“Doctors told my mom I was going to die. They told her not to invest too much in me as I am dying anyway,” said Aya Abbas, the first and youngest paralympic swimmer in the Middle East and Africa to win world paraswimming championship medals as well as Egypt's Republican Medal for Athletes.

Abbas and her family never took no for an answer. With her family’s support, Abbas challenged herself to become the first and youngest Paralympic swimmer participating in the Rio 2016 Paralympics and is now preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, which have been postponed to August 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

“It’s all due to my mom’s support, who never left my side during trips and training. My family, friends and coaches have also supported me throughout the way. Without their continuous support, I wouldn’t have been who I am today. I owe them everything,” said the journalism and mass communication sophomore who is double minoring in business administration and theatre at AUC.

Abbas’s journey started in 2006 by joining El Shams Club’s special needs team when it was first established. At the age of 8, she started competing in national championships and won Egypt's best swimmer cup for five consecutive years. At the age of 14, she joined the Egyptian Paralympic national team and became the first Arab and Egyptian female swimmer to win two world championship medals.

When she first joined AUC as a holder of the Athletic Scholarship — provided to a select number of students who participate in University-sponsored sports — she was mesmerized with the facilities offered to people with disabilities, “I am impressed with all facilities offered at AUC to make our lives better especially the Center for Student Well-Being — my go-to place on campus — that always works to support people with disabilities in all aspects. I really appreciate the campus accessibility to wheelchair users, which makes my life much easier," said Abbas, who regularly participates in swimming events held by AUC.

Besides swimming, Abbas is passionate about arts. Her dream is to work in acting, production and filmmaking to support people with disabilities and make their lives easier.

“I want to become the first wheelchair professional actress in Egypt,” she said. “I wish I could get into filmmaking, especially acting, and help people with disabilities stand in front of the camera to prove how good they can be as public speakers or directors. We can do anything.”

Abbas immediately minored in theatre and signed up for AUC's Theatre & Film Club to develop her love for acting and filmmaking. “The extracurricular activities at AUC are everything to me; they help us find our passion in different fields,” she affirmed. “I love the AUC Theater & Film Club and have a thing for theaters at AUC; the Malak Gabr Arts Theater and Bassily Auditorium. I’ve only taken one theatre course and one film course so far, but I always feel something special when I go there.”

Abbas is so grateful for the University’s Athletic Scholarship that helped her study at AUC to find and support her passion for acting and major in marketing with the wide variety of activities offered on campus.

“My dream to study integrated marketing communication, theatre and business administration at AUC came true with the help of the Athletic Scholarship,” she said. “The scholarship gave me a chance to explore different activities on campus and discover my passion for acting by joining the AUC Theater & Film Club. ”

Abbas is now preparing for the Olympics. “I train almost twice every day; I have my swimming training everyday in the morning and at night, and I also have my fitness and yoga classes three times a week. Hopefully, when things get better after the pandemic, I’ll start traveling again to take part in international trials.”

AUC welcomes the Class of 2024 — with their aspirations and endeavors —while implementing a hybrid model of classes with an emphasis on maintaining a low-density campus, where 93% of classes will be held online and only 7% will meet face to face when required.

"I warmly welcome both new and returning AUCians to this bright new academic year, promising an unusual wealth of challenges and opportunities," said President Francis Ricciardone in his welcome message to the AUC community. "I am pleased to welcome an especially strong incoming freshman class."

Made up of approximately 1,200 undergraduates — 58% females and 42% males — and more than 340 admitted graduate students — 70% females and 30% males — the incoming class hails from 26 diverse countries, including the United States, Canada, Spain and Brazil, as well as different parts of Africa and the Middle East such as Nigeria, Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Palestine, Tunisia and, of course, Egypt. Egyptian students are joining AUC from 20 governorates across the country, including Ismailia, Alexandria, Dakahlia and The New Valley.

This year also marks the kickoff of the USAID Scholars program, which received more than 4,000 applications from all of Egypt's 27 governorates.

With a selectivity of 40%, representing a 7% improvement over last fall, and a yield — the percentage of students who enroll from those we accept — of about 77%, entry to AUC remains highly competitive. AUC continues to provide more than $22.3 million in scholarships and financial aid.

This year, more than 100 new international students are studying at AUC, and around 3.4% of undergraduate students are international.

Sara Toutain, an international student studying translation at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has been in Egypt for a week and a half. "It's been an incredible experience; people are super welcoming. They are helping us with our classes and courses, and they really want to learn Spanish from us, which is really fun — a super amazing experience," she said.

Alba Fernandez, who is also studying translation at UAB Barcelona, came to AUC to learn Arabic. "I am pleasantly surprised. I love the people here; I love the place. The University is amazing. I am very happy to be here," she said.

Rachel Campbell is joining AUC from Canada to pursue a master's in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). "My experience in Egypt has been great," she said. "I've lived here for a year already, but my experience at AUC has been fantastic. The organizing team has been great. They also bought me coffee twice. I love them. They are doing awesome."

Approximately 200 of the enrolled undergraduates have already declared majors in sciences and engineering, while other students will navigate courses before deciding on their majors.

For freshman Omar Mehanna, one of the main reasons he applied to AUC is its liberal arts education. "I expect to meet a huge number of people with diverse backgrounds and with different perspectives on life than I have. I also expect to take part in cocurricular activities to develop my skills professionally and personally," he said.

Likewise, Nour Khalifa is also looking forward to being part of AUC's diverse community and meeting new people, whether through sports teams, students organizations or classes. "I applied to AUC because I want to study psychology, and it's the only University that offers what I need," she said.

Sarah Koura, a freshman intending to major in either political science or business administration, decided to join AUC for the global experience, cocurricular activities and victorious sports teams. "AUC is unique," she said. "It's the only University in Egypt that gives you the 'abroad' experience in your homeland," she said.

For the first time, AUC’s First-Year Program (FYP) for incoming students will be blended this fall.

The integrated orientation will be mostly virtual with two days of face-to-face interaction on campus that includes the Engagement Fair as well as other on-ground activities, where students will be divided into small cohorts who come to campus on different days. New additions to FYP this year include sessions on IT solutions and services as well as combatting sexual harassment, YouVisit virtual tour, AUC-Connect hub and a pre-orientation guide for students to use throughout the year. 

“This makes FYP distinctive this time not only because it is mostly online due to the pandemic, but also because it is a hybrid orientation done for the first time in Egypt,” said Dina Wahdan, electronics and communications engineering student and FYP president. “This year, we are focusing on the transitioning of first-year students in all academic aspects as well as their personal development and engaging them with the AUC community.”

How It’s Done Virtually

For starters, the orientation consists of two online days and two days on campus. The online days will be mostly held on Zoom and will provide incoming students with all information they need, while still including online activities that will help them engage with their Peer Leaders and colleagues. The on-ground days will include some activities along with the Engagement Fair, in which students get the chance to sign up for their preferred clubs.

New additions this year include a session on IT solutions and services, since the semester will be hybrid, and a separate health insurance session for new international students. FYP also launched a pre-orientation guide this year that doesn’t only help incoming students during orientation, but is also available for them all year long. “The guide includes information about what makes AUC distinctive as a liberal arts University, policies, facilities and all what students need to know about AUC,” Wahdan added.

The guide was delivered asynchronously in advance of the dates of the virtual component with readings and assignments in a flipped-class mode. “This better ensures that FYP students are prepared and ready to engage with other students on day one of the virtual component,” said Ahmed Zain, student development manager at the Office of the Dean of Students.

The incoming students are divided into smaller batches this year, where all students will be required to use AUC Connect — a hub that connects sessions and participants to ensure effective, user-friendly and interactive learning, as it will include the orientation schedule, individual student sections and all Zoom links according to group numbers. Each virtual class section will include 16 new students rather than 25, while students will be divided in virtual breakout rooms to work independently and present their work to their peers.

“The Peer Leaders are currently trained to use Zoom and features such as breakout rooms, polls and chat to create lively, interactive sessions,” said Zain. “An important new feature of the orientation this year is the AUC-Connect app, which hosts [everything] in a friendly and interactive platform. This helps students navigate things and engage with their peers more easily.”

After the orientation ends, all incoming students will be required —for the first time — to take a quiz to test what they grasped during the orientation and point out areas that need further development. Students are also required to fill out a survey after completing the orientation, where they assess their overall experience and write their feedback on all aspects of the program, including content, activities and any technical issues they faced. “All of this … shows how we as a team go beyond [what’s required], even in these circumstances, and this is what makes us distinctive,” explained Wahdan.

Train the Trainers

Before starting the virtual orientation, the FYP team conducted focus groups, where 70 students from the incoming class volunteered to attend and test the system that will be used throughout the program, providing their feedback and thoughts on how to facilitate the process and enrich the experience for both students and the FYP team. “The thorough feedback we have requested from first-year students and Peer Leaders enabled us to enhance the experience on both ends,” said Wahdan.

The FYP student orientation team is made up of 140 Peer Leaders who volunteer their time to help set incoming students on the right path and familiarize them with the AUC experience. An important addition to FYP this year is training the Peer Leaders different to deliver the best quality of service, given the COVID-19 situation. AUC’s Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) trained Peer Leaders on how to provide interactive virtual sessions using new software programs, building on the experience of AUC faculty during the Spring 2020 semester. “The FYP team modified the orientation’s content to best align with the new blended learning format, including reconceiving the in-class games in a virtual format to provide the same high-quality experience that new students expect from AUC,” said Zain.

The FYP Core Leadership used CLT’s Training of Trainers model to train Peer Leaders on navigating different online learning tools such as Zoom, Blackboard and Moodle. One-to-one sessions were also provided for the Peer Leaders.

In addition, sessions on combating sexual harassment have been integrated into the integrated orientation this fall, familiarizing students with how to address the definition of sexual harassment, ways to report a perceived instance of sexual harassment and measures taken by AUC to protect those who report such incidents. Peer Leaders will also inform incoming students of different resources at AUC that could help victims of sexual harassment. Following the session, a quiz will be taken to measure gains in awareness among FYP students. There will also be a follow up with further awareness sessions for anyone performing poorly on the quiz.

It’s Still Fun

“Just because sessions are online doesn’t preclude being fun and exciting,” affirmed Zain. “Online training can be engaging if facilitators are trained to design student-centered activities in small group settings.”

Thus, the Office of Student Life has designed the Engagement Fair take place on the third day of the FYP orientation, split over two days in tandem with the FYP schedule, in three different locations, to decrease the number of students on campus at any point in time. More areas of the campus are being used so that students are spread out to the greatest extent, and all activities take place outdoors. FYP also designed additional on-campus engagement activities that will supplement and enhance the experience of students who are being introduced to the New Cairo campus for the first time.

Virtual Campus Tour

The YouVisit virtual tour is a new feature of the FYP experience this fall, where a Student Ambassador will join the tour virtually to narrate the full experience.

“As FYP president, I constantly make it a point to keep my team motivated and to not only remind them of our purpose as an entity, but also to make them aware that our attempt to make this orientation succeed makes us unique, given the current circumstances,” Wahdan said. “To me, FYP is the most important phase where incoming students truly attempt to engage with University life. Although this pandemic has caused the world to slow down, we have come to see that with dedication, passion and a collective effort, nothing is impossible and impact can be made even with the smallest gestures.”

With online classes starting Sunday, AUCTV interviewed Vice President for Digital Transformation Ayman Abdellatif on how his team has been working hard to make sure the process runs smoothly and how students and faculty members should utilize the IT Help Desk when running into challenges. Watch the full interview.

AUC's campus is sparkling with energy and hope as new and returning students kick off the Spring 2020 semester. More than 80 new undergraduates and 140 graduate students started their studies as the University approaches the final phase of its centennial celebration: Experience the Future. 

The new undergraduate class — 47.5% females and 52.5% males — is enriching campus diversity, with students coming from the United States, Syria and Yemen. 

Likewise, on the graduate level, the class  — 67% females and 33% males — comprises a diverse international body coming from the United States, Yemen, Sudan, Nigeria, Eritrea, Iraq, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.  

Students expressed their hopes and eagerness to learn more about Egyptian history and improve their Arabic Language skills. News@AUC caught up with some of them during orientation week and on the first day of classes to learn about why they decided to join AUC and what they look forward to this semester. Here's what they had to say: 

Kit Feeney

The American University of Paris

"I came to AUC for the many cool economics programs and to get better in Arabic. I am taking the Egyptian colloquial class to learn Arabic. It is a really beautiful campus; I love it, I really couldn't ask for anything more."

Mateusz Puczel

Warsaw School of Economics

"I chose to come to AUC because I love the Middle East, and AUC is one of the best universities in the Middle East."

Ryan Butler

The State University of New York at New Paltz

"I came to AUC because I have a love for history, and Egyptian history is my favorite, I am looking forward to learning a lot at AUC from history professors. I also love the weather; it's perfect weather given the season."

Van Ieray

University of New Mexico

"I came to AUC because I am interested in Arabic and Egyptian history."

A group of second-year MBA students from the Columbia Business School spent one week in Cairo as part of a global immersion class conducted in partnership with the AUC Venture Lab. Describing their visit in one word, the students called it “impressive.” 

CBS students were paired with a V-Lab startup and worked together throughout the fall semester to create business plans and practice consultation. To complete the class, the students came to Cairo in January to meet with Egyptian business leaders and prepare a final presentation of their work with their assigned startups. 

“We had one week to visit companies, government officials, startups, IPOs and banks,” said Marco Viola, adjunct professor at the CBS and teacher of this course. “AUC is the top University in Egypt, and Columbia is a top university in the US, so I think it’s a great partnership.” 

The students worked with six startups that had all recently graduated from V-Lab and are in their early stages of business development.  

“We are very excited about this partnership,” said Ayman Ismail, Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship, associate professor at AUC's School of Business and founding director of the V-Lab. “We’re trying to provide a platform of internationalization for our Egyptian startups. It’s great exposure to work with people in the Columbia Business School. Many of those people will end up in investment banks, venture capital funds or companies that can offer potential opportunities in the future.”  

Kyle Knopick, a CBS student, worked with the startup Amanleek, an insurance tech platform that aims to bring transparency and convenience to insurance purchase in Egypt. 

“I was really impressed with the acumen of the founders,” he said. “They were impressive even in pre-launch, pre-revenue, pre-testing and how much thought they had put into their business model. Working with them throughout the last few months has been a really fun, interesting and educative process.” 

“I’ve had a great experience at AUC,” said Karan Bains, another CBS student working with Amanleek. “AUC provides great infrastructure, a great platform [for startups] and great programming. I’ve really enjoyed my time here presenting all the work that we’ve done with these founders over the last few weeks.” 

And the appreciation for work ethic and expertise went both ways. Ihab Al-Soukary ‘13, co-founder at Amanleek, said that working with the CBS students not only exposed his team to different business practices, but will actually help shape the business in the future. 

“They were attentive and helpful,” he said. “We had so many calls over the past two months to come up with findings that we will definitely use and that will help us direct our startup in our early stages. We’re lucky to be part of this program and learn a lot along the way from different models that will help us decide where to go in the next few months.” 

Another V-Lab startup taking part in the program was EatHeal, a medically tailored nutrition and food-service provider that works with clients to create meal plans that are customized to meet their health needs. 

“I’ve been looking forward to learning from them about their marketing strategies and how they retain customers,” said Rehab Abdel Maguid, founder of EatHeal. “The team was really helpful in helping benchmark EatHeal with other delivery services in the United States.” 

Like her classmates working with Amanleek, Roshan Prakash says she was not only impressed with the progress of EatHeal, but with the energetic startup community in Cairo as well. 

“We always hear and learn about different issues in emerging markets, and while those issues are there, these businesses could exist in the United States,” she said. “I’m glad to see that the higher education system in Cairo supports innovation.” 

The conversations among the CBS visitors went beyond AUC and touched on the growing entrepreneurial culture in the country, noting the large number of startups they visited and seeing the efforts of incubators like V-Lab.

“The entrepreneurial ecosystem still needs to be developed, but you have a lot of educated people willing to take the risk, which is not easy to do,” Viola said. Speaking about the role of V-Lab in that ecosystem, Viola added that “the ability to combine practical experience with academic interest and all the knowledge and know-how that AUC has is amazing. It’s a great program and already has had a lot of impact not only with specific people, but in the economy in general.”

The co-founders of Amanleek mentioned that without V-Lab, their company wouldn’t have gotten the networking, exposure and media coverage that were helpful in kickstarting their business. 

“Our experience with the V-Lab was exactly what we needed,” said Mohammed Mansour, co-founder and project manager at Amanleek. “We needed someone to give us a kickstart in terms of finalizing our business model, our revenue streams and our customer segments. We were lucky to have the license very soon. I’m really happy we chose the V-Lab and didn’t choose another incubator.” 

The V-Lab was founded eight years ago and has since graduated over 170 startups, which have raised more than EGP 1.5 billion in investments collectively and created over 8,000 jobs, according to Ismail. 

“All of the startups in this program are V-lab alumni, and it’s great to see their progress a year after graduation,” he said. “Most of them have launched a product and are now raising investments and even growing their businesses beyond Egypt. Within the next couple of years, we’ll see those companies going up the curve and creating some really interesting stories.”

For the first time, AUC will be the main partner and host of RiseUp Summit, the one-stop-shop event connecting startups in the Middle East and Africa.

In its seventh edition, RiseUp will host the region's top entrepreneurs, startups, investors, creative masterminds and Fortune 500 companies in a three-day entrepreneurial marathon. For the first time, RiseUp summit will also feature Arabic content, where various speakers from the region will present their own journey of growth on stage in Arabic.

This year’s theme is designed to build on past years’ summit content, focusing on the journey of growth as well as drawing the line between the past, present and future. The three-day summit will include talks, panels and chats; in-depth workshops and bootcamps; networking sessions with hundreds of investors; talent matchmaking events; and exclusive satellite events.

“We see value in accommodating such a major event like RiseUp Summit in our centennial year, in which we are expecting more than 8,000 participants coming from 50 to 60 different countries as well as many prominent speakers,” said Alaa Adris, associate provost for research, innovation and creativity at AUC. “We see our collaboration with RiseUp more of a sustainable relationship because we can see them as part of our innovation hub, our commercialization of technology efforts, and many other areas of interest and future plans.”

Through the summit, startups will have the opportunity to assess their current situation, and determine how they can progress steadily but confidently from their core to their vision, through strategy, execution, tips, and tricks.

“Having organized the summit for the past seven years, we were able to identify the challenges faced by startups in the region, which allowed us to develop a complete model that they can follow when venturing through the entrepreneurship ecosystem,” explained AbdelHameed Sharara, chief executive officer and co-founder of RiseUp. “After dissecting growth, we found that there is no fixed manual on how to grow; it is a personal and unique journey for each entrepreneur. So what we can offer to people is diverse [with] unlimited resources and opportunities, along with a roadmap that guides them through this journey. Being committed to our own growth strategy, we decided to move to AUC's New Cairo campus, allowing us to grow further in all aspects.”

The speaker line-up will feature many international figures in various fields, including Brian Collins, chief creative officer at COLLINS; Gerardo Mazzeo, global innovation director at Nestlé; Karen Cheng, head of social at 9GAG; Marcel Muenster, founder, and director of the Gritti Fund and Raya Abirached, TV presenter.

"AUC Venture Lab has always been an early believer in RiseUp Summit. This year, we are excited to have RiseUp at AUC New Cairo campus for the first time, bringing thousands of entrepreneurs, investors and ecosystem players from Egypt, MENA and beyond. We're pleased to have a strong presence through our startups and to contribute to the Summit's program," said Ayman Ismail '95, '97,  Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship; associate professor at School of Business and the founding director of the AUC Venture Lab. 

“We are exploring with RiseUp other collaboration opportunities like founding an academy for entrepreneurship, for instance, where students can come to learn and acquire basic skills for entrepreneurship. This is just the beginning,” affirmed Adris.

Click here to know how to get your tickets.

#AUCFutureMakers

The awards come in the form of recognition, in addition to, faculty support in all education-related purposes including enhancing the teaching experience, advancing research efforts, and encouraging professional development.

The  Stellar Teaching and Activities Recognition (STAR) awards were initiated with the purpose of ensuring faculty activities are aligned with the School strategy, vision, mission, and themes. It also aimed at advancing and promoting faculty activities which reflect accreditation standards and guidelines and providing an optimum learning experience for students.

“The annual awards, are intended to recognize and showcase faculty who adequately demonstrate the degree and nature of alignment between their teaching and activities with the School’s themes while reflecting innovation, engagement, and impact. The more versatile the faculty members are as far as their activities, research, teaching, and service, the better chance they have at receiving the award.” clarifies Ahmed Abdel-Meguid, associate dean for undergraduate studies and administration, he continues that “elements to be assessed include teaching, research, service to the School, attending events, consultancy projects, external relations, and any other related activities.”

This year, three faculty members were awarded for their activities; professors Nermeen Shehata, Ashraf Sheta and Jamal Haidar. Shehata, associate professor of accounting and the director of El-Khazindar Business Research and Case Center, comments: “I’m delighted to receive the Inaugural School of Business Golden STAR Award. I focus on the responsible business theme when it comes to research and service activities while having them aligned with internationalization and Arab relevance, being among the School’s focus areas. I’m also keen on using innovative teaching techniques in class that engages students."

Professor Sheta, visiting assistant professor of entrepreneurship, strategic management and innovation, likewise expresses: "Receiving a silver trophy STAR award was a culmination of all the efforts exerted in one year. It’s a glorious moment in my career. I want to thank my students for giving me honest feedback, my colleagues for being the best benchmark of excellence, and my family for their unconditional support”

The impact of this award will be on the student experience within the classroom, as in-class activities with experiential nature are a basis whereupon faculty are evaluated; including company visits, field trips, guest lectures, simulations, case studies usage, workshops, and other activities. Accordingly, faculty will strive to adopt various experiential learning techniques in the classroom and along with these efforts, classes of all categories will be streamlined, and in this manner, an overall enhanced learning experience will stem.

Abdel-Meguid emphasizes: “The STAR awards promote elements of experiential learning, engagement, innovation, and impact which have become the standard traits of today’s globally recognized B-Schools. Furthermore, I am personally a very strong proponent of faculty recognition and development. The STAR awards are also developmental in terms of providing a platform for showcasing faculty’s diverse academic activities, acknowledging their exemplary sense of initiative, and supporting their professional development”.

For Ahmed Sharafeldin, a graduating senior and recipient of the May ‘87 and Ahmed Heikal Endowed Public School Scholarship, AUC's liberal arts education has allowed him to discover his greatest passion: economics. Although Sharafeldin now has plans to work in consulting, finance and, eventually, politics after graduation, he did not always have such a clearly defined path.

“My family wanted me to become an engineer, but I always knew that I didn’t want to do that,” said Sharafeldin. “However, I was not so sure what I wanted to study. I’ve long had an interest in public affairs since 2011 when, as I was simultaneously going from being a teenager to an adult, I started to take much more interest in what was happening in Egypt and the world around me.”

Despite these inclinations, Sharafeldin did not immediately find his passion upon entering AUC, yet the opportunity for academic and intellectual exploration quickly allowed him to do so.  “During my first semester, I studied engineering," he recalled. "I did well, but I didn’t love it. Then, during my second semester, I decided to change majors. The Core Curriculum and liberal arts education allowed me to take two political science classes and two economics classes, and I decided immediately that economics was definitely the thing for me.”

As Sharafeldin noted, the liberty and encouragement he received in developing his academic interests “wouldn't have been possible at any other university in the country except AUC. The liberal arts education helped me know what I am really passionate about,” he affirmed.

An intellectually curious student, Sharafeldin has a love for philosophy, reading and, thanks to the opportunities he was afforded at AUC, classical music. He has taken a variety of classes outside of his major, citing History of Western Music as one of his favorites. He also had the opportunity to participate in –– and lead –– numerous student organizations. “I joined the Arabic section of AUC Times magazine, and it was really an instantly perfect fit," he said. "I really liked the culture and [being with] other students, who have very similar interests. I eventually became the managing editor of the section. However, by my junior year, I realized that I also want to do something related to my major."

Sharafeldin then joined the Finance and Economics Club, which he now heads. "It’s an academic club, so we have a range of activities, from networking sessions with job professionals in the field to national research competitions to different finance games. We’ve also recently been working on a publication,” said Sharafeldin, who also helped organize the first Annual Conference of Egyptian Economics Students [ACEES], which aims at fostering undergraduate economic research.  

Building on a passion for economics that he first developed at AUC, Sharafeldin also studied abroad at the University of Chicago for a year through the Sawiris Scholars Exchange Program, an experience that allowed him to take classes with and learn directly from some of the world’s leading economists.

Moving forward, Sharafeldin hopes to work at a consulting firm and then obtain his Master of Business Administration, eventually focusing his professional career on finance or investing. He is particular interested in private equity, a field in which his scholarship donor, Citadel Capital Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal, is coincidentally a regional leader. “It’s a sign!” said Sharafeldin, as an optimistic smile emerged on his face.

Despite this particular focus, however, Sharafeldin emphasized that “as I graduate this fall with a degree in economics, I'm not just going into the world as this young man in a suit with knowledge of supply, demand and financial investments. I'm also an aspiring fiction writer. I'm also a classical music connoisseur, who makes sure he attends the Cairo Orchestra concerts every Saturday night, ever since being inspired by a wonderful professor and playing for AUC's classical guitar ensemble. I'm also a keen film follower, who became a novice critic of modern cinema after he took an introduction to film class as part of his Core Curriculum requirements."

As Sharafeldin reiterated time and time again, none of these important self-discoveries would have been possible without the liberal arts education he received at AUC.

For incoming undergraduates who are struggling to decide their major, Sharafeldin advises, “Use your freshman year to take advantage of the Core Curriculum, investigate your options, get in touch with seniors for advice and talk to the Career Center about the job prospects of what you’re interested in. Make the freshman year one of exploration; don’t just dive into one thing immediately.”

Even to say that Ahmed Sharafeldin has taken full advantage of his time at AUC is an understatement. From economics to fiction writing and Arabic literature to classical music, he has cultivated a plethora of interests that will, without a doubt, ensure his future success. “I feel so lucky,” he said. “I feel like I’ve done everything I could possibly do as an undergraduate student, and now I’m just looking forward to what’s next.”