Students represent Dubai at a conference on urban planning and sustainable development.
Ten students from the American University in Dubai (AUD) attended a conference titled "Building the Future: Urban Planning and Sustainable Development" at Harvard University, Cambridge in February. The conference, which lasted for two weeks, was organised by AUD and the Harvard College in Asia Programme (HACP). For their part, students from Harvard will visit AUD this month for another conference on communications in the Middle East.
AUD and HCAP join hands
This is the first such partnership that AUD has established with Harvard University, although there have been collaborations between faculty in Harvard and AUD.
Peggy Awad, Career Services assistant manager, said that the current partnership with the HCAP for 2007-2008 will be renewed on a yearly basis. "This is the start of a long term mutually beneficial relationship whereby both institutions share similar goals in bridging the gap between the East and the West," she said. "The administrations set up the broad framework (objectives and guidelines), and the students attend to the specifics, keeping the goals in mind."
Living the Cambridge experience
Students were housed at the university dorms and they attended several cultural and social events. The events included discussions with Harvard professors, excursions to sustainable development projects in the Boston area and student panel representations. Students visited art museums, the Quincy Market, the Prudential Tower, New York City and many other locations.
Abhilash Raj, a senior student studying finance and economics in AUD, said, "One of my nicest memories is visiting the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was very diverse and had a collection of pottery from ancient Egyptian and Greek times, paintings of Impressionist Art and statues of Hindu deities. I'm currently studying art in one of my classes at AUD; seeing some of the works mentioned in class before my very eyes is a breath-taking experience."
Raj was not able to hide his excitement before flying off to Cambridge. "Most of us have only heard about Harvard, and how great an institution it is. But being given a chance to actually represent my college at an event held at Harvard is perhaps the most significant reason why I chose to attend the programme."
Upon returning, Raj said that his experience was a unique experience in which he saw the country whose education system he follows and made friendships from many countries.
Nancy Fahim, a senior student majoring in Business Administration, Finance said this experience benefit her on an academic, intellectual and personal level. "Visiting Ground Zero in New York City was definitely one of the best memories I have from the trip," Fahim said. "The visit brought back images of the massive twin towers that once stood at the site, but more impressive were the city's plans of reconstruction in the area and how the element of sustainability had been built into these plans."
Presenting Dubai to the US
The students prepared, prior to their travelling, a presentation about Dubai and the UAE. The focus was urban development, while the subject of the role of women in different cultures was discussed at the debates. "We spoke at length about how Dubai is being built at an astonishingly rapid rate. We also talked about the massive real estate projects under development," Fahim said.
Her colleague Raj took another angle when tackling this broad topic. "I spoke about the environment and mentioned issues like the marine life in Ras Al Khor, the Dubai Metro and the hybrid taxis that may one day be introduced in Dubai," he said.
AUD takes pride in student participation
According to Awad, AUD hopes to foster intercultural understanding by encouraging exchange programmes and inviting students from abroad. Around 100 American students are currently present on the university campus, Awad said.
The university is particularly excited about this event. "We are very excited to reach out to conference on the other side of the globe and get our students to be part of an event of this calibre at a world-class university such as Harvard," she said. "AUB students benefit from unprecedented exposure, intellectually and socially, to the world outside the Middle East. This will contribute greatly to the accomplishment of AUD's agenda for promoting diversity, experience and intercultural understanding."
Selection of AUD participants
The ten students that were selected qualify due to certain criteria. "The ten candidates hold exceptional academic records and they represent their colleagues from different academic fields and ethnicities. In addition, they were selected based on their diverse extracurricular activities," Awad said.
Follow-up conference in Dubai
AUD will hold the HCAP-AUD conference titled "Marketing Communications in the Middle East: Mirror for the Region — Window on the World" from March 22 to 30. The conference is organised by AUD's President Office with the support of the Business School and will feature academic lectures and social and cultural activities.
What is HCAP?
HCAP is a student-run organisation that was established in Harvard University in 2003. It allows students from Asian countries to interact with students from Harvard University through exchange programmes, conferences and other activities. The conferences that included Bangkok, Beijing, Cambridge, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Singapore, Taipei and Tokyo, have now expanded to the West and now include Dubai.
The attendees
Sixty delegates from six universities attended the Harvard conference. These universities included: The American University in Dubai, the University of Tokyo, National University of Singapore, Ewha Woman's University (Seoul), Hong Kong University and the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.
By Maysam Ali