For 25 years the Arab Student Aid International (ASAI) that Yousuf Qutub founded has helped over 17,000 Arab students with their higher education. This is the story of the founder's voyage from his roots in Jerusalem to America.

Yousuf's family was born into a world ruled by the Ottoman Turks. Yousuf's grandfather on his father's side, Namiq Al-Qutub, was born in Jerusalem around 1850. Namiq was married twice. His first wife was from AlKhalil. Namiq and his wife had five children, one of whom was Yusuf's father, born in 1900. Namiq worked for the Ottoman Empire as a tax collector. His work took him to Europe and Turkey. Yusuf's father was born in Albania. Yusuf's grandmother passed away while in Europe. Narniq remarried a Turkish woman and had six more children. Namiq returned to Palestine when Yusuf's father, Yacoub was nine. Yacoub could not speak Arabic, only Turkish, due to his stepmother's influence. Yusuf's grandfather passed away in Jerusalem at the age of 96 in the 1946.

On his mother's side, his grandfather was Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Ansari, the top Imam at the mosque in Jerusalem, located next to the Dome of the Rock. Sheikh married Rasmiah Al-Ansari. They had two girls - one was Yusuf's mother Sarah, who was born in 1905 and another was named Rifqa. Two boys were born, Ismael and Fakhri.

Yusuf Yacoub Al-Qutub was born in Jerusalem, Palestine on February 11, 1925. He lived his first nine years between Al- Khalil (Hebron) and Jerusalem where he attended public schools. His father's name was Yacoub. Sarah was 14 and Yacoub was 19 at the time that Yusuf was born. Yacoub was an accountant for the British government for many years.

In 1934, Yusuf's father was transferred to Ramallah-Bireh. Yusuf attended the American Quaker School, known as the Friends Boys School, where he received his junior high and high school education. Yusuf showed that he was good in sports. For a number of years he was the best runner during Sports Day - he won the 800 meter run and received the trophy for coming in first in the mile run three years in a row.

By the time Yusuf had completed high school, the family of Yacoub and Sarah had grown to ten children. - Six boys and four girls. The children of Yacoub and Sarah are: a young girl who died in infancy, Yusuf, Nahida, David, Ibrahim, lshaq, Farouk, Musa, Fadwa, Ferial and Samira. Yusuf was the oldest. His father could not afford to send him to a university outside of Palestine. There were no universities inside of Palestine because the British did not want the Palestinians to be educated. Yusuf started working to help his father meet the needs of a large and growing family.

Yusuf's first job was at the Jerusalem Health Department. He worked there from 1943 to 1944. In 1945 Rolla Foley, a Quaker from America who was Yusuf's music teacher, talked with Willard Jones, the headmaster at a local Quaker high school and was able to persuade him to hire Yusuf as a sports master. Yusuf was in charge of Francis Wright House, the recreation center for about 150 boarding students at the high school. He was put in charge of the bookstore. He enjoyed his work and visiting with the American teachers who came to see him. This lasted three years.

In 1948, Yusuf worked at a YMCA refugee camp in Ramallah for a few months. In 1949, he taught at a Lebanese high school called Schwayfat College. He taught English classes and was also the sports director. The contract with Schwayfat was only for one year. In 1950, the Jordanian Arab Legion employed Yusuf as an interpreter. He put on a military uniform and worked there for one year. Most of Palestine was under Jordanian rule then and it was called the West Bank and Gaza.

In 1951 and 1952 he went back to Ramallah and was employed by the radio station of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Yusuf was in the news department. It was there that he met his good friend, Mustafa (Steve) Shamy, who became Vice-President and Treasurer of ASAI.

In 1952, Yusuf's scoutmaster and high school music teacher, Rolla Foley, came from America to Palestine for a visit. She eventually wrote a letter asking an American college admission officer to consider a Palestinian as a student. Yusuf helped Rolla Foley mimeograph sixty copies to sixty universities in the USA. Rolla was hoping to get two or three scholarships—one of them was to be for Yusuf. After a few weeks 25 scholarships came and 25 Palestinian boys and girls took off from Jerusalem airport on their way to the USA. Since Yusuf was the oldest, Rolla asked him to be the leader of the group.

Yusuf was looking for a job to cover his living expenses. He heard that there was a YMCA a few blocks away from Indiana State University. He went and asked for a job. He was told to return the next day.

They had checked him out at the university and they were told that he was a foreign student from Palestine. When he came back the next day, they told Yusuf that they could use him in the boys department. His pay would be 50 cents an hour, three hours a day. Yusuf took the job. That led to 20 years of employment with the YMCA.

During his sophomore year the Independent Club asked Yusuf to help them in their Campus Review stage show - the theme was Arabian Fantasy. Annie V. Low was the star of the show. Yusuf was invited to the party at the end of the show. He said, "That's when I met Annie and danced with her that night. she joined the International Relations Club and I saw more and more of her. I asked her to come to some of my talks to Women's Clubs. Then I started dating her. We were engaged the day I received my B.S. degree and we got married on May 4 that year. Our first child, Jack, was born November 18 1957 and he was given his grandfather's name, Jacob - according to Palestinian tradition." The couple would have two more children, Marie Jo Anne. They now live in New Jersey, where Yusuf is still active running Arab Student Aid International.

Abridged from the book “The Life Story of Joseph Y. Qutub” by Joseph Alfred.