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Mishref, Kuwait, June 16, 2011: The Graduation Ceremony of the Class of 2011 at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) took place at Kuwait International Fairgrounds (KIF) at 10 am on Thursday, June 16. The ceremony commenced with the Kuwaiti national anthem and a recitation of the Holy Quran. Graduates then began to march towards the stage waving to their friends and families as they took their seats. AUK President Winfred Thompson then welcomed students, and their families to the ceremony as well as AUK Chair Sheikha Dana Nasser Al-Sabah along with several board members and numerous dignitaries and diplomats.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Thompson addressed how the region and the Arab world are at the cusp of a new chapter in history, facing uncertain times and an unknown future, but "What I can hope-and even, I think, predict-is that your education at AUK will help you to better face the challenges of your life, fulfill your plans for the future, and reward the hopes and dreams of your parents and your families".
The President then introduced the keynote speaker, Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, a Kuwaiti clinical psychologist and creator of THE 99, the first group of comic superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. Dr. Naif's speech focused on three major points, education and innovation, balancing one's life and entrepreneurship, all told through personal anecdotes. Dr. Naif explored the reality of our present situation in the Arab world and encouraged graduates to work towards a better future. "I have spent the last two years trying to balance my life out. I am still a work in progress. You too will be works in progress your whole life. Working too much was my drug and I numbed myself. I implore you, don't let complacency be yours. We need you to create jobs, not just consume them. You are the future." He concluded his speech on an inspiration note, letting the graduates know that "anything is possible; anything at all."
Click here for the Graduation 2011 Slideshow
Vice President of Administrative and Student Affairs Dr. Carol Ross-Scott then introduced the Class of 2011 Valedictorian, Laila Al-Daghestani. Laila rose to the podium to deliver her speech, which was both moving and insightful. She spoke of the uncertainty of the future and the challenges that lay ahead for her and her fellow graduates saying, "Graduation is about so much more than a simple ceremony; it is a rite of passage. At this turning point, we come to the end of a long and trying journey, and we brace ourselves for the entirely new and infinitely more challenging one that lies ahead. It is our job, as the generation soon to be handed the reins of leadership, to bring upon progress to our world. To do that we must find the right path leading towards a better tomorrow." Laila, on behalf of the Class of 2011, ended her speech by thanking parents, families, professors, teachers, advisors and friends that have helped the graduates in their journey.
Laila is graduating with a BA degree in Communication and Media and a minor in History, and has earned the highest cumulative grade point average of this graduating class.
Acting Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Nizar Hamzeh recommended the conferral of degrees to President Thompson who then conferred upon the 471 graduates their respective degrees. Graduates were then presented with their bachelor's degree diploma by President Thompson, Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa and Dr. Nizar Hamzeh, and in keeping with the academic tradition, the graduates were asked to move their tassels from right to left, thereby marking their official graduation from AUK.
The ceremony also included the traditional cutting of the Class of 2011 cake, and professional photography was provided for all graduates and their families and friends.
Award winning painter David Hewitt presented a lecture at AUK's Multipurpose room titled "Urban Remains and Other Detritus" along with a slide show overview of his work to more than 100 AUK students on May 30th. Hewitt showed paintings ranging from the near-photo realism of his early work in Ecuador through his current body of work exploring "refigured" ruins of ancient civilizations. Centering on large-scale landscapes painted primarily in the Middle East, the work features heritage sites such as Baalbeck in Lebanon and Petra in Jordan. Energized and inspired, the audience of mostly ART and GDES students kept the artist, asking questions for a half-hour after the lecture.
Hewitt, a graduate of Cornell University and Associate Professor of Design at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE, is an internationally exhibited, award-winning painter. Most recently, his work has been exhibited in solo shows in New York at First Street Gallery (2009) and at Cuadro Fine Art in Dubai (2010).
Award winning painter David Hewitt
Assistant Professor of Studio Arts Sharon Lawrence introduces Mr. Hewitt
Released by the PR & Marketing Department on the 6th June 2011
Forty AUK Students conducted a Study Abroad Trip to the United States in International Marketing, and visited four major Universities in Florida.
For the second year in a row, approximately 40 AUK students conducted a successful Study Abroad trip in the US to learn about American marketing practices. Last year's visit was to the Washington, DC Metro Area and New York City. This year, the study trip was to Florida. Both trips were planned and coordinated by AUK Professors Dr. Mohsen Bagnied and Marcia Denny.
The study trip this year included visits to four major Universities in Southern Florida - the University of Miami, NOVA Southeastern University, Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University. The students visited class rooms in action and interacted with American students, professors and administrators at all four of these institutions; particular concentration was placed on the graduate business programs at UM, NOVA, and FAU, and the hospitality management program at FIU.
At NOVA, AUK's students participated and received certificates of completion in a two-day intensive seminar on Managing Marketing and Sales Strategy. While in Fort Lauderdale, the students also received lectures in entrepreneurship and small business practices in the US from an experienced American marketing consultant.
Cities visited included Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Key Largo, Boca Raton, and Orlando. As part of the international marketing experience, the students immersed themselves as shoppers at a large number of shopping malls and outlets in these cities, observing, first-hand, the latest American advertising and promotional techniques. The trip itinerary also included excursions to the Florida Everglades, Sea World, and Disney World.
For most of the participating students, this was their first opportunity to observe, the American educational system. Many students called the experience "the trip of a life time" and determined to pursue their graduate studies in the United States. It was a great opportunity for AUK students to learn about American marketing, observing American culture and visiting tourist sites.
Released by the PR & Marketing Department on the 2nd June 2011
After a month and a half of seasonal play and two weeks of playoffs, the American University of Kuwait (AUK) has won the 2011 University Championship Cup (UCC) for the fourth time. This year's UCC trophy race was extremely close; the outcome of the men's and women's soccer finals determined the winner. When the points were tallied, AUK edged out the Australian College of Kuwait (ACK ) by one point and the Gulf University for Science & Technology (GUST) only trailed by two points. This neck and neck competition showed the importance of each game. The four first places AUK received from tennis and basketball teams gave AUK a whopping 20 points. However, the AUK women's table tennis team's key victory over ACK in the semi-finals made all the difference when it came down to the points total. AUK Athletics showed a tremendous amount of determination, spirit, and talent this year. They truly deserve the title UCC 2011 Champions!
The UCC is currently a sports tournament amongst private universities in Kuwait. It was established in 2006 and has taken place a total of five times. Out of those five competitions, AUK has been crowned UCC Champion four times. GUST was the previous UCC Champion, making it the only other university to win. AUK, ACK, and GUST have competed in every UCC competition. Other universities have been involved in the past, such as the Arab Open University (AOU) and Kuwait University. With a new UCC committee organizing the tournament, it is hoped that next year's UCC will involve more private universities than ever before. The American University of the Middle East / American College of the Middle East, as well as Boxhill College, are being considered as possible participants. It is even hoped that AOU will rejoin, once their temporary hold has been resolved.
UCC 2011 involved five intercollegiate sports: soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis, and table tennis. Sport venues were provided by the participating universities, allowing the UCC to take place on various campuses. This year AUK hosted table tennis, ACK hosted soccer and tennis, and GUST hosted basketball and volleyball. Next year's UCC may involve a couple of new sports. Swimming and squash are being seriously considered. The UCC begins with seasonal play for each sport. Universities play each other a number of times and are then ranked on their win/loss record in each sport. Once seasonal play is finished, playoff brackets are then created based on rank. During the playoffs, universities' performance is recognized on a point basis. 1st Place = 5 points; 2nd Place = 3 points; 3rd Place = 2 points. At the conclusion of the playoffs, the points are then tallied up for every sport and the university with the most total points is awarded the UCC trophy.
The UCC committee is already planning UCC 2011-2012. In addition to having more universities and more sports, they intend to expand the UCC from a two month tournament to a year-long athletic competition. This would allow the UCC to be broken up into seasons, allowing each sport to shine in its own respect and giving student-athletes the opportunity to be involved in multiple sports. It would also create longer seasonal play, which means more games for each team to compete in. Hopefully next year's UCC will be even better than this year's.
A special thanks to all the students, faculty, and staff that came out to support the AUK teams in this year's UCC. Your cheering and motivation created an exciting atmosphere that pushed our student-athletes to perform at the next level. Thank you for showing your Wolf Pack spirit!
Released by the PR & Marketing Department on the 1st June 2011
The fair included an exhibition featuring computer antiques as well as student modern software innovations. In addition, the fair hosted a contest for AUK CS and IS graduating students, who showcased their senior capstone projects and competed for the best three winning ideas. The event concluded at an exciting atmosphere as the winners were announced by the judges panel. The best 3 ideas received awards.
AUK President Dr. Winfred Thompson gave the opening remarks of the event. He stressed that AUK encourages research efforts and innovative thinking. He added that he is proud to attend such events to observe the achievements of CS and IS AUK students.
The eight competing teams included four male and four female teams, who presented their projects to the audience and a panel of judges. The first winning project was "RRS" by SWAP team: Ali Taqi, Bader Al-Mohamed Ali and Eissa Al-Qadeeri. SWAP team decided to solve one of the most critical world problems through their 'Revolutionary Reporting System'. Their design is based on a simple image reporting software that uses the geographic location tagging on images. The project aims at reducing the mortality rates resulting from delayed emergency management. In second place was "The Enlight Project" by Team Dream: Wael Al-Ahmady, Mejren Al-Hammadi, Faisal Al-Ajmi, and Salem Al-Hammadi. The Enlight Project: had two parts, the first part allows you to turn any surface whatsoever into an internet-connected touch screen, while the second part revolutionizes user interfaces by allowing you to control computers using body-motion-sensing without any keyboard/mouse. In third place came the "The World Application" project presented by Khaled Al-Jassar, Abduallah AlShaya and Mohammed Al-Shatti. The project is a system designed to provide real time translators for many languages.
The event was organized by the members of ACM Club at AUK with the sponsorship and support of the Office of Student Life at AUK; and under supervision of Dr. Amir Zeid, Program Lead for Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS). The ACM Club is a chapter of the international Association for Computing Machinery, an international scientific and educational organization based in New York and with offices and chapters in many parts of the world.
The ACM chapter at AUK was established in 2008 by Professor Amir Zeid, who also serves as the Advisor of the ACM-AUK Chapter. The idea behind it was to support the CSIS program and provide educational activities that embrace CISS as a truly exciting field.
The "Technology Fair", as seen by Dr. Zeid, is a chance to engage the students in software solutions that deal with real world problems. "Passing through the tough times of coming up with software ideas, testing them, and simplifying them in a form of a public presentation is not an easy job. These students have undergone significant development in their personalities and skills in a matter of months. Now, they have come out to the public confidently with ideas that stand out and make real a difference to the world. The SWAP team is getting ready to expose their idea to the whole world in the Imagine Cup finals in New York next July. I hope they set a good example to their peers and inspire them to expose their talents."
The ceremony also included awards and acknowledgements for excellence in CS and IS programs. Two students were acknowledged for presenting conference papers. Two other students were acknowledged for getting accepted to attend summer school of computer security at Dartmouth College. The three top teams from AUK who ranked among the top-10 teams in the regional Microsoft Imagine Cup were also acknowledged.
The AUK Women's Basketball Team defeated ACK last night 38-11 in the UCC Basketball Finals. AUK dominated the game from the very beginning, steadily increasing their lead every quarter. Bashaer Al-Salem was the leading scorer with 12 points; Ghaneema Al-Qudmani and Njoud Aweis contributing 8 points each to ensure a comprehensive victory for AUK. Way to go AUK Basketball!
Men's Basketball Team
Uros Lukic
Feras El-Husari
Abdulwahab Yousef
Mohammed Raid
Ahmed Darwish
Ahmed Butaiban
Mansour Abdullah
Hussein Saad
Fawaz Al-Dakheel
Women's Basketball Team
Bashaer Al-Salem
Ghaneema Al-Qudmani
Njoud Aweis
Reem Marafie
Sama Ahmed
The highlights of the evening were the Founders' Award, the President's Award and the Student Affair's Award. The Founder's Award recognizes a graduating senior for exceptional achievement both in and outside the classroom over the course of his/her entire time at the University. The President's Award is the University's most prestigious student award, recognizing a student who has exhibited academic excellence and who embodies the ideals of a liberal arts education. The Student Affairs Award goes to the student who has demonstrated commitment to promoting a positive image of the University, embodied in the goals and mission of AUK and has contributed positively to life on campus. The recipients of these awards are students who have shown exceptional academic achievement and involvement in activities outside of the classroom among other criteria.
Founders' Award: Rana Abdelhamid
President's Award: Rania H. Shaker
Student Affairs Award: Amal Behbehani
Categories and Recipients:
Student Employee Awards
Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences: Katy Hauranieh, Walaa Shaheen
Division of Sciences & Engineering: Kholod Al-Shamry, Talal Abduljader
Division of Social Sciences: Ali Atesh
Division of Humanities and Arts: Eman J. El-Taki
Division of Business and Economics: Ahmed Abdullatif
Writing Center: Sahar Tanweer, Fatima Ibraheem
Gulf Studies Center: Mennatallah Abdul-Hamid
Information Technology: Ahmad Awada
PR & Marketing: Sarah S. Khalaf
Intensive English Program: Mariam El-Temtamy, Halimah El-Husari, Rand Dannan Nour Jaber, Samantha Combs
Arabian Heritage Project: Awab Al-Hossary
Library: Hamad Al-Abdullah, Hassan Najaa
Office of the Vice President of Administrative and Student Affairs: Fakheema Badri
Admissions: Khaled Sawan, Kholoud Al-Roumi
Registrar: Ahmed Mohamed
Student Success Center: Mahmoud Mohamed, Shahad Bin-Salamah, Amineh Eida, Ali Taqi, Hiba Bazzi, Rasha Abdelhadi, Syed Abrar Husain, Rana Abdelhamid
Student Life: Ghaneema Al-Qudmani, Moneba Iqbal, Dana Jaber
Outstanding Athletes:
Female: Njoud Aweis
Male: Uros Lukic
IEP Academic Achievement Award
Level 1: Jaber Al-Shamry
Level 2: Ahmed Mandy
Level 3 (Fall 2010): Noora Al-Sebaie
Level 3 (Spring 2011): Haneen Al-Ashqar
University Service Award
AbdorRahman Chowdhury
Abdulrahman Al-Bastaki
Abdulsamad Marafie
Ahmed Abdullatif
Ahmed Butaiban
Ahmed Mandy
Bashar Essa
Fatima Ibraheem
Fatma M Ebrahimi
Frohan Foroutan
Ghaneema M Al-Qudmani
Hala Ahmed
Kevork Awakimian
Khadija Al-Qassar
Mohammad Al-tanani
Nada Ibrahim
Nigel D'Souza
Rasha Abdelhadi
Sarah S. Khalaf
Yousef Nayef
Zainab Al-Sammak
SGA Student Body Awards
Innovative Lecturer Award: Dr. Charles Mitchell
Most Supportive Faculty Award: Dr. James McDougal
Most Supportive Staff Award: Shaimaa Mohamed
Faculty Mentorship Award: Dr. Mary Queen, Dr. Kathryn Kleypas
Staff Mentorship Award: Hanouf Al-Juhail
Most Humorous Faculty Award: Dr. Ayman Haddad
Most Humorous Staff Award: Abdulwahab Al-Khaldi
Student Life Awards
Advisor of the Year: Ayman Shouman
Rising Star of the Year: Sarah Raji
Exceptional Organization Member of the Year: Ghaneema Al-Qudmani
Student Leader of the Year: Fatima Thunayan, Mohammad Abu Mazen
Most Improved Organization: Entrepreneurship & Business Club
Program of the Year: Inspirational Flair (E&B Club)
Organization of the Year: Finance Club
"There are few anthropologists whose scholarly productivity is so closely tied to institution-building," the Committee observed. "Many of his edited volumes are the results of conferences he has organized or co-organized, always including broad international participation." Eickelman writes on the impact of new media technology in the Middle East and elsewhere. He initiated a partnership between Dartmouth and Kuwait's first private, liberal arts university, the American University of Kuwait, and consults broadly with universities in the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Eickelman has written or co-edited ten books, including The Middle East: An Anthropological Approach, Knowledge and Power in Morocco, Muslim Politics (co-authored with James Piscatori), and New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere (co-edited with Jon Anderson). Currently a Carnegie Foundation Fellow, Eickelman also Chairs the Dartmouth Department of Anthropology .
- by Laurel Stavis
Story and photograph Courtesy of Dartmouth College
