AUC Caravan

By Ragia Mostafa

Additional reporting by Nourhan El Sebahy

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan urged AUC students to transform the future of the Middle East by engaging in community work.

“Whatever it is, you can be the spark, the one who sets the change in motion…together you can be the generation who looks up, reaches out and lifts our region. Let this be your AUC legacy,” Queen Rania said.

The AUC alumna reminisced about how the university has not left her since her days as an undergraduate student. 

 “If there is one thing I learned…it was that social engagement doesn’t come from the government. It comes from the people. It takes a whole nation to lift a nation,” said the queen who gave a 20-minute speech, Feb. 28 at Bassily Hall at AUC.

She fostered the notions of ‘social engagement,’ for the betterment of Arab communities.

She told students to get out of their comfort zones and take part in the lives of different people. She gave examples of two people whose stories of civic involvement had changed lives.

After she saw the roofless home of a family in Upper Egypt, Raghda was inspired to start the community service club, Alashenak Ya Baladi (YBL).

She added that Raghda’s experience is symbolic of the need to ignite civic engagement among Arab youth.

“Civic engagement is about looking outside the core cause of your life,” said Queen Rania. “When Raghda looked up, she saw the sky, the house had no ceiling.”

To further her point, the Queen told a story of a young boy who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 15. After he was cured, he began volunteering at the Jordanian Cancer hospital in order to give emotional support to young children with cancer.

The John D. Gerhart Center for philanthropy and civic engagement at AUC, organizes programs and partnerships in order to promote civic engagement, and “a heightened sense of citizenship and social responsibility,” as their entry reads on the university website.

The role of education in this regard, said Queen Rania, is extremely important. 

“We need more schools to give credit for community service the same as coursework so the value of volunteering reaches all students,” she said.

“There is more to life than just possessions.”

She added that more needs to be done, as notions of civic engagement should not only be promoted in schools and universities, but all around, for the sake of the region’s common future, as young people have the potential to drive social change. 

Queen Rania said each member of the different sectors of the community has a role to play in the civic engagement process for the good of the society. That includes companies, governments, employers, schools, universities, and individuals.

AUC President, David Arnold, welcomed the “YouTube Queen,” praising her use of new technological advancements such as Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking venues, to advocate important causes to the larger community. 

“[Queen Rania is an] AUC alumna driven by four forces in her life—career, activism, faith, and family,” Arnold said. “She has achieved great complaints from students.

“The speech itself seemed short; I think people expected more than that. The content of the speech however was very inspiring,” sophomore Salma El Sebaey said.

Other students had different opinions regarding the organization of the event.

The Gerhart Center, was mainly responsible for planning and organizing the lecture, ‘Civic Engagement in the Arab World.’

“Everything went smoothly with the cooperation, contribution and team work of the communications and marketing office, the center itself, and of course, the president’s office,” said Safa Beitawi, admin and finance coordinator at the center.

However, broadcast journalism senior, Omneya Moussa, said she went in using just her AUC identity card, although the lecture required personally addressed invitations.

While, computer science sophomore, Alia Morsi, said she left before the lecture had even begun.

“We were so far up, we could barely see anything,” Morsi said.

Others, who sat on the lower level, had more to complain about.

Rania El Embaby, a political science junior, said the ushers, who were a mixture of students and staff, would not let her sit next to her friends, even sending her to the front when she was not making any noise.

Some graduate students were displeased with the timing of the lecture, which started at noon. Doors were closed 30 minutes before the lecture started.

“I couldn’t help not attending the lecture, I got an excuse from work just to listen her speech,” said Ahmed Mohamed, a graduate student.

Queen Rania’s lecture was followed by a brief question and answer session led by SU President Omar Kandil.

“She is very inspiring and she is always helping people out,” said Nada Ali, journalism and mass communication student.