thoughts and opinions on what was presented in the sessions. Ms. Magness recognizes that a lot of seminars and workshops  nowadays are one-way discussions, she continues to state how that is almost completely similar to youtube videos and that the audience wants to be a part of the conversation because everyone has different perspectives due to their individual experiences in life.  Regardless of how tough it can get she tries to preserve the essence of youth in her projects, because she believes that young people are extremely capable of anything they are passionate about as long as they are motivated to execute it. 

Her curiosity for the humans sciences is derived from her admiration for homospaiens collectively as she states, 

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“We are so incredible because  we are capable  of doing really amazing, beautiful and crazy things, but also we are also   capable of doing cruel, horrible things and we have such a big huge spectrum of things we have done throughout history and with human achievements, going to the moon, splitting an atom, exploring the depths of the ocean, so many thing that make this possible. Having conversations with people from different locations . All of these things are because of humankind's ingenuity, but at the same time humankind has done a lot of grim and terrible  things to the environment, to other groups in our species. So that's why I think studying humans is so amazing.”

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Her strive to impact the community can be compared to none as she wishes to use the knowledge that she is presenting in The Sapien sessions and learning in university this coming September to ultimately, “help others and solve different humanitarian issues around the world”.

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​​Her advice for young people: 

“A passion for what you do combined with the  motivation to keep going, those two combined will mean that literally anything you want to achieve is completely possible. You don’t need to have loads of years of experience or a bunch of money or a famous parents. All you need is passion and hard work”

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