Alumni Spotlight: Anayat (Class of 2023)
From the Vale of Kashmir to the World
Anayat Yousuf was playing cricket in Kashmir when the phone call came. A friend shouted from the boundary that UWC was on the line. Still carrying the energy of the game, Anayat ran to answer. The question was simple: Did he want to go to Germany? He said yes. Immediately. He could not know then what that yes would demand of him, only that a door had opened and he was ready to walk through it. Today, that moment marks the beginning of a journey from Kashmir to UWC Robert Bosch College in Freiburg, to the United States, and ultimately into cardiovascular medicine and global service. Growing up in Kashmir, studying abroad was not the standard path. Anayat first heard of UWC as a scholar with the Kashmir Education Initiative. The idea of learning alongside students from around the globe stayed with him.
Arriving at RBC was his first time leaving South Asia, and the transition tested him. The rigorous International Baccalaureate, the intense pace, and the sheer diversity of beliefs and histories challenged his worldview. But RBC soon became a second home. He learned that discomfort is often where growth begins. Education became less about absorbing facts and more about participating, respectfully disagreeing, and taking responsibility for others. That sense of responsibility had already taken root in Kashmir, where Anayat co-founded the M.Y. Educational Foundation to expand opportunities for under-resourced students. At RBC, his commitment broadened. He tutored refugee students in Freiburg and led projects supporting displaced communities in Poland and Belgium. Today, he mentors UWC applicants and serves on a national selection committee, knowing firsthand the impact of someone seeing your potential before you fully see it yourself.
After graduating in 2023, Anayat brought this drive to the University of Oklahoma, where he is on a pre-medical path. Chosen as the sole international student in his freshman class for the President’s Leadership Class, he later earned Outstanding Freshman and Sophomore awards. But his story is about action, not just accolades. Anayat has been awarded the Projects for Peace grant twice. His first award went toward launching the Kashmir EduPeace Project, and he is using his second grant this summer to partner with UWC Mostar alumnus Ahmed Al-Nusairi to build an English-language program for students in Yemen. His path in medicine shares the same purpose. During the summer of 2025, Anayat was one of ten students selected nationwide for the ARCHES fellowship at Georgetown University School of Medicine. There, he gained clinical experience, researched tissue engineering, and engaged in community health-equity work. Now, he is advancing that vision through a highly selective cardiovascular research internship at the University of Michigan Health Samuel & Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center.
His goal is clear: to become a cardiovascular surgeon, practice humanitarian medicine with Doctors Without Borders, and eventually build a hospital for his community in Kashmir. It is a bold ambition, but Anayat speaks of it with profound gratitude for his family, friends, UWC, and God. He still loves the things that keep him grounded: cricket, badminton, travelling, cooking traditional meals, and time in nature. The boy who ran from a cricket pitch to answer a phone call has not changed. The field has simply widened. And Anayat is still saying yes.
