AUC TODAY Unlocking Arabic

AUC TODAY
Fall 2009
Unlocking Arabic
AUC alum Justin Majzub pioneers
an innovative design for Arabic
letters that turns, swivels and
clicks into different forms
Cutting-Edge Cure • Dorm Doors Open • Instrument of Change
FALL09
EMPLOYMENT
FAIR
Saturday, November 7 • 11 am – 6 pm
www.caps.aucegypt.edu/effall2009.html
Don’t Miss the Region’s
Premier Recruiting Event
Explore career opportunities
with more than 90 companies
and organizations
Network with more than 400
corporate professionals
Career Advising and Placement Services
tel +20.2.2615.3515 • [email protected]
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Ahmad El-Nemr
Contents
Rania Siam, director of the biotechnology graduate program, is reculturing
bacteria under sterile conditions in a laminar flow hood Page 20
FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
10
3
UNLOCKING ARABIC
Justin Majzub (ALU ’84) has developed the Abjad system, which is widely used in Egypt
and the Middle East, to make learning Arabic simple and fun.
14
DORM DOORS OPEN
The New Cairo Campus student residences, which opened in January 2009, offer
students the opportunity to live on campus and enjoy campus life.
18
CARING FOR THE CHILDREN
AUC’s daycare center provides a service to faculty and staff members, while nurturing
young children’s talents.
20
26
35 AROUND THE WORLD
Alumni meet in various countries
FROM INSIDE AUC
Alumni of different generations recount their most memorable experience at AUC as
part of the contest that ran in Inside AUC, the monthly alumni e-newsletter.
32
Yervant Terzian ’60 received
Armenia’s highest honor for his
achievements in astronomy
A NAME THAT LASTS
Continuing a tradition that began on the Tahrir Square Campus, alumni and friends have
named spaces on the New Cairo Campus as a way of supporting the university.
30
ALUMNI PROFILES
38
CUTTING-EDGE CURE
Students and faculty members in AUC’s biotechnology graduate program are researching
ways to combat infectious and viral diseases in Egypt.
AUSCENES
AUC Trustee Kenneth Bacon dies,
Sherif Kamel named dean of the new
School of Business, New Cairo
Campus receives land use award,
psychology master’s program begins,
Elsaid Badawi receives CASA’s
Lifetime Contribution Award
INSTRUMENT OF CHANGE
John Baboukis, assistant professor of performing and visual arts, has revitalized the
university’s music program.
On the cover: Justin Majzub (ALU ’84) has developed an integrated system for teaching Arabic,
photographed by Ahmad El-Nemr
40
AKHER KALAM
Shaden Khallaf ’98, ’04 recounts
how her experience with AUC’s
Model United Nations paved
the way for her work at the real
United Nations
Editor’s Notes
AUC TODAY
Fall 2009
Patience and Perseverance
“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”This quote
from the Back to the Future movie is very true. If people try hard enough
to accomplish something and persist at it with diligence and patience, it
will pay off in the long run. In this issue, we examine two such examples
from the AUC community.
“Cutting-Edge Cure” (page 20) highlights how graduate students and
faculty members in AUC’s biotechnology program are researching
treatment options for infections as well as viral and genetic diseases,
including influenza, cancer and hepatitis C.While research has been
carried out on these diseases in many parts of the world, the notable
aspect about the work done at AUC is that it is focused on strains of the
diseases found in Egypt. Current vaccines come from the United States
and Europe, but the vaccines should be different in Egypt because the
virus strains may be different. AUC researchers are working to combat the
right strains and identify new ones to increase the effectiveness of the
treatment. It may take years to achieve the desired results, but it makes me
proud to know that some day, the treatment for strains of influenza
particular to Egypt or for hepatitis C, of which Egypt has the highest
infection rate in the world, may be the result of work done at AUC.
Another example is in “Unlocking Arabic” (page 10). Justin Majzub
(ALU ’84), who studied Arabic at AUC, was determined to help others
learn the language he struggled with, and he spent more than 20 years
developing a system to make learning Arabic simple, easy and fun. His
system, Abjad, employs a cornucopia of products, including plastic letters
that turn, swivel and click into various shapes, in the same way that Arabic
letters take up different forms depending on where they are in the word.
Majzub’s system is now widely used in Egypt, the Middle East and
different parts of the world. His persistence and hard work have paid off,
and children and adults alike are benefitting from the Abjad system.
The type of research being done through AUC’s biotechnology program
and Majzub’s Abjad system demonstrate that with
patience and perseverance, you will get there.The
key is to have the heart to follow through and
not give up.
Volume 18, No. 1
The American University in Cairo is a
nonprofit private institution devoted to
providing English-language liberal arts
education to serve Egypt and the
Middle East.
Editor in Chief
Dalia Al Nimr
Designer
Hanan Omary
Writers
Jeffrey Bellis, Sarah Topol and Peter Wieben
Advisory Board
Galal Zaki ’68; Magda Hayek ’72, ’76, ’94;
Adel El-Labban ’77, ’80; Hanzada Fikry ’78,
’81; Omnya Hussein ’88; Nayera Fadel ’94;
Islam Badra ’98; Ahmed Zahran ’02; Raghda
El Ebrashi ’04, ’07; Dina Basiony ’08
Photography
Ahmad El-Nemr and Amira Gabr
AUCToday is published three times
a year by the American University
in Cairo.
We welcome all letters. Submissions may be
edited for space and clarity. Please send all
correspondence to:
AUCToday
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Egypt
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2 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
InBox
AUCToday Mail
I write to thank you and your team for the excellent issue of AUCToday’s special edition. It
is simply such a wonderful event to be able to share 90 years of celebration and the
opening of the new campus through AUCToday.Thanks to the editorial team. Mabrouk!
John Macgregor ’69, England and France
As a 1952 AUC graduate, I thoroughly enjoyed AUCToday’s
Celebrating 90 Years issue. I was also pleasantly surprised to see myself
in one of your pictures: page 41 under “Story of the Caravan.” I am the taller one, and Lilly Hayat
is on the left. I understand that Lilly passed away in Paris several years ago of cancer. AUC is quite
unrecognizable each time I visit Egypt and when I read the magazine, but this issue brought back
wonderful memories and it will go in our family album! All the best!
Helene Moussa ’52, Canada
Inside AUC, Monthly Alumni E-newsletter
I applaud this wonderful decision to make good use of Mr. Nabil Fahmy’s capabilities and benefiting of his vision in this
new challenging position. Good luck to you all.
Abdalla Zaki ’72, United States
I was so happy to read a message from my dear old friend Motaz Derhalli ’62. He took me back to
our good, old days in AUC, the old campus and the images that it brought back as if it were only
yesterday. I was also happy to read in the same newsletter the appointment of another friend H.E.
Mr. Nabil Fahmy as head of the new School of Public Affairs. A worthy appointment. Greetings to
all 1962 graduates and friends.
Khalil Othman ’62, Switzerland
A quick note to say how pleased I was with my June issue of Inside AUC. It was my first since I joined the alumni online
community.Your coverage of the homecoming weekend on the new campus was excellent. I felt I was right there
celebrating with fellow AUCians. Also, the story on Omar Samra’s conquests was inspiring. Omar never seizes to amaze. I
hope the Class Notes section is a regular feature of the newsletter. It’s so much easier to find the notes here than by
searching for them online. My June class note has had the fantastic result of putting me in touch with a very dear friend I
haven’t seen for nearly 50 years. He saw my note, looked up my e-mail address and wrote. It was a thrill for both of us.
Finally, could you, in a future issue, bring us up to date on the work being done on the alumni wall and how the engraving
process is going? There is a story in this right there.
Motaz Derhalli ’62, Canada
Ed –– AUCToday checked with AUC’s development office.To date, a total of 1,768 bricks have been named.This year, with
the closing of the fundraising campaign for the New Cairo Campus and the sale of bricks concluded,AUC has initiated the
brick production process. Installation is scheduled to begin within the coming spring semester, and the bricks should be
installed by the summer of 2010.
We Would Like to Hear From You
AUCToday welcomes letters from readers. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Please send to [email protected] or Editor,
AUCToday, Office of Communications and Marketing, AUC Avenue, P.O. Box 74, New Cairo 11835, Egypt
3
AuScenes
AUC Trustee Kenneth Bacon Passes Away
enneth H. Bacon,AUC trustee,
Wall Street Journal reporter and
chief Pentagon spokesman under
former President Bill Clinton, died at
age 64 after a battle with melanoma.
“AUC has lost one of its most active
and dedicated trustees,” said B. Boyd
Hight, chairman of AUC’s Board of
Trustees.“Ken was a humanitarian
who dedicated his life to bettering the
lives of others. Since joining AUC’s
Board of Trustees in 2003, Ken was an
invaluable resource for the university,
giving generously of his time and
expertise. Ken was also continuing a
tradition of service to the university
that began when his father,Theodore
S. Bacon Jr., became a trustee.The
entire AUC community shares the loss
of Ken with his father,Ted, and his
wife, Darcy, and his two children, Katie
and Sarah.”
Bacon was president and chief
executive officer of Refugees
International, based in Washington,
D.C.Working with the organization
since 2001, Bacon left a lasting impact.
During his tenure, Refugees
International doubled in size and
adopted a program built on sustained
advocacy and pushing for the
international community to meet the
needs of refugees. Under Bacon’s
leadership, Refugees International
successfully promoted increased
protection and support for displaced
people in Sudan, Iraq,Afghanistan,
Burma, the DR Congo, Colombia and
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4 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
Thailand. Bacon also initiated new
advocacy programs on peacekeeping
and statelessness. He played a pivotal
role in finding homes for displaced
Iraqis in Middle Eastern countries
and lobbied for more Iraqi refugees
to be admitted to the United States.
According to The Washington Post, the
State Department increased funding
for Iraqi refugees from $43 million to
$398 million between 2006 and 2008.
“The U.S. cannot afford to win the
military battle and lose the
humanitarian campaign,” said Bacon,
who visited refugee camps in Somalia,
Cambodia and other parts of the world
and who frequently wrote articles and
appeared as a television host to discuss
humanitarian issues.
A few weeks prior to his death,
Bacon and his wife Darcy established
the Ken and Darcy Bacon Center for
the Study of Climate Displacement.
According to Refugee International’s
Web site, Bacon wrote a few months
before his death,“When I came to
Refugees International in 2001, I
planned to stay for several years and
then retire or move on to teaching or
writing, but the challenge of the work
and the commitment of the staff are
too exciting to leave.”
An expert in international affairs and
security issues, Bacon wrote extensively
about humanitarian issues in The New
York Times, The Washington Post, The
Boston Globe, International Herald
Tribune, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
and World Policy Journal, among others.
From 1994 to 2001, Bacon was
assistant secretary of defense for public
affairs at the U.S. Department of
Defense. Prior to that, he was an
editor, columnist and reporter for The
Wall Street Journal for 25 years,
specializing in defense, banking,
economics, education and international
finance. He was the paper’s Pentagon
correspondent from 1976 to 1980.
Bacon was a graduate of the private
Phillips Exeter Academy in New
Hampshire. His father worked at
Amherst College in Massachusetts,
from which Bacon graduated with a
BA in English in 1966. Bacon also
received an MBA and an MA in
journalism from Columbia University.
He was a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations and a board
member of Population Action
International, InterAction and the
International Institute for Strategic
Studies. In addition, he was cochairman of the Partnership for
Effective Peacekeeping and an
emeritus trustee of Amherst College
and the Folger Shakespeare Library.
AuScenes
Sherif Kamel Named Dean of New School of Business
herif Kamel ’88, ’90, professor of management
information systems, director of the university’s
management center and AUC alumnus, was named dean
of the university’s newly established School of Business.
“We are very fortunate to have secured an innovative
educational entrepreneur, a well-regarded research
scholar and a proven institution-builder to lead our
School of Business,” said Provost Lisa Anderson.
The new School of Business will consist of three
departments: accounting, economics and management,
which is the only program of its kind in Egypt and one
of only 85 business schools outside the United States
accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business International.
Kamel received his BA and MBA from AUC and his
PhD from the London School of Economics. He is a
founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt and
has taught in several university programs and training
institutes in Egypt before joining AUC in 2001 as a
full-time faculty member. A year later, he was appointed
director of AUC’s Management Center, where he has
pioneered several initiatives in executive education.
Recipient of the prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship in
2005, Kamel is widely published in the field of
technological development and information systems.
Looking forward to his new responsibilities, Kamel
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noted, “With the
establishment of the
new School of
Business, it is important
to recognize the
opportunities and
challenges that lay
ahead and to use the
human capital and
state-of-the-art
resources and facilities
at AUC to equip our
students with the
business skills and
knowledge needed to
excel in an increasing
global competitive market.”
He added that the business community is “hungry for
leaders and change agents who can make a difference
to their organizations and to the community at large.
AUC’s new School of Business is well positioned to be
the primary market supplier of people of this caliber
who can adapt to market changes and transform their
organizations so that they are able to compete at the
highest levels through sharing experiences as well as
disseminating knowledge and intellectual content.”
AUC Engineering Students Top Finalists in Global Competition
he innovative design of a bird-like air vehicle that both flaps and folds its wings paved the way for a group of
undergraduate students from AUC to be among the top four finalists in the Student Mechanism and Robot Design
Competition organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).The competition is a highly recognized
student contest that is sponsored annually by ASME, in conjunction with the annual ASME Design Engineering Technical
Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference.
The AUC team, all mechanical engineering majors, is comprised of Ahmed Talaat, Mohamed Nasr and Mohamed Hassan.
The AUC students faced off in the final round of the competition in San Diego, California with teams from the University of
California, Berkeley; Pennsylvania State University and the National University of Singapore.
The AUC student project is a “flap and fold” mechanism to drive the wings of an ornithopter.According to Mustafa Arafa,
associate professor of mechanical engineering who recently received the Egyptian National Award in Engineering Sciences
and who provided extensive support and encouragement to the student team to enter the competition, Micro Air Vehicles are
expected to play a major role in future surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
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5
AuScenes
New Cairo Campus Receives Land Use Award
UC received a special award from
the Urban Land Institute (ULI)
for the construction and design of its
New Cairo Campus.The institute
noted that the campus is “designed to
be a tool and stimulus in itself for
learning and to anchor community
development around the university.”
Selected from among 39 entries
representing 17 countries,AUC’s New
Cairo Campus received the award
based on five main characteristics:
environmental responsive design
through the use of passive architectural
measures for an energy efficient
campus; architectural design that reflects
the university mission in a modern
expression of traditional architecture;
community development through
producing means for community
A
interaction and cultural development;
state-of-the-art information technology
enhancing learning activities within
indoor and outdoor spaces; and a
campus that itself is a learning tool and
stimulus for liberal arts learning.
A jury of land-use development and
design experts selected the 2009 ULI
awards.“These are wonderful
examples of success that showcase
creativity, innovation and long-term
thinking,” said jury chair Ian D.
Hawksworth, managing director,
Capital & Counties, London.“Perhaps
now more than ever, the ULI Awards
for Excellence program reminds us of
the key difference that responsible
design and development can make in
terms of longevity and overall
community sustainability.”
DDC and Aga Khan Trust Beautify Al Azhar Park
he Desert Development Center (DDC) and the Aga
Khan Trust for Culture, part of the Aga Khan
Development Network, created a cooperative partnership
to grow plants for Al Azhar Park in Cairo.
The agreement was an opportunity for the DDC to
begin to gather ideas that could be incorporated into the
early planning of AUC’s landscaping efforts on the New
Cairo Campus. “Working with the trust, we learned a lot
of techniques that we could apply here on the new
campus,” said DDC Director Richard Tutwiler.
As a result, Al Azhar became a model for the New Cairo
Campus.The landscape for both the campus and the park
was designed by architect Maher Stino of Sites
International, who was adept at finding plants that had
appealing colors and aromas while being mindful of the
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6 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
limitations that the climate imposed.
The realities of seasonal high temperatures, low
humidity, scant rainfall and desert winds imposed severe
conditions on the park’s plants and trees.To combat that,
the Aga Khan Foundation focused on growing ornamental
plants such as bushes, shrubs and trees that could be
sustained in even the harshest of environments.
The lessons the DDC gained from growing the plants
and assisting with the logistics of transporting them from
South Tahrir to Al Azhar Park paved the way for new
projects beyond AUC’s campus.The DDC is currently in
negotiations with the Egyptian Ministry of Housing,
Utilities, and Urban Development to build two new parks
in Sadat City and in New Cairo, each of which would be
twice the size of Al Azhar Park.
AuScenes
Hadi Named Editor of Statistics Journal
rofessor Ali S. Hadi, vice provost,
director of graduate studies and
research, and director of the actuarial
science program, was recently elected
editor in chief of International
Statistical Review (ISR), a flagship
journal that provides a comprehensive
view of work in statistics.
The ISR offers original research
papers, surveys of particular fields in
statistics and probability, as well as
reports on recent developments such
as statistics, computer facilities and
teaching methods.
Hadi was elected editor in chief
based on his research record, editorial
experience and international
visibility. “My election by the ISI
committee as an editor in chief of
ISR was a big surprise to me because
I was told that some big names were
nominated,” said Hadi, who still
teaches one course per semester. “I
am very happy. I know being the
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Psychology Master’s
Program Begins
editor in chief will require work, but
it is the type of work that I like to do
and it is an honor that I did not even
dream of.”
Recipient of AUC’s Excellence in
Research and Creative Endeavors
Award in 2007, Hadi is professor
emeritus and former chairman of the
Department of Social Statistics at
Cornell University’s School of
Industrial and Labor Relations.
Ciaccio and El-Hamamsy Pass Away
icholas Ciaccio, professor emeritus of psychology, and Laila El-Hamamsy,
professor emeritus and former director of the Social Research Center,
passed away last summer.
Having served AUC for more than 30 years, Ciaccio was instrumental in
building the foundations of the undergraduate major in psychology. He was
chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and
Egyptology three times and was the founder of AUC’s counseling center. In
1974, he founded the Child Development Center in Cairo, of which he
remained director until his retirement in 2004. He strongly promoted
community service among his students.
El-Hamamsy joined the SRC in 1954 as a research associate and became its
director in 1957, a position she held until 1990, with an intermediary period
from 1976 to 1982, when she worked with the United Nations Research
Institute for Social Development. El-Hamamsy contributed significantly to the
establishment of the SRC as a pioneering center in Egypt. She was honored
and recognized by AUC and many international organizations.
N
tarting this fall, the university began
offering several new academic
programs that include a master’s in
Islamic studies, a graduate diploma in
with a specialization in applied
psychosocial intervention for forced
migrants and refugees, an
undergraduate minor in rhetoric and
composition and a new International
Counseling and Community
Psychology (ICCP) graduate program,
the first of its kind in the region.
The ICCP program will include an
MA in family and child counseling, an
MA in family and couples counseling,
and an MA in community psychology,
as well as graduate diplomas in general
family counseling and community
psychology.According to Hani Henry,
assistant professor and head of the
psychology unit, graduates of these
programs will be the first practitioners
trained in Egypt and the region who
are able to provide a multi-layered
range of family and community
intervention to assist people struggling
with issues affecting mental health,
including mental illness and
psychological issues.“It will also
prepare them to work within
communities, schools, governments
and non-governmental organizations
to develop, implement and evaluate
transformative psychosocial
interventions,” he said.
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7
AuScenes
Hassanein Selected to Serve on World Bank, IMF Committee
edhat Hassanein, AUC's professor of finance and Egypt’s
former minister of finance, has been selected to serve on the
Joint Committee on the Remuneration of Executive Directors and
their Alternates (JCR) of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund.
The JCR is a standing committee constituted each year to make
recommendations to the board of governors of the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund on matters concerning the
remuneration and benefits of executive directors and their alternates.
“The scope of work of the JCR includes the review of background
materials and information concerning the roles and qualifications of
executive directors of the two institutions and their salaries and benefits relative to their duties, responsibilities and overall
performance, which is then compared to external and internal comparators to determine the remuneration of the
president of the bank and managing director of the fund,” explained Hassanein.
The JCR includes two additional members chosen from former governors of the bank and the fund on a geographical
rotation basis.The members are appointed by the chairman of the board of governors on a joint nomination by the
president of the bank and the managing director of the fund. As a former governor to the World Bank representing
Egypt and a former minister of finance, Hassanein was nominated to the position. “It is an honor to be selected to serve
on the JCR, especially with this scope of work and with such a meticulous selection process,” noted Hassanein, who will
serve on the committee for a term of two years.
M
Arnold Heads Association of American International Universities
UC President David D. Arnold has been elected
president of the Association of American
International Colleges and Universities (AAICU). Arnold
succeeds Richard Jackson, president of the American
College of Thessaloniki in Greece.
AAICU is an association of American universities
established to promote American standards of education,
cultural exchange, and research and development, as well as
serving to bridge cultures and foster dialogue within the
framework of the American liberal arts tradition. AUC has
been a member of AAICU since its founding in 1972.
Arnold’s election as president took place at AAICU’s
annual meeting of the association’s presidents and provosts
held in Armenia. During the meeting, the association
reaffirmed its commitment to the AAICU Cairo
Declaration, which stated that the association serves as a
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8 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
“bridge for encouragement of quality American-style
education outside the United States and for the translation
of cultural and educational values in countries where
AAICU institutions are located to constituencies in the
United States.”
To further the association’s commitment to that
declaration, it agreed to support a visit by an AAICU
delegation to Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2009.The
purpose of the delegation’s visit will be to promote
international dialogue on the core values of American
higher education; encourage expansion of support from
the U.S. Agency for International Development; and seek
the extension of Pell grants to U.S. students studying at
AAICU member institutions, as well as federal research
grants eligibility and institutional support to AAICU
member institutions.
Faculty Spotlight
Appeal for Arabic
Instilling a love of Arabic in students,
Elsaid Badawi received CASA's
Lifetime Contribution Award
utiny.That was the word Elsaid Badawi used to
describe the state of the Center for Arabic Study
Abroad (CASA) when he arrived at AUC in November
1969.The students had locked themselves in a room and
declared, “Our contract is to study Arabic, not to study
with teachers!” Badawi, who was recruited by CASA’s
director to quell the student rebellion and revamp the
curriculum, stormed into the hostile classroom and
immediately made it known that he was a professor of a
different stock. “I see all of you here,” he said. “You are all
college graduates, and if you think I’m going to teach you
Arabic, you are mistaken. I am simply a resource for you to
learn Arabic.”
Four decades later, Elsaid Badawi is still a professor with
CASA, an organization that honored his service earlier this
year by presenting him with the CASA Lifetime
Contribution Award. Modest about his achievements,
Badawi declared that all of the other CASA professors and
students deserve the same recognition.
Originally a professor at Cairo University, Badawi
jumped at the opportunity to join AUC.With the motto
“languages are to be learned, never taught,” he became
CASA’s curriculum adviser in 1970. His approach to
ensure his students learned the language was to give them
stacks of reading material in Arabic to improve their
comprehension –– up to 15 books each semester, three
short stories and a play to read each weekend.
AUC rewarded his successful resuscitation of the CASA
program by offering him tenure after only two years. In
the years since, Badawi’s involvement has shifted to various
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other positions, including executive director. In addition to
this, he has authored two widely acclaimed Egyptian
publications: Mustawayat Al-Arabiyya Al-Mu’asira fi Misr and
A Dictionary of Egyptian Arabic: Arabic-English. He recently
republished Modern Written Arabic: A Comprehensive
Grammar and Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage.
Today, CASA is famous in the United States and
throughout the world as one of the best language-study
programs. Badawi attributes the success of the program to
the type of students it has always attracted, which he also
says is what motivated him to stick with CASA over the
years. “CASA students are incredibly eager to learn, very
worried about the grades they get and take studying very
seriously.The secret to CASA’s success is the willingness to
trust the students to commit the time and effort required
to learn Arabic,” he said.
Similarly, the students testify to Badawi’s commitment.
Aysha Selim ’85 was grateful for Badawi’s belief in her. “If
it hadn’t been for him, I would have probably not
continued,” she said. “I was behind my colleagues, but he
could see through me and believed in me. In just a month,
I had caught up and he said to me, ‘You have an instinctive
feel for the language and intelligence that make up for lack
of grammatical knowledge, and this is what language is all
about.’ Another professor would have probably judged me
on grammatical knowledge and failed me. And now two
years into the program, I’m invited to attend the MESA
conference on Arabic language in Boston.This it what
makes him [Badawi] special and different.”
By Jeffrey Bellis
9
Alumni Profile
Ahmad El-Nemr
Unlocking
»`ARABIC
`` ``` ``````````HôY
Story time at the Moroog Nursery
Justin Majzub (ALU ’84) pioneers an innovative
design for Arabic letters that turns, swivels
and clicks into different forms, allowing
learners to discover the language
By Peter Wieben
he Arabic alphabet is notoriously complex, but I think we’ve managed to make it something with which
kids can have a lot of fun,” said Justin Majzub (ALU ’84), whose Abjad Arabic educational system has
changed the way young students in Egypt and the Arab world are studying Arabic.
Abjad consists of an assortment of small plastic magnetized letters that takes up different forms, big wooden letters, writeon and wipe-off picture books, stories, workbooks, coloring books, whiteboards, audio cassettes, puzzles, animal pop-out
cards, memory cards, posters, stickers and bilingual CDs of educational games.The whole set makes up a complete Arabic
educational system that appeals to children's sense of sight, sound and touch.
Majzub is a graduate of AUC’s Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) and the Arabic Language Institute (ALI). His
work began shortly after finishing ALI in the late 1980s.Together with his former Arabic tutor at Oxford University, Majzub
wrote a story to help children overcome the main problems associated with learning the Arabic alphabet.The story was
produced as a children’s play at London’s King Fahad Academy in 1990, and after several revisions, the story was titled The
Prince of the Letters (Amir Al-Huruf), an illustrated picture book.
To make it easier for children, Majzub color coded all Arabic letters into seven groups, or families, based on the seven
colors of the rainbow. Letters in the same group have similar characteristics. In his book, letters live together in the letter
kingdom, and each is given a distinct personality, such as hah (h), the queen of the letters.
“T
11
curriculum. Majzub spent more than
20 years working with parents,
teachers, calligraphers, writers,
illustrators, animators, designers,
printers,TV personnel, as well as plastic
and toy manufacturers, to create what
comprises the Abjad system.The
consultants came from different parts of
nurseries, 350 special-education
schools, 50 educational centers, 20
adult-education classrooms and
approximately 75 top bookstores and
toy stores. It is also being used in Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,
Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria,
Libya and Sudan, as well as the United
Ahmad El-Nemr
The main problem that Majzub, a
British citizen of Iranian descent, was
determined to solve was one that he
faced when learning Arabic –– that a
single letter can take many forms.“In
English, a letter always takes up two
forms: uppercase and lowercase,” he
explained.“You can take a letter and
put it on a toy block or on a magnet
for the fridge, and these are excellent
learning tools. But in Arabic that was
nearly impossible because a hah [h] has
four different forms: a beginning,
middle, end or detached form, which
look very different.”
Working alone with a set of woodworking tools, Majzub began
personally crafting letters that could
turn, swivel and click into numerous
positions.“I came up with a way not
only to make each letter take the
diverse forms needed to write in
Arabic, but also to join them
together,” he noted, adding that in the
book, letters have hands and tails, can
hold each other or hold a tail of their
own color at the end of a word.
Letters without hands cannot hold the
following letter in a word.“Through
the use of a simple concept such as
hands and tails, children understand
why some letters join a following letter
and why some do not,” Majzub said.
The plastic magnetized letters are the
3D manifestation of the letters
illustrated in the book.They have a
hinge that allows them to take up
different forms, and tactile learners
have the opportunity to feel and play
with the letters.What was born was
more than just a set of magnetized
letters; it was an entire
The hamza and vowels become a fun and easy topic with the interactive books, plastic letters and vowel pieces
the world, including Egypt,Turkey,
Iran, Syria, Jordan, Pakistan, India and
Malaysia, as well as the United
Kingdom, the United States, France,
Switzerland, Spain and Germany. In
2001, Majzub moved to Egypt to work
more closely with Egyptian schools,
teachers and other educationalists on
the Abjad system.
Today, in Egypt alone, Abjad has
been adopted by 200
schools and
States, Canada and Europe.“We’re
ecstatic about how it has been
received,” Majzub said.
Beyond the colorful products, Abjad
employs an educational philosophy
based on the work of Diane
McGuinness, an influential author
whose work in literacy is causing a stir
in the educational community.“What I
found is that while children may be
learning enough to pass a literacy
exam, they aren’t actually gaining the
skills they need to be functioning
readers,” Majzub said.“This goes
beyond an academic problem. Learning
to read is also the key to becoming a
well-balanced, self-confident and selfsufficient individual.”
One of the problems, Majzub
explained, is that a standard approach
to reading can encourage children to
memorize complete words rather
than break the word down into its
individual sounds. “What you find is
that once a child learns 2,000 or so
words, their performance decreases
rapidly, and this leaves both the child
and the teacher at a loss as to what
went wrong,” he noted.
In the United States, for example,
McGuinness’s research found that if
this type of learning is factored into
literacy tests, a stunning 43 percent of
English-speaking adults would be
considered illiterate.“According to this
research, about half the people you’ll
meet in America can’t read,” Majzub
said.“It’s absolutely staggering.”
These statistics inspired Majzub, who
had already been working on his Abjad
program for more than a decade, to
redouble his efforts to combat
illiteracy.“Children are being confused
because the systems in use now just
don’t work,” he said.“They encourage
students to parrot words back to
teachers, not to actually read.”
Abjad solves this problem by
teaching children to read and write
Arabic in a systematic approach.“We
teach a child in a way that allows
them to apply their knowledge to new
situations.We don’t ask them to
memorize words, but rather we instill
them with the tools they need to
decode the language,” he explained.
The philosophy behind the Abjad
system results in a fully integrated
multimedia environment for children.
The characters, sounds and colors are
repeated throughout Majzub’s many
materials, so that the lessons a child
learns on the first day of class will be
continually reinforced throughout the
program.“The key is that we
introduce an idea and allow a child to
revisit that idea through different
media. If you can combine that with a
tactile experience, you’ve created a
user-friendly environment for the
child,” Majzub said.
The environment is indeed
interactive, and Majzub is quick to
demonstrate that each of his letters
corresponds exactly to the letter
painted in his book.“A child can hold
up the plastic letter to the book and
participate in the experience,” he
explained.The book itself draws
heavily from Arabic aesthetics.“It was
very important that these materials
grow out of an Arabic environment.
We wanted to give children something
indigenous, not just Mickey Mouse in
Arabic,” Majzub explained.
This innovative approach to
learning is catching the attention of
some of Egypt’s leading educators.
“There’s a tremendous buzz being
generated,” Majzub said. “The
program is attracting people who have
no outside incentive to come and
learn to read Arabic.To me, that says
the system works.” r
GÜC
O
ê
Majzub helps children use the Abjad system
13
Zainah Bisharat and Sulafah Al Shami
Dorm
Doors Open
With the opening of the on-campus student
residences last year, many now enjoy close
proximity to classes and university life
By Jeffrey Bellis and Sarah Topol
Photos by Ahmad El-Nemr
I
n January 2009, the student residences on the New Cairo Campus opened their doors for AUC students.This
marked the first time since the 1950s, when Hill House was established as the first student dormitory, when students
were able to live on campus. Designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta, who also designed the Campus
Center, the square buildings are nestled between palm groves, gardens and small courtyards and are intended to resemble
a village, or townhouse.They are divided into 12 residential units, or cottages –– seven for women and five for men.
Residents live in small apartments with kitchens, personal rooms and a common living space that contains bathrooms, a
lounge and study area. Each cottage has a courtyard and roof terrace.The shared common areas downstairs includes a
large lounge with a fusball and air-hockey table, group-study rooms and a computer lab. During the academic year,
residential life activities include movie screenings, painting classes and yoga lessons.There are also trips organized to
various places such as Luxor and Aswan, Mount Sinai and the Black and White Deserts.
While the university still maintains its Zamalek dormitory with more than 300 students, a total of 445 students live at
the New Cairo Campus residences –– 210 males and 235 females. Living on campus, those students have easy access to
class, activities and services and develop a special bond as a group.
Sulafah Al Shami, journalism junior
I focus on my studies better because I live on campus. I
could use the library until late at night and not worry
about getting home.The way the dorms are designed
gives a friendly and homely atmosphere. My
favorite spot in my room is my desk. It’s really
big, and I eat and study there. The
common lounge is very welcoming,
and there is a lot of privacy.
However, the weather is
unpredictable and can
be cold at night.
Najib Yang, study-abroad student
I like the programs put on by the
residential life staff, and the cleaning
service is very efficient. It’s nice
being close to classes and
having clean air around me.
Najib Yang
15
Rabee Kotob, mechanical engineering junior
We live like a family, organizing activities, watching a
movie, and eating and cooking together. Sometimes, we
make pancakes in the morning. Life is much easier
having my “home” on campus. If I forget an assignment,
I could come back and get it. Between classes, I could
take a shower, grab the laptop from my room or go to
the gym. My room is especially nice because of the view
of the food court.
Simone Rutkowitz
study-abroad student
I enjoy living in the apartments in
the new dorms.The single rooms
are very spacious. It is great to have
a kitchenette in the apartment.The
architecture of the dormitories is
conducive to communal living.
The house keeping staff is very
responsible, and the staff is also
always on hand to fix any problem
that may develop. Unfortunately,
the food options on campus are
very limited.
Rabee Kotob
Mostafa Atef, chemistry senior
I usually work in the backyard and courtyards, and it’s very
convenient being only five minutes from class.The dorms
here are better and nicer than the ones in the Zamalek,
which seemed more like a hotel. I love to be able to run in
the morning and work out in the gym.The only
disadvantage is that the area around us will take some time
to develop.
Amira Hassanein ’09, computer
science major
I don't have to worry about getting to
class. I have made a lot of new friends
because I hang out a lot at the communal
lobby.There, everyone goes to have fun,
playing PlayStation or air hockey, or
watching movies. Unlike the Zamalek
dorms, these dorms make people come
together more. I also like the place itself
because of the calm atmosphere; I am
able to have peaceful time on my own.
We're so far from downtown, but there
are always the buses.
17
DO NOT USE THE PHOTO
THAT WAS HERE
PARENTS TOTAL
DISAPPROVE OF THE USE OF
THEIR DAUGHTER’S PHOTO
Caring for the Ch ildren
The daycare
center on the
New Cairo
Campus provides
an open
environment for
the children of
AUC employees
to develop at
their own pace
Photos by Ahmad El-Nemr
18 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
ith their tiny hands on each other’s shoulders, children at AUC’s
daycare center lined up for their painting activity. Boys and girls in
little aprons stood in front of their palettes making colorful scribbles
and squiggles.After almost half an hour of messy play, the children lined up again
for other free-choice activities that included music, drawing, reading books, going
out to the garden and playing with construction toys, puzzles and clay.
The Caring for the Children of AUC Center is the brainchild of Khadiga El
Ghazaly, former AUC staff member who currently serves as the center’s director.
Spearheading the initial push in the early 1980s, El Ghazaly surveyed faculty and
staff members about the need for a daycare facility for their children and helped
collect contributions from parents, raffles and bookkeeping services.As a result of
her vigilant efforts, the first center was inaugurated in 1984 in the old Zamalek
dormitory to serve children of faculty and staff members.
Within a span of eight years, the center moved to a villa on Sheikh Rihan
Street, then to the old Falaki building before eventually settling in the rear of the
Greek Campus.Today, it has found a new home on the New Cairo Campus.The
center, which accommodates up to 80 children, has four classrooms, two napping
rooms, a library, a cafeteria, an outside playground and an inside courtyard.
W
Providing support to its employees, the
university heavily subsidizes the
daycare center by having faculty and
staff members pay only 5 percent of
their salaries while the rest of the fees
are paid by AUC.
The Caring for the Children of AUC
Center follows a philosophy focused on
offering a stimulating and nurturing
environment that allows children to
learn through play, exploration and
discovery. Learning takes place while
children play and interact with each
other and with their teachers in an
open environment, not through a
formal, tutorial style.“Our philosophy
is that each child will grow and learn at
their own pace, and we try to work
with the children to find their inner
strengths,” said Sherry Arnold,
educational consultant and chair of the
center’s board of directors.
To achieve the center’s goals, teachers
take part in regular training workshops.
“Anytime you work in education,
there’s always something else that you
can do, something else you can give,
something else you can learn,” noted
Arnold, who helped register the center
as a non-governmental organization
when she came to Egypt in 2003 to
accompany her husband David D.
Arnold, who currently serves as the
university’s president. She was
instrumental in setting up and
customizing the daycare site on the
New Cairo Campus when it was all
still plans on paper.“We’re a staple on
the new campus now, and I’m hoping
we become more and more a part of
the AUC community and that we can
be counted on to provide excellent care
and an early preschool experience for
the children,” she said.
Arnold has been active in education
for 25 years.While earning her
bachelor’s from Western Michigan
University in English and psychology,
she became a state-certified high school
teacher. She also earned a degree in
early childhood education from the
American Montessori Society,
certifying her to teach children up to 6
years of age.When the family moved
abroad to India,Arnold spent the
summers in Thailand attaining an
international teaching license through
Michigan State University. She has also
worked at the United Nations School
in New York City.
“There’s something really engaging
about working with international
communities, particularly getting
children to have an appreciation for
their own culture and for other people’s
cultures,” she explained.“It’s important
Sherry Arnold reading stories to the children
in this world, which is becoming
smaller and smaller, for people to learn
to respect and have an interest in other
people’s lives, and this needs to be
taught early on.”
Taking children from diverse
backgrounds,AUC’s daycare center
starts them on a path that teaches the
larger ideals of AUC.“An early
childhood education sets you up for a
love of learning, and that’s what AUC is
doing,” said Arnold.“It’s teaching in an
increasingly diverse world that you
need to be open to new ideas and new
people.AUC doesn’t teach you what to
think; it teaches you how to think, and
I believe that process starts early.”
A grandmother of six boys,Arnold
has established a legacy at the daycare
center that continues to this day.As a
tribute to her love of children and
commitment to AUC’s daycare center,
her daughter, Kate, recently named a
playground at the daycare center Nana’s
Playground, which is what her
grandchildren call her. r
By Sarah Topol
19
CUTTING-EDGE
CURE
AUC's biotechnology graduate
students are researching medications
for viral infections and genetic
diseases in Egypt
By Sarah Topol
Photos by Ahmad El-Nemr
earing a white coat and
sterile gloves,Ahmed
Shibl, biotechnology
graduate student, sat in the biology
department’s laboratory preparing
samples of bacteria for DNA
amplification with the lab’s new
thermal cycler machine. His hand was
steady, his gaze intensely focusing on
dropping correct amounts of the
mixture into tubes.
Shibl is one of 52 students enrolled
in AUC’s biotechnology graduate
program, which started in Fall 2007.
Students and faculty members are
working on an array of projects,
including developing treatment options
for hepatitis C and other illnesses that
include cancer, genetic diseases and
influenza.The program is taking an
innovative approach by focusing its
research on the distinctive needs of
people in Egypt and the Middle East.
W
From the Lab to the Real World
Utilizing the university’s high-tech
facilities, particularly the Yousef Jameel
Azzazy and Sherif Shawky, doctoral student with the biotechnology group at the Yousef Jameel Science and Technology Research Center,
examine the color signals generated by gold nanoparticles to develop sensitive and direct detection of hepatitis C virus in human serum
21
Siam and biotechnology graduate students Ghada Mostafa and Ahmed Shibl
discuss cloning results in the biology department laboratory
Science and Technology Research
Center, AUC’s biotechnology
researchers are finding real-world
applications for their projects, enabling
them to address crucial issues in the
fields of pharmaceutics, diagnostics,
agriculture and the environment. One
such project was conducted by Shibl
and Rania Siam, associate professor of
biology and director of AUC’s
biotechnology graduate program, who
both lived and worked in the Red Sea
for two weeks on the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute scientific
research vessel, Oceanus.The AUC
researchers, working as part of a larger
international collaborative research
expedition, aimed to identify bacteria
with potential anti-microbial properties
that live in brine pools 2,300 meters
beneath the water’s surface with
temperatures up to 70 degrees Celsius.
This is part of a drug discovery project
for the identification of new
compounds with potential
biotechnological applications.
“The environmental genomic
project of the Red Sea is one of the
few research projects in the region that
will have an environmental, biological,
biotechnology and pharmaceutical
impact,” explained Siam.“It exposes
our students to contemporary science
and technologies and allows them to
utilize cutting-edge experimental and
analytical tools in several
interdisciplinary fields such as marine
biotechnology, genomics and
bioinformatics.”
For Shibl, the experience provided a
unique learning opportunity.“It was
very educational for me because there
is no other way I would have dealt
with such sophisticated sampling and
filtering equipment except through this
project,” he said.“I also met scientists
from different countries and was
exposed to new types of experiments.”
Fighting the Virus
With hepatitis C, faculty members
and students are working to develop
ultra-sensitive, low-cost testing for
the disease and are using the latest
research in genomics and
bioinformatics to understand how the
virus mutates.They are also working
on treatment options, trying to
identify how to target the delivery of
hepatitis C medicine straight to the
liver. “There has been a lot of work
done in genomics, but most of it deals
with strains of the disease and
genotypes that we don’t see in
Egypt,” said Hassan Azzazy, chair of
the chemistry department.
Other work includes research into
genetic predisposition to infection and
cancer, and mapping the genome of
influenza to develop a long-term
vaccine instead of the current yearly
injection.“We have identified
conserved [non-mutated] regions in the
virus and are now targeting those
regions of influenza with a
revolutionary drug that can eliminate
not just avian, but swine and seasonal
influenza as well,” said Siam.
Students are also working directly
with international specialists at the
U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit-3
on infectious diseases.They are
involved in sequencing the genome of
avian and swine influenza strains in
Egypt. Other students are researching
diarrheal pandemics caused by
bacteria such as vibrio cholerae, which
kills children due to dehydration.
“These studies have inherent value
for the country,” explained Siam.“The
majority of vaccines currently
administered are designed in Europe or
North America against the bacterial
strains in these regions.Therefore,
assessing the predominant bacterial
strains contributing to diseases in Egypt
will allow the design of effective
23
Shibl and Siam on board the research vessel Oceanus (owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), as part of the scientific
crew on the Red Sea genomics AUC-KAUST collaborative research project
vaccines and appropriate treatment
strategies that will decrease the regional
disease burden.”
Professional Partnerships
Besides the technical expertise, the
program emphasizes increased
collaboration with the biotechnology
industry, giving students the chance to
work and train in biotechnology firms
in Egypt. In addition, AUC is
collaborating with the King Abdullah
University of Science and Technology,
a world-class graduate-level research
university in Saudi Arabia.The
partnership involves establishing a
genomic facility at AUC, which
would help researchers isolate
bacterial genomes, sequence their
DNA, map the microbes for the
discovery of biotechnological and
pharmaceutical products.
24 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
“One milliliter of seawater contains
around 1 million bacteria, but so far we
have only identified 1 or 2 percent of
the total,” said Hamza El Dorry, chair
of the biology department, adding that
having such a facility at AUC would
enable the university to exchange
information and findings with the local
and international scientific
communities.
Because of its interdisciplinary nature,
the program prepares its graduates to be
industry leaders in the field of
biotechnology.“We did not start this
program to graduate another batch of
technicians,” said Azzazy, explaining that
the goal of the program is to train
students in three areas: basic sciences,
biotechnology applications and
entrepreneurship.“We need leaders
who can spot an opportunity, form
teams, form companies, understand
ethics and patent laws, and translate
ideas into products.”
To help develop their business skills,
students have the opportunity to take
a course in biotechnological
entrepreneurship, taught by Azzazy.
The course includes a business
component and features lecturers on
how to assess the market, write a
business plan, as well as understand
competition and the international
market. “This is how we can help the
Egyptian economy and put Egypt on
the global map in terms of
biotechnology,” said Azzazy.
For students, the learning experience
is unique.“Biotechnology is a new
field, a new science so you get to
explore many things,” said graduate
student Lamyaa Abdel Hamid.“It’s not
so fixed or rigid like taking only
biology or chemistry, but you have to
connect between every field of
science, even computer science.”
Most students who complete the
bioentrepreneurship course get
selected for the Novartis
Biotechnology Leadership Camp.
During this event, AUC students
work in groups that include students
from other universities in Egypt and
the Middle East. Participants are
expected to make market assessments
and strategic business plans for a
biotechnology company or issue.
Venture capitalists and leading
members of the Ministry of Industry
are invited to attend the presentations
and evaluate the proposals.This year,
AUC graduate student Reem Al
Olaby was chosen from among 25
young men and women from Egypt,
Morocco and Palestine to attend the
Novartis Biotechnology Leadership
Camp in the United States. In 2008,
the winning team included two AUC
graduate students, Mai Mansour ’06
and Lobna Aboul Dahab ’07.
Mansour was then selected to travel
to Hong Kong for the international
competition.
“It was really quite an experience,”
said Mansour, who is studying for a
master’s in biotechnology and works
as a research assistant at AUC’s Yousef
Jameel Science and Technology
Research Center. “Most of the other
students had more experience and
training than me, but I felt
comfortable because I had done class
projects similar to the case studies
Novartis gave us.”
Mansour, who participated in the
2004 Olympics in archery, plans to
continue her work in chemistry and
biotechnology, focusing on disease
diagnostics. “In this field, you can do
so much with so little,” she said. “The
potential of science is what really
fascinates me.” r
Azzazy, Shawky and Mansour discuss the signals generated by different colored nanocrystals that are used to
label biological molecules such as antibodies and nucleic acids for the development of ultrasensitive diagnostic
tests for infectious agents and other disease markers
25
ANAME
THATLASTS
Alumni and friends of AUC have left lasting
marks on the New Cairo Campus, naming spaces
for themselves and the people they hold dear
By Sarah Topol
Photos by Ahmad El-Nemr
ames like Ewart, Jameel, Hill and Howard resonate with alumni of different generations.The Tahrir
Square Campus is filled with examples of places named by donors as a way of supporting the
university.These spaces carry the names of individuals or corporations as a result of their monetary
contributions to the university. For example, Ewart Hall was named by a visitor to AUC who offered a gift of
$100,000 to name the auditorium after her grandfather William Dana Ewart, who had visited Egypt in the
past for health reasons. Howard Theater, inaugurated in 1956, was remodeled through alumni donations raised
in honor of C.Worth Howard, former dean of the faculty of arts and sciences.
At the New Cairo Campus, the naming tradition continues.Alumni, friends and corporations have named
spaces ranging from buildings, departments, classrooms, laboratories and lecture halls to courtyards, benches,
trees and fountains.What’s new, however, is the prevalence of Arab names on the New Cairo Campus.These
include Moataz Al Alfi Hall, Mohamed Shafik Gabr Lecture Hall, Bassily Auditorium, Mansour Group Lecture
Hall,Abdul Latif Jameel Hall and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud Hall.
“The New Cairo Campus offers a renewed opportunity for the university’s dedicated supporters to give to
AUC,” said Moataz Al Alfi, vice chairman of AUC’s Board of Trustees.“It is wonderful to see the diversity of
the university’s supporters reflected in the names on so many of the spaces on the New Cairo Campus.The
mix of American and Arab names is a testament to the deep belief shared by so many supporters in the United
States and the Arab world in AUC’s vital role in educating leaders.”
The following are examples of named spaces on the New Cairo Campus and the stories behind them.
N
26 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
MORE NAMES ON
CAMPUS
• The Heikal Department of
Management was named by
Ahmed M. Heikal, chairman of
Citadel Capital and son of
Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, one
of Egypt’s leading journalists and a
respected commentator on Arab
affairs for more than 50 years
Malak Gabr Arts Theater
Mohamed Shafik Gabr ’73,
chairman and managing director of
ARTOC Group for Investment and
Development, is a self-made man. As
an undergraduate, he didn’t have the
financial means to support his
education.“Back then, my late father
agreed to pay my first year’s fees only;
after that, I was on my own,” he said.
“It was a challenge financially, but I
knew that the struggle would be
worth it.”
Gabr received his bachelor’s in
economics and management from
AUC and a master’s in economics from
the University of London. He recently
received the Corporate Social
Responsibility Award, the highest
honor conferred by the Foreign Policy
Association, a nonprofit organization
committed to motivating the American
public to learn more about the world.
In 2008, he was presented with the
Distinguished Alumni Award from
AUC.“If someone would have told me
back then, when I received a
scholarship and was paid LE 30 a
month, that I would be here today,
receiving an acknowledgement from
the Board of Trustees and the
president, I would not have believed
it,” said Gabr upon receiving the award.
“But this is what AUC is all about ––
dreams, aspirations and world-class
learning that has educated generations
of leaders before me.”
As a form of gratitude to AUC, Gabr
named the Mohamed Shafik Gabr
Department of Economics, Mohamed
Shafik Gabr Lecture Hall and ARTOC
Central Athletics Court. He also named
the Malak Gabr Arts Theater at the
AUC Center for the Arts for his
daughter Malak.
Gabr is chairman of ARTOC
holding, which has 21 subsidiaries and
affiliates worldwide. Gabr is also
chairman of Egypt’s International
Economic Forum and co-chair of the
Arab Global Forum. He serves on the
advisory board of the Center of
International Studies at MIT and is a
member of many professional
organizations, including the Council of
100 Leaders and the International
Business Council of the World
Economic Forum. Gabr is also founder
of the American Chamber of
Commerce in Egypt and served as its
first Egyptian president from 1995 to
1997. In addition, he is chairman of the
Mohamed Shafik Gabr Foundation for
Social Development, whose programs
in greater Cairo include establishing
schools, supporting literacy programs,
training in language and information
technology skills, and endorsing sports
programs for youth.
• Colleagues and friends named a
group study room in the AUC
Library for E.H.Valsan, who
worked for 36 years as professor of
public administration and served as
director of the Master of Public
Administration program since its
establishment in 1985
• The 2002 - 2003 Student Union
named the Student Union Office
in the Campus Center because of
their belief in AUC’s
extracurricular activities,
particularly the Student Union
• The Squyres family named the
Campus Center recreation room
“in loving memory of Irene
Manias Squyres ’84, wife, mother,
yaya and sister”
• Mohammed Hassan Fayek ’01
named a tree “in honor of my
loving parents who taught me the
true value of knowledge, which I
will gratefully pass on to my
beloved children”
• Nevine Farouk Rateb named a
tree in honor of Sir K.A.C.
Creswell, renowned historian of
Islamic art and architecture who
taught at AUC for almost two
decades and who donated his
library, photographs and personal
papers to the university
27
Abdul Latif Jameel Hall
Yousef Jameel ’68 officially
inaugurated the Abdul Latif Jameel
Hall on the New Cairo Campus,
carrying forward a tradition he
began when he first named, more
than two decades ago, the Jameel
Center on AUC’s Tahrir Square
Campus in honor of his father, who
was a great believer in education.
Yousef Jameel is a prominent
Saudi Arabian business leader,
philanthropist, long-time university
supporter and devoted alumnus.
“AUC’s future has great potential,
especially in the field of science,
engineering and business, which will
benefit Egypt and the region,” said
Jameel, who described the vast
facilities and operations of the New
Cairo Campus as “very functional,
beautiful and impressive.”
The Abdul Latif Jameel Hall
houses the programs, centers and
facilities of the School of Business
and the School of Public Affairs, as
28 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
well as the International Executive
Education Institute. Three-stories
high, the building occupies a total
area of 16,750 square meters and
features a number of conference
rooms, faculty offices, teaching
laboratories and training rooms.
Jameel has also established the Yousef
Jameel Science and Technology
Research Center, which conducts
cutting-edge research in
nanotechnology. In 2004, he also
founded the Jameel MBA Fellows
Program to help train future
industrial leaders. In addition, he
established an endowed professorship
in his father’s name in the
management department.
In recent years, he has
concentrated efforts on research and
development for the good of
humanity. In Germany, he initiated
scientific research in fields such as
cancer treatment, X-ray optics
technology and nanotechnology. He
is the main founder of the Freiburg
cancer institute in Germany. He has
also given a substantial benefaction
to create the Yousef Jameel Online
Center for Islamic and Eastern Art,
which helps to broaden public access
to the museum’s renowned
collection of Eastern art. In addition,
he has funded research and
development of the advanced
firefighting technology in Germany.
Jameel’s remarkable career began as
a young graduate working for his
father’s Toyota auto agency in
Jeddah. He was instrumental in
turning the company into the sole
agent for Toyota in Saudi Arabia.
Today, his family owns an
international company
headquartered in Dubai, specialized
in high technology and innovation.
Jameel was the first AUC graduate to
receive the Distinguished Alumni
Award in 1981. In 2008, he received
an honorary Doctorate of Humane
Letters from AUC in recognition of
his outstanding achievements and his
valuable contribution and support of
research and development.
Louis Greiss Courtyard in
Abdul Latif Jameel Hall
In honor of Louis Greiss, prominent writer
and editor, given in gratitude by his
roommate from America 1952 - 1953
“I was an exchange student at
AUC from Occidental
College in Los Angeles for
the 1952 - 1953 academic
year. Louis Greiss was one of
my roommates. Louis was a
very good friend who was
very gracious in his welcome.
While we were roommates, Louis was selected by the Coptic Church to
represent them at an international youth event in India. He needed the permission
of the patriarch to attend the meeting. During his visit, he told the patriarch that
his American roommate was considering becoming a Presbyterian minister, and I
was given a set of prayer beads, which I still have on my desk, and was blessed by
the patriarch.
I have included AUC in my will and when I learned that it would be possible to
name something in Louis’s honor, I decided to give some of what I had intended
to leave to AUC upon my death. Since Louis became a leading journalist in Egypt,
I was excited to be told that I could name a courtyard in or near the journalism
school in his honor as a way of expressing my gratitude to him. It was my way of
telling him that I had not forgotten him.”
Reverend Richard A. Lundy
Henkel Egypt platform and
classrooms
“The named spaces provide good
exposure for Henkel because of the
amount of students going in and out
of classes and the platform serving as a
potential spot for student activities.The
ultimate aim is to create a
continuous relationship with the
university, strengthening our
connection and supporting the quality
education that AUC provides.”
Ashraf El Afifi ’91, chairman of Henkel
Egypt and vice president of Henkel
laundry and home care division in the
Middle East and North African region
Rasheed and Carla Hosein Tree
Inscription: Rasheed and Carla Hosein Met at AUC - June 14, 1996
“The tree dedication was actually an eighth
anniversary present to ourselves.We were both at AUC
as part of the summer study-abroad program, he for
Arabic language and myself for Egyptology.As he is
from Canada and I’m from Florida, we joke that we
had to go halfway around the world to meet. But,
needless to say, we both had an enjoyable and
memorable summer.We stayed in touch after that and
actually got married exactly one year later. Donating a
tree was our way of remembering our beginnings and
also of giving something lasting to AUC, a place to
which we owe so much.”
Carla Hosein
29
From Inside AUC
A monthly newsletter for AUC alumni
Below are entries from the monthly contest
that ran in Inside AUC, the alumni e-newsletter
In connection with AUC’s 90th anniversary, alumni
were asked to send their most memorable experience
at the university through the monthly contest. The
following are some of the winning entries.
Exam Trivia
I was once preparing for the final examinations. Back then, exam schedules were posted, and I wrote down my
whole schedule, but I didn't pay attention to the fact that a few days later, the schedule was modified.
On the day of a chemistry course final exam, I woke up relatively late, having studied the course well.As the
exam was at 12:00 pm, I thought I’d go through the curriculum once more just to make sure that I haven’t left
any loose ends. I left my home in Heliopolis at around 10:30 am, arrived at AUC at around 11:00 or 11:15
am, parked my car and calmly headed to the Main Campus where I met Hatem El Sayegh, a brilliant classmate
whom I asked with much confidence if he had prepared for the exam well. He replied, wondering why I was
asking, and I said,“Because the exam is at 12:00.” I ran toward the Science Building. I was shocked to see Dr.
Kenawy coming out of the campus and visibly heading home. I thought the course was over, and that it would be
my first “F,” with all the consequences this would have on the GPA (which was above 3.4). But I still ran
hopelessly to catch Dr. Kenawy and explain what had happened to me.The best I hoped for was an incomplete.
After listening briefly, Dr. Kenawy turned around in a very cool manner and asked me to follow him.We
arrived to his office in the Science Building, and he gave me the same exam that was given a couple of hours
earlier to the rest of the class. I answered all the questions in a very relaxed atmosphere, and even if I can’t
remember the grade I got in the course (B+ or A-), I remember I got close to the full mark in the final exam.
This is a day I will never forget, even with all the minute details.This kind of trust existed between AUC and
its students, and that is one of the reasons why I spent five years in undergraduate studies and almost four years
studying for the master’s degree, during which I was always happy and enthusiastic going to class
in the morning. I still like to pass by AUC whenever I have the chance. Security people
amazingly are still the same, for the most part, and they remember me, which makes
me feel good as I figure I don’t look that much older.Although more than 16 years
have passed since I graduated, I still feel it was yesterday.
Nazih El Naggary ’92, ’99, France
30 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
Cozy Campus
As one of the 1944 alumni, I still like to keep in touch. I used to edit the Campus Caravan in 1944, and I still
enjoy receiving and reading news from dear, old AUC. Much change has come about over the past 64 past years, but I
retain a memory of a very happy and active life spent in the “old town campus.” I enjoyed every moment of it.The
chanting of “Crimson and Gold, Hold team Hold” still rings in my mind’s old ears.We used to cheer the sporting
basketball teams competing with invited teams from other institutions, and kept chanting this refrain whatever the
outcome. Of all the extracurricular activities, I enjoyed our drama groups, Moliere and Maskers. I spent many happy
years at AUC, which was then a cozy place — just one old but beautiful building in the heart of Cairo. Our
lecture rooms were not all smart or comfortable, but it is the people who make the place.
I recall short geological desert trips I made with Vandersall to examine the sand layers and other
formations and fossils, and night gatherings on the roof to view the planets through the
telescope.As students, I remember a party in the desert of Giza. Someone had brought a
gramophone, and we had some dancing. I am a very petite person (almost a midget) and
one of the boys (I can’t recall names) was very tall and cheeky. He asked me to dance with
him. I spotted a chair, stood on it and said,“Come, let’s dance.” Someone took a picture,
but I haven't kept a copy.We had a good laugh then.
Phyllis (Hatwell) Preston ’44, England
Embarrassed in Class
This incident being recounted is not one about me, but one that indirectly
impacted me. I had signed up for a psychology class with Dr. Nicholas
Ciaccio, (“the blond angel”) and my cousin, Leamon Wongbay, happened
to do the same. On the first day of the session, Dr. Ciaccio proceeded to
take the required roll call.When he came upon Leamon’s name, he gave
his perceived pronunciation, not being usual names that he was
accustomed to. Leamon, on the other hand, feeling a compulsion, instantly
interjected with a correct pronunciation — a wrong move in my opinion
(He had also fumbled with my last name).
Dr. Ciaccio, not being one to be upstaged, in his signature stance — a
cupped fist under his chin and the other hand akimbo — gave her his
classic glare and quipped,“Honey, I only speak major languages.”
Whew! That come back invoked a roar of laughter from the class.
Needless to say, I was coying in my seat. Leamon was dumbfounded.
Serenity
Every Tuesday and Thursday, I had class at the rare
books library on Sheikh Rihan Street. On my way to
class, I would stop at a nearby food stand and buy my
favorite Egyptian dish, koshari. Before class, I would
sit on the white benches in the library yard and review
my reading before class. It was peaceful.
Kat Conlon (YAB ’07),
United States
Gail Farngalo (Liberia) ’85, United States
To sign up for Inside AUC, visit alumni.aucegypt.edu
31
Instrument
of
Change
John Baboukis, director of
AUC’s music program, is full
of fresh ideas for teaching
and a passion for music
Ahmad El-Nemr
By Sarah Topol
Conducting a performance by the AUC Chamber Singers
32 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
ohn Baboukis, director of the
music program, has a motto:“If
you have a voice, you can sing.”
Teaching courses in music history
and performance for the past four years
at AUC, Baboukis has taken on the
challenge of revitalizing the university’s
music program by raising the level of
participation, hiring more faculty to
accommodate the increased demand
and putting on regular performances
with student and community choirs
and instrumental ensembles.“Music is
as important as purely pragmatic things
in the world, like people keeping the
streets clean or curing cancer,”
Baboukis said.“Those are things that
are important, but they’re technical.
Music is aesthetic; it’s a different part of
us and it’s an equally important part
that also has to be nourished.”
In addition to teaching, Baboukis
directs the AUC Chamber Singers and
is the conductor of the Cairo Choral
Society, one of the premiere choral
ensembles in Cairo. Before coming to
AUC, he taught music and directed
ensembles at McGill University, the
College of St. Catherine, the University
of Georgia and Illinois State University.
Baboukis holds a Doctor of Music
degree from the School of Music at
Indiana University, the largest music
school in the world.A recipient of the
McKnight Composition Fellowship, he
is a specialist in medieval and
renaissance music and was the founder
and director of the Saint Paul Early
Music Ensemble and Les Voix
Médiévales de Montréal. He has also
been trained in the performance of
Byzantine Chant and has served for
many years as a chanter in the
Orthodox Church.
At AUC, Baboukis has tirelessly
poured his energy into generating
enthusiasm in the music program.
When he first came to the university,
J
there were four part-time faculty
members in music, in addition to
himself. Now there are 23, with
approximately 400 students enrolled in
music courses.“Everything I’ve asked
for, the university has given to me,”
Baboukis ruminated.“They have bent
over backwards to support the
endeavors I’ve tried to make.”
He started by redesigning the music
minor, introducing a mandatory
Introduction to Music course and
revising the curriculum.“The first
measure of success was when I started
overhearing conversations in the
hallways,‘Don’t take Intro to Music; it’s
hard,’ and I thought,‘We’ve arrived!'”
Baboukis recalled, chuckling.
He also petitioned for private
instrumental or voice instruction
classes to be allotted as for-credit
courses. Now, they count for one
credit per semester, where students
study the guitar, piano, voice,
saxophone and other instruments oneon-one with an instructor.
In addition to teaching, Baboukis
worked with the AUC Chamber
Singers, an ensemble that is also a
course for credit and which performs
every semester. In Spring 2009, they
performed in the university’s first
opera production Dido and Aeneas, by
English composer Henry Purcell.The
show was a huge success, drawing a
large audience for each of the four
renditions. Baboukis hired a
professional orchestral ensemble, but
the singers were entirely students.
“More than half of the chorus had
never sung before they came to
AUC,” Baboukis said.“It’s remarkable
what kind of progress and what kind
of result you can obtain from
intelligent, motivated students who are
willing to work hard,” he marveled.
The Cairo Choral Society, another of
Baboukis’s projects, is a community
33
Barbershop quartet of Baboukis, along with students Yasmin Eid, Melanie
Bradshaw and Mary Victor Shoukry, performing in Moliere's School for Wives
Conducting the orchestra, chorus and soloists in the
performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas
Ahmad El-Nemr
Amira Gabr
“The first measure of
success was when I started
overhearing conversations
in the hallways, ‘Don’t
take Intro to Music; it’s
hard,’ and I thought,
‘We’ve arrived.’”
chorus sponsored by the university. In
it, students and members of the
community sing together.A quarter of
the participants –– who range from 75
to 90, depending on the performance
–– are Egyptian. Many of the others are
AUC faculty members or foreign
residents of the community.With two
performances per semester, the Cairo
Choral Society is accompanied by the
Cairo Festival Orchestra, an ensemble
drawn from the Cairo Symphony and
Cairo Opera House.
Despite his accomplishments,
Baboukis’s aspirations for the
department are far from complete.
He hopes to institute a music major
that would offer two different tracks:
one in music technology and the
other in voice, piano or guitar
performance. As part of the major’s
requirements, students would take
one semester of Western and one of
Arab music literature. “We are at an
American university in Egypt,”
Baboukis said. “We need to do
something that is actually suited to
this place, to this place in time, to this
place in the world.”
The music-technology major track
would also be the first in the Middle
East.“Cairo is the center of the music
broadcasting and music recording
industries in the Arab world,” Baboukis
explained.“This is an ideal situation in
which to teach music technology.”
Baboukis has been deeply committed
to music his entire life. He grew up
attending the Greek Orthodox Church
in the United States. He learned
Byzantine chanting and continues to
sing in the Orthodox Church in Cairo.
In addition to conducting, he is also
composing. During his time in Egypt,
he has written a piano sonata, a piece
for the organist at the University of
Alabama and is working on a musical
composition for the first bassoon in the
Cairo Symphony Orchestra.
Baboukis is overjoyed to be teaching
again, in addition to conducting and
bringing music to the student
community.“It makes them better
people; it makes them humans; it
teaches them,” Baboukis said.“ You do
not go to university so that you can
learn how to get a job as a banker.You
go to university to prepare yourself to
live, to make you better at living. Music
does just that.” r
Around the World
Switzerland
Violette Jaggi ’73,
chair of the alumni
chapter in
Switzerland,
hosted a dinner at
her residence in
Geneva in
June 2009
Hisham Badr ’82, ’87,
Egypt’s permanent
representative to the
United Nations in
Geneva, and his wife,
Dahlia Hammouda ’87
hosted an alumni
reception at their
residence in June 2009
isham Badr ’82, ’87, who received a Distinguished Alumni Award
during the reception, studied political science and international
relations at AUC and earned a second master’s in political science from
Oxford University. Badr began his career in Tokyo and Washington, after
which he served as chief of staff of the cabinet of the secretary-general of
the League of Arab States. Prior to his current appointment in Geneva as
Egypt’s permanent representative to the United States, he served as
assistant minister of foreign affairs and ambassador to Japan for four years.
He also taught political science and diplomacy at AUC.
H
he second award recipient,Achamkulangare Gopinathan, India’s
permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, studied
Arabic at AUC and holds a master’s degree in physics. In a career that
spanned more than 30 years, Gopinathan held postings in Qatar, Sri
Lanka, Mauritius and the United States, including joint secretary
responsible for the United Nations and other international organizations
at India’s Ministry of External Affairs. He also served as India’s ambassador
to Egypt for the past four years.
T
35
iolette Jaggi ’73, an economics graduate, has been working in
Geneva in the investment field and in private banking for the past
20 years. Jaggi is chair of the alumni chapter in Switzerland and always
opens her home to AUC delegations when visiting Switzerland. In
2001, she was presented with the Distinguished Alumni Volunteer
Award from Egypt’s First Lady Suzanne Mubarak.Today, she has
received the Distinguished Alumni Award for her accomplishments.
V
Austria
Yousef Jameel ’68 hosted an alumni dinner at Sacher Hotel in Vienna in June 2009
Australia
Tarek Abousenna, Egypt’s consul general, and Heba Abousenna hosted an alumni reception at their residence in Sydney in August 2009
Egypt
United Arab Emirates
Alumni trip to Port Ghalib resort in Marsa Alam in July 2009
The alumni chapter in Dubai held an iftar in September 2009
36 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
Class Notes
’76
Dagmar Simon (MA ’81) lives in
France, close to Paris. She has two
children and works as a
psychotherapist and counselor. Simon
earned her PhD from a French
university. She misses Egypt and AUC
very much and would like to get in
contact with her classmates through
[email protected]
’82
Iman El Bastawisi is an associate
professor of anthropology at Cairo
University’s Institute of African
Studies and Research. She is also a
part-time faculty member at AUC’s
sociology, anthropology, psychology
and Egyptology department, teaching
Arab Society. She recently published
her first book, Bedouin Women in
Desert Societies: El Gabalya of South
Sinai, with the introduction written
by Professor Ahmed Abou Zaid of
Alexandria University.The book is
written in Arabic and is published by
the Ministry of Culture.
’93
Jehan Salim-Harney lives in
Washington, D.C., and has won Link
TV’s One Nation, Many Voices award
for the best documentary on Muslim
American women. Her documentary,
The Colors of Veil, explores the
journey of a former U.S. soldier who
found her identity in wearing the
veil, overcoming societal prejudices to
become a vanguard of the AmericanMuslim community. Currently, she is
making a feature documentary on
Iraqi refugees in the United States for
national broadcast on PBS.
Ramy Abdel Hamid worked for
Saatchi & Saatchi advertising
corporation after graduation. He
spent two years there, then went on
to work for Mansour Distribution
Company and Orascom at El Gouna.
In 1999, he joined the marketing
department of Philip Morris
International (PMI) in Switzerland,
where he lived for four years before
moving to Kuwait then the United
Arab Emirates. His latest assignment
is with PMI in Algeria, where he is
the marketing manager for both
Algeria and Tunisia. He is married,
with no children yet and would like
to stay in touch with fellow alumni
through [email protected]
non-governmental organizations.
Currently, she is the executive
manager of a private business,
working in development training and
research. She is also a consultant for
different organizations such as the
Food and Agriculture Organization
and the United Nations Population
Fund, as well as a board member in
Friends of Environment and
Development Association and the
Egyptian Association for
Environmental Research and Services.
Recently, she was selected by the
World for World Organization as its
Goodwill Ambassador for Egypt.
Tamer Elnaggar is the managing
director for Synovate in North
Africa. He is in charge of the
company’s business from Egypt and
Sudan in the East to Morocco and
Algeria in the West. He is currently
the representative in Egypt for
ESOMAR, the world organization
for market research professionals. In
this role, Elnaggar works to enhance
the awareness and reputation of
market research in Egypt by
promoting the global codes and
standards that define the international
industry. He joins a team of 80 highlevel ambassadors who represent
ESOMAR worldwide.
’96
’94
Mahitab Mekkawi earned her
bachelor’s in political science with a
minor in Egyptology, after which she
received her master’s from the Institut
de Droit des Affaires Internationales
(Cairo/Sorbonne Universities) and
her PhD in gender studies from the
American University of London. She
has worked with different national
and international organizations and
Hala Mattar has finished her
teaching certification from the
College of New Jersey (TCNJ). She
is currently pursuing her master’s in
education at TCNJ and has been
working at Hayah International
Academy for two years. Mattar is
married to Magdy El Badry, and has
two boys, Ahmed and Karim.
’98
Mohamed Abdel Fattah teaches
strategic management for master’s and
diploma students at AUC. He
completed his PhD and MBA in
strategic studies and organizational
development from the United
Kingdom and is currently working as
the management consultant and
board member of SETTEC training
and development.
’97
Tarek Gineina works in franchise
consulting and development in Egypt,
specializing in food and beverages.
Gineina ran for the Heliopolis Club
elections in September 2009.
37
’99
Reaching for
the Stars
n the desert in Egypt, the skies
were absolutely stunning,” said
Yervant Terzian ’60, professor of
physical sciences at Cornell
University. “You could see thousands
of stars.They looked like diamonds in
the sky, and I was very curious to
know why they were there. In school,
I started reading anything I could get
my hands on about the solar system,
the planets, astronomy and the stars.”
Terzian’s study of astronomy earned
him a gold medal from the Armenian
Ministry of Science and Education.
The award is the nation’s highest
honor for scientific achievement.
After earning a bachelor’s in math
and physics from AUC,Terzian
embarked on a career of research and
education, most recently as the David
C. Duncan Professor in the Physical
Sciences at Cornell University in
New York. He served as chair of the
astronomy department there for 20
years and has received numerous
awards, including AUC’s Distinguished
Alumni Award in 2004. He is also the
founder of the New York State Pew
Cluster of Colleges and Universities,
which supports undergraduate
education in the sciences. In addition,
he serves as director of NASA’s New
York Space Grant Consortium, which
provides educational opportunities
and resources to students on both the
graduate and undergraduate levels.
“I
“The most important asset for the
world this century is education,” said
Terzian in an English public lecture at
AUC last spring. “Science is about
understanding the world and thus,
making it less threatening.”
When Terzian joined AUC, he was
the only physics major. Despite his
passion for astronomy, he appreciated
the university’s broad course offerings.
“There were no astronomy courses,
but physics, chemistry and math, and
also history, literature and philosophy
–– a broad spectrum of topics to
understand the world,” he said.
Nonetheless,Terzian remembered
that he brought a scientist's critical
eye to all of his studies. “As a
freshman, I disagreed with my English
teacher on a question of logic,” he
recalled. “It was about a short story
called The Bridge of Saint Louis Rey, in
which the bridge collapses and all the
people on it perish. I claimed that
since no one had survived and no one
had seen it happen, how could anyone
write in detail about it? She gave me
a C, the worst grade I ever got.”
Send us your news
Let your classmates know where you are now.
Update your information through:
E-mail [email protected]; [email protected]
Alumni Online Community: alumni.aucegypt.edu
Fax 20.2.2792.3383
38 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
Ihab Aboul Serour completed a
law degree at McGill University in
Montreal, Canada and got called to
the Ontario and Canadian Bar
Associations in 2008. He is currently
working at a Canadian law firm in
the field of immigration law in
Montreal. He would be happy to
receive inquiries from fellow alumni
about the immigration process to
Canada through
[email protected]
’99
Yasser El Shabasy (MSc ’03) is
married and has two boys,
Mohamed, 7, and Youssof, 3.5. He is
a professional engineer in Ontario
and British Columbia. El Shabasy
earned his PhD in civil engineering
(geotechnical) from the University of
Western Ontario and is currently
working with the Ministry of
Transportation and Infrastructure in
Victoria, British Columbia. He
misses AUC and is fond of his
memories there.
’00
Omar Samra, barely two years after
becoming the first Egyptian and
youngest Arab to reach the top of
Mount Everest, has planted another
Egyptian flag, this time at the summit
of the 4,884 meters-high Carstenz
Pyramid in Indonesia, the highest
point on the Australian-New Guinea
continent. Scaling the challenges of his
dream, Samra wants to complete his
Seven Summits quest by 2010, by also
reaching the summits of North
America’s Mount McKinley, South
America’s Aconcagua and Antarctica’s
Vinson Massif. In addition, Samra has
also stood on the top of the Himalayas
in Asia, the summit of Africa’s
Kilimanjaro and Europe’s Elbrus.
’01
Moataz Attallah (MSc ’03)
received his PhD in materials science
from the University of Birmingham
in 2007. He has been working since
then as a research scientist at the
University of Manchester Materials
Science Centre. His research focuses
on studying the metallic aerospace
alloys using diffraction techniques.
His first daughter, Jana, was born in
October 14, 2007, and she is now a
big fan of Upsy Daisy and Tintin.
Attallah visits Egypt every now and
then and would love to hear more
from fellow AUCians who are in the
United Kingdom or those pursuing
academic studies and research
worldwide, as well as friends of his
graduating class.
’02
Omar Badreddin (MSc ’07)
is a PhD student and researcher at
IBM Ottawa Lab, Canada. He
graduated from AUC with a double
major in computer science and
economics. Badreddin would like to
stay in touch with classmates through
[email protected]
’04
Ahmed Adly graduated from AUC
in 2004 majoring in journalism and
mass communication. He worked in
a couple of places before settling in
Enppi as a business development
specialist. He married on July 11,
2007 and has a 9-month-old
daughter, Retal, meaning the girl
who recites the Quran well. He calls
her Lily and considers her God’s
most amazing and special gift to
him. He misses AUC: the old days,
friends, professors and the whole
university atmosphere.
Special Programs
Adam McConnel (YAB ’96) has
been living in Istanbul,Turkey for the
past 10 years, working and studying at
a university. He completed an MA in
history (Turkish republican history
and Turkish-American relations) in
the spring of 2008 and is now a PhD
history student at Sabanci University
in Istanbul. His MA thesis, titled “The
Approach of Turkish-American
Accord” was published in early 2009.
volunteer for AUC, Sarwat was the
chairperson of the 75th anniversary
alumni committee and received the
Distinguished Alumni Volunteer
Award in 1995.
Hala Hussein Fayek ’74 died in
May 2009. She was head of the credit
department in Banque Misr and
executive board member in Banque
Du Caire.
In Memoriam
Sophie Sarwat ’70 died in August
2009. Sarwat was a board member of
the Egyptian Swimming Federation
and chair of the Egyptian Technical
Synchronized Swimming Committee
(TSSC). She was also vice chair of
the International TSSC and received
both the silver and gold Federation
Internationale Nation Amateur pins
for her dedication to synchronized
swimming. She also served as an
international judge, attended six
Olympic games and lectured in many
parts of the world. In December
2004, she received the Excellence in
Sports Award from the International
Olympic Committee for her lifelong
commitment to sports and for
establishing and nurturing
synchronized swimming in Egypt.
She was a member of the Egyptian
ladies’ national team of bridge and
was a member of the Egyptian
Association for Environment and
Community Services.While a student
at AUC, Sarwat was president of the
Student Union, president of the
Maskers Theater Club, captain of the
tennis squad and the handball team,
and was also a founding member of
the alumni theater. A lifelong
Weddings
Reeham Abd El Aziz ’01, project
manager for international projects
at the Egyptian Ministry of Trade
and Industry, technological
development sector, and Ahmed
Naguib ’98, transaction advisory
services manager at
PricewaterhouseCoopers, were
engaged in July 2009
39
Akher Kalam
From MUN to the Real
United Nations
y most memorable experience at AUC was also
one of the most defining experiences of my life.
It happened more than 10 years ago, but I
remember it like it was yesterday.
The Cairo International Model United Nations
(CIMUN) program was the largest student-run program of
its kind at AUC and across the Middle East at the time, and
we were celebrating its 10th anniversary, with more than
500 participating students from Egypt and abroad.We had
worked so hard and so long preparing for this event.The
secretariat and organizing committee of the conference,
composed of 60 enthusiastic volunteers, spent countless
hours in the little office allocated to us on the Greek
Campus, making friendships that will certainly last a lifetime
while researching United Nations rules, writing background
papers, preparing sessions, interviewing delegates, designing
and editing publications, monitoring expenditures, seeking
sponsors, linking our work to community development,
contacting the media and having animated debates with Dr.
Sullivan.The list of what we had to do was endless, but so
was our energy, commitment and the belief in what we
were doing.
During the long months of preparation, I continuously
wondered how I would feel when it all came together.And
the moment finally arrived. It was Tuesday, March 10, 1998.
The mild Cairo winter was turning into a warm pleasant
spring evening, and the AUC Main Campus was buzzing
with activity. Security guards, press officers, police escorts,
students, parents, ministers, ambassadors and other visitors
were all coming and going in a flurry, getting ready for the
opening ceremony and the arrival of the guest of honor,
Egypt’s first lady.And I was getting ready to deliver a speech
in front of this crowd of more than 1,000 people as
secretary-general of CIMUN ’98.Time for me to summarize
the journey we had taken over the past months, what we had
learned along the way and what we hoped to achieve during
M
the coming days.Time to articulate what all this meant to
me and my team.Time to demonstrate leadership. I still
remember getting up onto the podium and feeling my hands
shake as I took out my speech.The glaring lights were so
strong I could hardly see anyone in the audience. I began to
speak, and I could hear my voice quiver. I squinted against
the spotlights and finally made out a few familiar faces from
within the crowd –– some smiling members of the team.
They were looking at me with such high expectations as I
stood there next to the first lady, representing them.As my
eyes got used to the light, I caught a glimpse of my parents
and brother, and I saw the elation they felt at seeing me up
there. I couldn’t let any of them down. So I took a deep
breath, mustered every ounce of confidence I had in me,
recalled all the public speaking skills I had learned over the
years and delivered my speech with pride and conviction.As
I concluded my statement, the shower of applause from the
audience took me by surprise.And as the crowd rose to their
feet, I could not believe my eyes.
That moment was a turning point in my life. I came out of
Ewart Hall that evening feeling that I could do anything I
wanted, that the sky was the limit, that I could achieve all my
dreams of making the world a better, more just place.And
indeed, a few months later, I joined the real United Nations,
where I have been working for 10 years now, roving between
Cairo, Beirut, Geneva, Baghdad, Damascus and Amman, still
trying to make a difference in the lives of the people who
need it most, trying to be an agent of change in our complex
region, trying to uphold the principles of justice and human
rights for all. Looking back now, I remember my days and
this experience at AUC with a smile.And I wouldn’t have it
any other way.
Shaden Khallaf ’98, ’04 is a policy reports officer, Middle East and
North Africa Bureau, at the headquarters of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland.
Akher Kalam is an open forum for members of the AUC community.We invite you to share your thoughts on any topic of your choice.
Submissions should be sent to [email protected] and may be edited for length and clarity.
40 AUC TODAY Fall 2009
Mark Your
CALENDAR
ALUMNI Weekend
April 15 - 17, 2010
NOV 5
NOV 6 - 7
NOV 18 - 24
(except 22)
DEC 3
DEC 6 - JAN 28
MAY 8
MAY 24
ALUMNI GATHERINGS
Reunion for all Classes of ’80 to ’90
Alumni trip to Fayoum
Arabic play Alliss (The Burglar)
by Tawfik Al Hakim
Reunion for alumni working in the field of education
AUC Alumni Art Exhibition
Spring 2010
Employment Fair
5th Reunion: Classes of ’04, ’05 and ’06
10th Reunion: Classes of ’99, ’00 and ’01
15th Reunion: Classes of ’94, ’95 and ’96
December - Bahrain
February - Oman
March - United Arab Emirates
April - Kuwait and Jordan
May - France
June - Germany and Switzerland
For more information on alumni events, visit www.aucegypt.edu/alumni. For all university events, visit
www.aucegypt.edu/events
Alumni weekend held at the New Cairo Campus in Spring 2009, photographed by Ahmad El-Nemr. Don’t miss the upcoming alumni weekend from April 15 to 17, 2010
www.aucegypt.edu
EGYPT
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