AUK Students Perform Marvelously in First Foundation Level University Challenge

Ten American University of Kuwait (AUK) students departed Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) last Thursday with smiles on their faces - they had, after all, come in second place in the Math competition, and were the champions of the English competition. The first annual Foundation Level University Challenge was held at GUST on April 18, 2013, and participating institutes included the American University of Kuwait (AUK), the Australian College of Kuwait (ACK), Box Hill College (BHC), and the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST).

AUK came in second place for the Math competition with a score of 47, while ACK took the top spot with a score of 59, but this order was reversed when AUK's English team won with a landslide score of 102, while ACK came in second with 85. BHC and GUST came in third and fourth, respectively, for the English competition, and vice versa for the Math.

Within the University Challenge, there were four sections: the arithmetic section, the spelling bee, the algebra solve, and the sentence game. The sum of the scores for the arithmetic and algebra sections determined the winner of the Math competition, just as the sum of the spelling and sentence sections determined the winner of the English competition. Each university could have a team of five members - four participants and one alternate - for each portion of the game.

AUK's Math team, coached by Professor Monique Livsey of the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, was composed of ten team members, while AUK's English team, coached by Professor Alison Larkin Koushki of the Intensive English Program (IEP), was composed of five team members. Livsey thanked the others who worked with the math team, saying, "I would like to acknowledge one person, Shoug Al-Othman, who was a critical member of our University Challenge Math Team. She served as a judge in the Math competition, and coached the Math 095 (Arithmetic) group." Livsey also praised her students for their outstanding work, saying, "I would just like to congratulate all the Math team members for their efforts and heartfelt commitment to success. I am proud of both the Math 095 and Math 100 teams, and look forward to working at a win for next year!" Koushki was similarly congratulatory, saying, "My team worked hard for weeks and never faltered in the slightest. What really impressed me was how they took the heat on the day of the event. With all eyes on them, they stayed calm and focused under pressure. IEP's really got talent." Clearly, the coaches were extremely pleased with their students' performances this year, and look forward to continuing their successes in the years to come.

Of the event, VIP attendee Rusty Bruns, Director of Information Technology, said, "It was a pleasure attending the University Challenge, and I was very proud of our students and how they performed. One first place and one second place finish - AMAZING. One could even make the case that it should have been two first place finishes. I was also so proud of how our students conducted themselves; they were extremely professional. They represented AUK very well."

Director of the Intensive English Program, Rebecca Sanchez-Loomis, had many congratulations to offer the students. She expressed her "congratulations to both the AUK English and Math teams," saying that, "they did an outstanding job competing for the first time in a new environment under time pressure." Sanchez-Loomis said she was very impressed with the Math team's comeback during the competition, and praised the "skilled guidance of Ms. Monique Livsey and her team of coaches" and that she knows that "the AUK Math team will take that trophy home from the next University Challenge."

Sanchez-Loomis also stated that she "expected nothing less than the hard work of Ms. Alison [Larkin] Koushki, whose tireless energy and enthusiasm, [combined] with the advanced skill of her selected team of IEP students and their coaches, kept our team ahead of the pack through most of the English competition." The support from the participants' fellow classmates and teachers "kept the excitement of the competition alive, and kept the judges in line when any mistakes were made," according to Sanchez-Loomis, concluding that, "overall, it was a proud day for AUK in its first University Challenge of the Foundation Programs sponsored by GUST."

The true celebrants of AUK's success, however, were the students that made it possible. Below is a list of the participants in this year's Foundation Level University Challenge:

Math team coach: Monique Livsey
Arithmetic Team: Mohammed Abdulsalam, Bashayer Al-Terkait, Farah Homaidan, Dana Jaber, Dan Al-Hassan

Algebra Team: Darin Kablaoui, Sara Lubbad, Nada Al-Kharashi, Zaid Al-Hadlaq, Shaimaa Kanderi

English team coach: Alison Larkin Koushki
English Team (both events): Marjan Ziaei Nafchi, Sarah Al-Shatri, Fatemah Al-Attar, Mariam Al-Wazzan, Haya Khaled Al-Rashed

Said the English team captain, Sarah Al-Shatri, after the event, "'Believing is the key to every success' - from the beginning, I believed that we would definitely win, so that motivated me to work even harder and to do my best." It seems like at least one of her teammates, Fatemah Al-Attar, was still stunned by the victory, saying, "I think that it was a great experience, and I've never won first place in anything before, so I still cannot believe that we won!"

But perhaps the person who best summed up the successes (Math and English) and feelings of the day was Mariam Al-Wazzan, another competitor, who said simply, "I just want to say that nothing is impossible, and you can always achieve whatever you want in life if you have passion, determination, and motivation."

Released by the Office of Public Affairs on the 24th April 2013