Summer@AUC Launching Summer 2019

With the majority of students heading home at the end of the spring semester, college campuses tend to quiet down in the summer. This summer, however, AUC’s campus will be bustling with a community of learners for the new Summer@AUC program.

Launching for the first time this summer, Summer@AUC is the brainchild of AUC Provost Ehab Abdel-Rahman, who created this initiative as a means to reach out beyond the immediate AUC community. The program aims to revitalize AUC as an educational and cultural hub for the public and become Egypt’s leading summer destination for people looking to gain personal and professional advancement through a variety of learning programs.

Summer@AUC consists of two programs: College Bound: AUC — a pre-college program for high school students, and Summer@AUC Bootcamps — intensive, short-term programs for a range of learners.

Ghada Elshimi, dean of Undergraduate Studies and the Academy of Liberal Arts, has been preparing for the launch of these programs in Summer 2019. “Summer@AUC invites diverse audiences from Egypt and the world to experience AUC's high-impact teaching, interact with our faculty and become part of our community,” said Elshimi. "It's the first program of its kind in Egypt, and we hope that, through engaging with our wider community, we communicate our values of quality of education and student engagement, and allow learners beyond our degree-seeking students to get a glimpse of what a liberal arts education can offer.

College Bound gives entering 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade high school students a chance to experience a college learning environment and to prepare for the transition between high school and college. They will have the opportunity to select from a variety of AUC’s freshman courses taught by AUC faculty with the same course load and expectations AUC freshman classes have. If they graduate from high school and are accepted into AUC, they will have the opportunity to transfer credits from the courses to their AUC transcript.

College Bound will run from July 7 to 28, except for English for the Liberal Arts, which will run from June 9 to July 18. Summer 2019 courses include courses from The Academy of Liberal Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Sciences and Engineering. For the full course list, eligibility criteria and program details, check out the website.

"We’re really excited about it because this is new ground for AUC,” said Elshimi. “With similar programs in universities in the U.S. and Europe, we think our campus will be added to the region’s summer scene, and offer a quality alternative to traveling to these destinations.”

Summer@AUC Bootcamps cater to a broader audience, with courses for children, high school students, and adults. Unlike College Bound: AUC, these courses are independent of AUC’s regular curriculum and will be taught by both AUC faculty and industry experts. Boot camps offer intensive skills courses, and hands-on, practical learning activities, targeting specific career or academic goals.

Bootcamps offered this summer include two courses under the Summer Institute for Islamic Studies, Arabic Calligraphy, Digital Photography, Career Exploration and Design Thinking and a variety of other exciting offerings. For a full list of courses and application details, keep checking the website as it’s final stages are being updated.

"Summer@AUC brings a great deal of life to our campus over the summer months and allows us to share our knowledge, innovation, and creativity, along with our beautiful campus, with people of all ages," said Provost Abdel-Rahman. "I encourage everyone to indulge their passion and come take a good look at what AUC can offer to its community."