Meeting of the Board

Elizabeth took a sip of water, clearing her throat. She and Allie and Julia were in their hijabs today. The room was full of men. Their husbands, for starters. Nasir Al-Assaf and Britney, who was so heavily veiled Elizabeth couldn't see an inch of her skin. Other men, Africans and Arabs alike.

"Thank you for coming," Elizabeth started slowly. "The presence of so many strong men in our community is a testament to the work we've done. It started off as a simple vision. A social club, that Allie and Julia and I hosted, Beta Beta Chi. It provided young Caucasian women with an opportunity to associate with men ... with leaders ... that they'd never have the opportunity to meet with their present worldviews." She turned the PowerPoint on.

"After a few years of Beta Beta Chi, we realized that vision was limited. That we needed something more formal to capture the success rate we wanted." She hit the button to the next slide, the 'test' program that Yusuuf and Nasir had devised.

"So my husband and Mr. Al-Assaf came up with a plan. Two dozen scholarships. One set for men from Africa and men from the Middle East to come here and study. The second set for local women to study international relations. And through Beta Beta Chi, the scholars and the social network marinated together."

Elizabeth cleared her throat. Despite her past as a beauty queen, she'd grown to prefer the company of just her husband and children and friends. There was something so pure about simply being devoted to her husband and to Allah. But she had to make a difference, too.

"We started with women from single-parent backgrounds, girls from troubled areas, girls that were financially bereft. But we found, as time went on, that we could even capture the 'well-bred' girls from high-income families. And we prefer that now. And our success rate is even higher, merging stable white women with men from Africa and the Middle East."

She flipped through the slides, showing the successes, the couplings, the families that had been created.

"We want to take the Al-Assaf Scholarship Program regional. I'd like to say national. But I know we walk before we run. So what we propose today is to extend the program through the Deep South, at the major state universities and best private schools. And we do what we set out to do. One family at a time."

The applause made Elizabeth flush heavily. This was time well spent, she knew.