A delegation from the Northwestern home campus visited Doha to explore Arabic culture, attend classes and learn more about student life at the Northwestern University in Qatar campus. Fifteen students and three faculty members from Evanston toured the small Middle Eastern emirate and attended a host of events to celebrate Wildcat Week at NU-Q.
“We have so much in common,” says Maryam Jeffries, NU-Q journalism freshman and one of the students who escorted the delegation around Qatar. Alli Divine, an Evanston liberal arts junior, agrees: “When I attend classes here, it feels like I am in Evanston: we blend right in, we speak about the same things.”
Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO of NU-Q, notes that, “the annual trip is an important touchstone in the academic year. The visit strengthens NU-Q’s ties to the Northwestern family, while offering Evanston students the opportunity to experience the unique culture and perspective of the campus in Qatar.”
The visit was an opportunity for Evanston students in journalism, communication and the liberal arts to experience Northwestern from a Middle East perspective. NU-Q journalism sophomore Aamer Hassan took some of the visiting students to his religious studies class. The professor gave the visitors the opportunity to ask questions about Islam, and the discussion lasted for the entire class.
Hassan commented, “It’s good to hear their points of view and through discussion, change their perspective on the Arab world.”
The week of March 22 was Wildcat Week at NU-Q, with a host of events to celebrate school spirit and show the Evanston visitors the school’s depth of creative work, research and scholarship. The capstone event was the NU-Q Media Awards Gala that celebrates exceptional student work in journalism, communication and liberal arts.
