My US Memoir-Life in Georgetown- Fifth Part

by Mahdi Mala Abdullah

MEPI Georgetowners gather together
for a group picture at the Georgetown
University

Sunday June 26, 2011, was the day that I had already assigned as one of the luckiest day in my life for it was the day when I walked into the Georgetown University, one of the most beautiful and prestigious learning institution ever. From the moment I was nominated for the MEPI and was assigned to be a MEPI Georgetwoner, I googled the Georgetwon campus uncountable times almost every day. I tasted my life as a college student within the Georgetown. The Georgetown University proved how nice being a college student was. I was convinced that I got enough about what leadership skills were and how one could apply them to his or her society. Then, I bit my fare well to the Georgetown University and my friends there. The Georgetown University taught me what role I should play to change my community for a better one. The various academic activities and lectures that I attended at the Georgetown University helped me to realize how valuable being a youth and a college student was.

It was about noon time when we had our first tour around the Georgetown Campus with our mentors. Virginia Vassar, who recently graduated from the Georgetown University, showed us almost every places of the campus. As soon as we went through the ‘Welcome to Georgetown University Orientation,’ I told myself that I would be in the unending learning process. I felt that we would be convinced to have a foolproof future by attending the various academic activities and lectures that were scheduled by the MEPI Program.  I also figured out that Georgetown would bring so much fruit to my life. Over all, I tasted life of being a college student after I attended several lectures and participated in several academic activities at Georgetown. Although it was hard to order the lectures and academic activities that were attended while we were in the Georgetown for almost all of them were great and had their own goals, both Leadership Retreat and Symposiums were the most prestigious activities we attended while we were in Georgetown.   

Each week as soon as I got the new schedule, the first thing I did was to closely look up the Weekly Calendar of Program Activities to find when and where both the Leadership Retreat and Symposiums would be. I learnt numerous skills about leadership by attending the Leadership Retreat class. A leadership retreat was a great collection of various academic lectures and activities that helped its participants to find who they were and what their futures should be look like. It was a class that we, participants, were convinced about several statements about our future. We were taught that, ‘Everyone can be a leader. Everyone has leadership skills that can easily be improved. Everyone has the ability to direct his or society toward a good future. Everyone has the ability to create abetter future for his or her community, and every one can have a powerful vision that can be used to create a great environment based on the goals and objectives of that vision.’ By attending the leadership retreat for once, one could easily be convinced that not only those who had desire to be leaders, but also those who never thought about being leaders could find their leadership skills and be future leaders.

After we, MEPI Georgtowners, had a chance to attend such a prestigious class like leadership retreat, each of us achieved the ability to create a compelling future for both ourselves and our communities.  The leadership retreat helped us to find multiple ways of being a leader. None of us ever walked out the class without learning and improving several leadership skills. The skills that we improved were crucial and were hard to improve without that class. We attended that class with a sense that we would all be able to make changes in our communities. Each of us told himself or herself that he or she would absolutely be a future leader. We were taught to list our visions, goals and objectives to lead any organizations that we would establish later on. At the end of the day, we all could answer the questions like, ‘What do we care about today and what do we want to create in the future?’

Each of us felt by far different from the first day when we attended the leadership retreat class and at the end of the day when we said goodbye to each other. I do remember when our lovely professor L. asked each of us a question that was, ‘What are those challenges that you think you’ll face as a leader?’ Almost all of us had the same answer. We answered that we were lack of leadership skills and didn’t have the ability to collaborate. I, personally, never thought about team building and collaborating with the others since I had no idea how great and crucial group-working was. It was not only me who had that idea. Almost all the members of the group had the same idea. One could easily notice that when our professor asked the same question on the end day of the class. Surprisingly, we all had the same answer, but it was exactly the opposite of what we had at first. When he asked us what did we learn and we loved about the class, we all said, ‘We learnt to collaborate and work us a team.’ We all said that we got enough skills to be the future leaders for our communities. We all got the steps that we should take to make any changes and establish any organizations later on. We all learnt how could we be the first followers and leaders of any societies regardless of what type of situation would be available their. We learnt how to choose our network to do any thing. We all got enough skills to choose who our stakeholders, partners, teams, connectors, mavens, and others who could easily help us turn our dreams into reality would be.  

July 15, 2011, was the day that we all proved that we had the ability to be leaders. We all proved our leadership skills. It was the day when every single member of the group presented his or her ‘Vision Statement Presentation’ that one could find a list of visions, goals, and objectives of a presenter to perform his or her future plan in his or her community. At the end of the day, we left the class with a spirit that we would be absolutely the future leaders of our communities. We would be able to be a leading change in our society. We were convinced that we could be leaders of creating a much better tomorrow for our communities and could be affective collaborators with the others, and could be honest leaders for our countries to put our countries into the ranks of the list of one of the best, most developed, and democratic countries in the world.

It is worth mentioning that we, MEPI Georgetowners, should be very grateful toward all the help that our lovely professor Knefelkamp, L. has provided us during the program. On behalf of the group, I would love to thank Prof. L. in deep of my heart for his great support and time he offered us. You taught us whatever we needed to make changes in our communities. We owe you a lot for the great academic and leadership skills you taught us. I will definitely remember your amazing ways that you recommended to make any changes in my community. Whatever I could do to change my community to better one would mainly be because of you. Many thanks again and again.

More to the point, it is also crucial to outline the great role that our lovely American classmates Morgan, Dan, and Joe played in leading the group toward all the academic and leadership activities that we did during the program. You guys make the program really interesting for us. You helped us stay energetic and never feel asleep. You were our amazing energizers. I still sing Bana! I hope you do remember Shorba, too. On behalf of the group, I would love to thank you all for the time you provided us. We all really inspired by your abilities of being leaders. You all affected us very deeply. Thank you again.  

Symposiums were other really interesting academic activities that we attended at the Georgetown University several times. As a very diverse group that was consisted of people around all the countries and provinces of the Middle East, North Africa, and the United States, we debated several crucial religious, political, and social topics. The symposiums were one of the most interesting parts of the program. The prepositions were deeply discussed by not only the Middle Eastern students, but also the American students. The American students really helped the debaters to be very enthusiastic about whatever they pointed about. Symposiums were great opportunities for both the Middle Eastern students and the American students to get together and discuss several prepositions face to face. It was really nice when both sides had the opportunity to understand the situations in both areas from the perspectives of each side. We, MEPIs, could see what America was in the eyes of its students. Similarly, our American friends could realize what Middle East was about and what its people’s perspectives about not only the United States, but also the Middle Eastern and North African countries were. For us, Middle Eastern and North African students, it was amazing to understand what the American student’s perspectives were toward our countries. We could notice those opinions in the eyes of the American students face to face not based on the so-called media and news. Both sides corrected several false ideas that were retrieved based on the media and news that were just not right. We proved that being a Muslim and Arab didn’t mean the so-called word terrorist. Similarly, our American friends proved that being an American didn’t mean being in a state of the American Pie and all the other movies like that.

It is also worth mentioning that Professor Eric Langenbacher was great in ruling the symposiums and helping the debaters stay enthusiastic during the discussions. Professor Eric did a great job in outlining the topics that were interesting to discuss. Moreover, he made the discussions really interesting by the questions he always raised to the participants. On behalf of the group, I would love to thank Prof. Eric for the time he dedicated to run the symposiums.

I would also like to have my special thank to Prof. Eric for teaching me how great it was for one to be patriotic. I still hear the so-called word Germany since, as a German, he repeated that word several times during any meetings that we had. I thank you so much about that, and I really admire the great love and feeling that you had about being patriotic. I will definitely follow your manner in that ground!

Last but not least, it was true that both the leadership retreat and symposiums were the most exciting part of the academic activities that I attended. However, I should never forget that we did several field trip and site visits that were just amazing and put a lot of sugar in my life. For example, it was just amazing when we visited Newseum and observed several great events that were happened in the history. It was a great experience for me to do several site visits and meet with several great people who established several humanitarian organizations that were just astonishing. I got a chance to visit several institutions that were established to make changes and create better environments for all people generally, especially minor groups and poor people. I was really influenced by those organizations.  They affected me very deeply and encouraged me to do the same for my community. For example, a Wider Circle was one of those organizations out of several of them that I visited and worked voluntarily for several hours. I just didn’t know how to describe how great that organization was when I saw several poor people who came in with sad faces and walked out with full bright faces when that organization offered them what they needed. I wish I could see and work in such an organization like a Wider Circleeverywhere in the world. The words,’ because each has the ability to end the poverty,’ that were written on the t-Shirt that I bought in a Wider Circle were my most beloved words. I still can hear them and wear that T-Shirt more than any other ones that I have. Finally, almost all the site visits we and field trips we did were great and taught us several skills and lessons to create a better tomorrow for our communities.