By Elizabeth Lepro

For a few months in 2018, I lived in an apartment in downtown Cairo near the French Institute, in a room I had chosen primarily because it featured two French doors that opened up to a balcony. From up there, I could watch Cairo go by. Young men balanced bread trays on their heads as they pedaled past on bikes, men stretched their legs as they smoked in foldout chairs, women walked arm in arm, and the pigeon keeper on an adjacent roof tended to his flock.

When I was home, the doors were open. That meant, even while lying in bed, I could also hear Cairo go by -- the scrap merchant repeating robabekya to market his wares; the muezzin's adhan, or call to prayer; the steady hum of chatter and laughter and the occasional hi-hat of an argument; the trills and coos of murmuring pigeons and the honking. Always the honking.

For many Cairenes, these noises are so commonplace as to be unnoticeable. But for those of us who have left the city or moved to its outskirts, hearing its soundscape can bring on a visceral wave of nostalgia. Which is to say: If you don't notice the sounds of the place you currently call home, you may come to appreciate them -- even miss them -- with some distance.

That recognition is what graphic design alum Nehal Ezz '21 and her best friend and project partner Youssef Sherif have delivered with Sounds of Cairo, a collection of the city's most recognizable sounds, which includes bites of all the aforementioned noises and more. The pair's goal is for the recordings to one day make up an online database of sounds, some of which may otherwise be lost to time and development.

"I realized, 'OK, what about the sounds in Cairo?' because they're sort of musical sometimes."

Ezz, who is originally from Cairo but now lives in Saudi Arabia with her family, got the idea for the project while making a video for a World Music class at AUC.

"I realized, 'OK, what about the sounds in Cairo?' because they're sort of musical sometimes," she said. For the project, Ezz recorded some audio herself, but when she went looking for cleaner, high-quality sound bites on the most popular online sound libraries, "I couldn't find anything for Egypt. Even on YouTube, I couldn't find sounds available for me to use. So with the guidance of my thesis adviser, [Associate Professor] Haytham Nawar, I decided to create a database where the sounds can be preserved and archived."

Right now, the project exists on a website, a YouTube channel and an Instagram account. A more formal, searchable archive is still in the works. To capture a representative sample of sounds, Ezz and Sherif broke the audio into categories: economic, social, religious, wildlife and transportation. Robabekya would fit into the economic category, while chatter and laughter would be slotted into social.

Ezz and Sherif distributed a survey to collect input on which sounds should be recorded, but Ezz also went looking for more particular audio to capture -- sounds she associated with the Cairo of her childhood, like the whistle of a cotton candy vendor, the milk seller banging on bottles and the sound of the makwagi, a person who irons clothes using their feet. These were more difficult to track down.

It doesn't mean those sounds no longer exist, but they may be more rare, especially for those who can afford to move out of more populated areas and into houses or apartments on the city's developing outskirts. A pre-coronavirus pandemic report showed that Egypt was the world's fastest-growing real estate market, thanks largely to a dramatic upsurge in housing development in Cairo's satellite cities.

"The newer places, they're very, very quiet -- the compounds and the closed areas," Ezz said. That was doubly true during Egypt's pandemic lockdown, when the recording process unveiled the stark difference between how neighborhoods beyond downtown Cairo were able to pull back from public life compared to places where commerce and culture happen in the streets.

"When I compared the sounds that I got before and those I got after, I felt like it only affected certain areas of Cairo," Ezz said. "Downtown people went on with their lives as soon as they could be outside again."

Sounds of Culture

Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer is credited with coining the word "soundscape" in the 1970s. The term "acoustic ecology" was born when Schafer, like Ezz, noticed that as society changed, so too did our acoustics.

"The sounds of the environment were changing rapidly, and it seemed that no one was documenting the changes," Schafer wrote in his memoir. Schafer would go on to create the World Soundscape Project -- an admirable initiative that, despite its encompassing name, was focused largely on Canada and Europe.

The concept caught on, and soundscape projects facilitated by more accessible technology have since blossomed worldwide. AUC faculty lecturer, guitarist and composer Pawel Kuzma, who was Ezz's professor for the World Music class that inspired her project, pointed out that soundscapes are popular among electronic music artists around the world.

"Soundscapes have various uses -- as textures in music genres like noise, avant-garde, ambient, really anything that includes recordings, but also music therapy, city planning, environmental studies, meditation and -- as with Nehal's project -- preserving cultural elements," Kuzma said.

Still, finding formalized soundscape projects like these is a bit more difficult in Egypt. That doesn't mean soundscape projects don't exist in Cairo, but like sounds from your childhood you want to preserve, you may have to go looking for them.

A City in Tune

When you begin researching soundscapes, you find that the city is an instrument. People handle it differently; they use it to make their own music and come to their own conclusions.

The act of recording forced Ezz to pay more attention to individual sounds within the cacophony as she was walking around downtown Cairo. Under the overwhelming noise of traffic, she heard the street vendors selling specific items. "I started appreciating the sound a little bit more, how it contributes to the whole soundscape," she said.

Sometimes Ezz recorded surreptitiously, while other times she explained the project to her subject. Outside of an academic setting, not everyone understood the mission. "They were like, 'It's just going to sound like Cairo,'" Ezz said. She explained that it's possible Cairo might not sound the same in the future. Some people understood. Others replied, "'No, it's always sounded like that; it's always going to sound like that.'"

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By Abigail Flynn

While planting trees at a public school in New Cairo last spring, mechanical engineering sophomore Hassan El Hassan met a seventh-grade girl from the school who blew his mind.

"She already knew coding languages that university sophomores and juniors haven't touched," he said. "My mindset about public school students immediately changed -- I was inspired to help them succeed."

El Hassan met this student and other "hidden gems," as he calls them, as part of a new, multidisciplinary outreach initiative from AUC's Middle East Institute for Higher Education (MEIHE) aimed at creating school-university partnerships that promote community engagement, empower public school students and foster sustainable development.

After intensive preparation which included workshops, meetings and coaching, AUC students began volunteering at the schools in a variety of ways, starting with eco-friendly projects like making crafts from recycled materials, conducting theater workshops under the theme "sustainability" and planting gardens.

"Instead of just explaining the importance of sustainability, we wanted to practice it in real time," said Malak Zaalouk '71, '76, professor of practice and MEIHE director. "Having the students plant fruit trees and vegetables on their school campuses gives them a sense of belonging and lasting impact on their community."

Filling the Gaps

Public schools in Egypt face a number of challenges, from overcrowding in classrooms to a lack of amenities and deficit of teachers. These partnerships seek to address these issues. By organizing school-based enrichment activities in subjects like digital literacy and English, for example, MEIHE supports informal, student-led learning activities -- freeing up valuable time for teachers to focus on lesson planning and delivery.

"We want to use our resources at AUC to empower these students, helping them see that they have a role to play in the success of their schools and communities," Zaalouk said. "This is how public schools become more effective."

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Despite issues with staffing and amenities, students at Egyptian schools continue to strive for excellence. Haggar El Khatib, a biology senior, recalled her experience volunteering. "Engaging with public school students has opened my eyes to the daily challenges they face," she said. "They have ideas and talent, but lack a proper channel for them. This program is that channel."

"Instead of just explaining the importance of sustainability, we wanted to practice it in real time."

El Khatib believes that as the initiative grows and strengthens, the students benefiting from it today will return to their schools as university students in the future to conduct similar activities -- creating a chain of giving.

Shifting Culture

While spring planting and summer workshops served as short and intermediary phases of the program, MEIHE also introduced formal fully fledged community-based learning courses this fall for AUC students as part of the school-university partnerships.

These courses cover citizenship education, sustainable development and digital literacy through neighborhood engagement programs. "By actively participating in their communities, AUC students develop a heightened sense of social responsibility and contribute to the betterment of education in Egypt as a whole," Zaalouk said.

In this, MEIHE hopes to establish a lasting and supportive relationship between AUC and the New Cairo Educational Directorate through a renewed agreement with the Ministry of Education. The practice of school-university partnerships was established through past agreements with the ministry, largely supporting teacher agency. This time around, the focus is on student agency.

As the initiative paves more avenues of support for students, teachers and education in Egypt, El Hassan is sure that the hidden gems at these schools will begin to shine as bright as the gifted young coder he met last spring. "The future of Egypt is in good hands -- if we support people like her," he said.

 

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"Many things combine to show that Midaq Alley is one of the gems of times gone by and that it once shone forth like a flashing star in the history of Cairo. Which Cairo do I mean?" writes Naguib Mahfouz in the opening lines of his 1947 novel named for its setting.

That question -- Which Cairo? -- may be the central consideration for students who take AUC's new class, The World of Mahfouz, a 300-level course offered in the spring and designed by Dina Heshmat, associate professor of Arabic literature in the Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations.

Throughout his life, Mahfouz penned 36 novels, 25 screenplays and 15 short story collections, along with several short fictions based on his dreams, according to AUC Press. The World of Mahfouz syllabus includes the novels Midaq Alley, Palace Walk and The Thief and the Dogs, but it likely won AUC's Core Curriculum Course Competition in Fall 2022 for its multidisciplinary approach.

In addition to reading source materials, students in the course also watch Hassan Al-Imam's film adaptation of Midaq Alley and the TV series Bayn al-Qasrayn as well as hear guest lectures from history and film studies scholars.

Dina Heshmat. Photo by Ahmad El-Nemr

"I have quite a long relationship with his literary universe," said Heshmat, who analyzed Midaq Alley for her PhD and has previously taught a freshman-level course on the author called Reading Mahfouz. "It was interesting to put together a course about him because he is so important in Egyptian and Arabic literature, and many of his works have been living on in Egyptian and Arabic culture through film."

Through various media, the course explores the author's vast array of work in terms of its influence on film, TV and literature, but also on Cairo itself -- the way that Mahfouz was able to depict the physical, social, political and economic dynamics of the city and its people. That opens up opportunities for AUC students to have wide-reaching discussions about society.

Weaving Past and Present

Though Midaq Alley revolves around the residents of a single street in Cairo in the 1940s, the students making their way through the novel's English translation by Humphrey Davies during the spring semester were keenly aware of its broader relevance.

"We were talking about the syntax and writing style of Mahfouz, how he created symbols for the characters and how these characters have an origin in our society," said economics sophomore Sohayla Eid. "Not society back then only -- you'll find these characters here in modern life."

To discuss "the world of Naguib Mahfouz" is to consider the interplay of multiple worlds: the old and new, rich and poor, East and West, religious and secular, cultural and institutional, home and alleyway, the city and the world.

Midaq Alley is full of characters who struggle with the friction between their personal desires and ambitions and the binds of societal norms. A well- respected dentist turns to thievery in order to provide his services at a low cost, a young woman who dreams of being rich and liberated becomes a prostitute, a young man who has no desire to leave the alley does so in order to impress the woman he loves.

Given the dichotomies Mahfouz's characters struggle with, it's easy to see why author Elif Shafak implied that Mahfouz himself was "a writer torn." Despite the black-and-white nature of moral codes, "Mahfouz's Cairo was a fluid world," wrote Shafak. Though the characters are symbolic, they aren't fixed.

In other words, as the students studying the novel noted, they're real.

"We were talking in class about how universal and realistic his characters were," said Miriam Elsebai, a political science sophomore. "They were neither super evil nor super good. There are always these contradictions that represent reality. It's a clear mirror reflection of society nowadays."

Midaq Alley, a book written more than 50 years ago, has prompted students to consider modern contradictions. If Mahfouz were alive today, the 20-year- old speculated that he might write about the duality presented by social media and its effects on young people.

"Midaq Alley is not depicting a society that ended; it's depicting an everlasting struggle," said Elsebai. "There's always conflict between people's moral goals and social laws. No matter how 'woke' we are or how much we evolve, one way or another, these struggles will be there."

The students also drew comparisons between the novel and their own experiences living in the midst of international warfare. Eid pointed out that one of the characters in the book, a businessman, makes money off of the conflict. "I was connecting it to what is happening now, like for example in Egypt, many challenges facing society are a direct result of the Russia-Ukraine war -- how the behavior of people is the same and how people are taking advantage of the war and political situation we're going through," she said. "So whenever I read Mahfouz, I definitely think of politics."

The Power of the Pen

Plenty of people think of politics when they think of Mahfouz.

His 1959 novel Children of Gebelawi, or Children of the Alley, which Mahfouz said was inspired by the 1952 Revolution, had to be published abroad because its content was deemed controversial. In 1994, the author was stabbed in the neck by someone believed to be angry about the book's depiction of Islam (though it's been reported that the assailant hadn't read the book).

Mahfouz described himself as becoming the victim of a clash not unlike one he might have written as allegory. "I simply got caught in the middle, in the battle between the system and the Islamists," he said -- another complex struggle with the author at its center.

"Students are often genuinely surprised by how daring he can be in his works, how relevant some of the works are to today's society."

 

As such, the World of Mahfouz course also touches on the author's life and political involvement. It would be impossible, if not irresponsible, not to.

"His well-known Children of the Alley is an opportunity to open discussions in class about censorship," Heshmat said. "Students are often genuinely surprised by how daring he can be in his works, how relevant some of the works are to today's society and how close they sometimes are -- obviously not systemically -- but how close the ideas, the emotions can be to a more contemporary context."

After watching a documentary about Mahfouz's life, the students in the course did note his ability to subtly weave his opinions about politics and society into texts. "He was so politically smart," said Elsebai, adding that while she doesn't expect everyone outside the classroom to be well-versed in Mahfouz, she does try to use what she's learned from him out in the real world.

"Talking about it in class won't be useful unless we actually use what we learn in our daily lives," she said. "It's like we're integrating these lessons within our social discourse, making conversations about them strong and powerful."

So Mahfouz's impact lives on. The Egyptian author's work becomes another tool in the student arsenal -- a way for them to better understand and engage with the complexity of the world around them -- as all good literature should.

"To those who disagree with my views," the author wrote in the dedication for Children of Gebelawi, "I dedicate lines I have written for a society that can only be made better through culture."

 

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By Kara Fitzgerald Elgarhy

Da7ee7 is by all accounts a success story. Amassing more than 1 billion views since its establishment in 2014, the online edutainment show hosted by Ahmed Elghandour '16 has captivated and enlightened viewers across Egypt, the Arab world and beyond with equally funny and smart takes on subjects from the science of migraines to the history of the Berlin Wall.

Taher El Moataz Bellah

However, Taher El Moataz Bellah '14, in writing his latest book, El Da7ee7: Behind the Scenes, did not set out to outline a success story. In fact, he didn't even originally plan to write a book about Da7ee7. El Moataz Bellah instead sought to write about a series of contemporary startups. When he first began writing in 2018, Da7ee7 was only one of the chapters, but in 2019, after five years of episodes and becoming a smash hit on YouTube all over the Arab world, he decided it deserved its own book.

Still, the idea was not to celebrate or memorialize. For El Moataz Bellah, the show was a case study. "You examine a case study not to idealize the protagonist but to take away learnings and build from it," he said.

El Moataz Bellah did not write El Da7ee7: Behind the Scenes like a typical case study. Rather, the book is written in the format of the show itself -- the same dialect, the same quippy and comedic style. "I wanted this book to target young audiences of the show who hadn't read books before; I was hoping this would be their first book," El Moataz Bellah explained. "So I zoomed in on this story about a familiar subject in a familiar language. I hoped that readers would hear Ahmed's voice narrating the story."

The book plays on the same synergies of education and entertainment as its subject matter -- the synergies that attracted El Moataz Bellah first as an avid fan of the show, then as a contributing writer and, most recently, as its storyteller.

Reading as a Gateway

In telling the story of Da7ee7, El Moataz Bellah looked through the lens of his own tenure with the show and the nature of the time it emerged. He also looked to the early formative experiences of Elghandour that made Da7ee7 possible.

For instance, El Moataz Bellah attributes Elghandour's status as an avid lifelong reader to simply having so much time and few options for entertainment during his childhood in Saudi Arabia. "He had nothing to do but go to the bookstore and sporting club once a week," he explained. "So at 10 years old, he read his first complete novel and got hooked. By middle school, he was reading about the 2008 financial crisis and World War II."

In fact, El Moataz Bellah describes reading as Elghandour's first and core superpower, responsible in large part for the others. On road trips with his family from Medina to Jeddah, Elghandour -- the eldest of five siblings -- would pass the hours telling stories from what he read. To El Moataz Bellah, "he was a storyteller long before he knew it." But he still had to practice. "In his initial videos, he was an average performer. But he was consistent. With discipline, he transformed. You can track it on YouTube. Video by video, he became more and more comfortable."

Finding the Formula

When Elghandour first started Da7ee7, El Moataz Bellah was one of the earliest admirers, hooked even before the viral 2016 episode inspired by the movie Interstellar. El Moataz Bellah would share every episode and exchange articles and commentary with fellow AUC alumnus Elghandour.

In 2018, around the same time that he received a scholarship for his master's study, Elghandour signed a deal with Post Office, a production startup that produced the pilot and coordinated an agreement to air Da7ee7 episodes on AJ+.

Somewhere in the midst of traveling back and forth between Hong Kong and Cairo, he realized he could no longer continue as the sole content creator and presenter. So Elghandour reached out to El Moataz Bellah to join a new team of writers. El Moataz Bellah describes this move -- giving up the one- man venture for a diversely interested and talented team -- as ultimately responsible for the longevity of the show and evidence of Elghandour's strength as a leader: "He had to be mature enough to be willing to delegate," El Moataz Bellah said.

The new team and new way of working inherently adjusted the show's formula, from sharing purely scientific findings and studies to addressing a wide range of fields. Viewership rose as a result. "One of the questions asked when looking at some big and bold topics was, 'Will the Arab audience care?' And it was clear that yes, they do," El Moataz Bellah recalled. "They don't just want local news and comedy. They want to know what is happening in the world and become global citizens. That is one of the reasons episodes like Brexit did really well."

The show's expansion in scope has meant a virtually bottomless source of content. This added to other proven elements of its appeal, like the timeliness of introducing an online show and a general departure from political satire.

The AUC Years

Elghandour's tenure at AUC also reflects this combination of circumstance and choice. His family supported him to attend AUC after years of fostering his love of reading and intellectual curiosity with the best international education they could afford, sending him on his own to Egypt and giving him the freedom to decide what to study.

At AUC, Elghandour benefited immensely from the rich intellectual activity on campus. El Moataz Bellah describes, "He fed on it, metaphorically and literally." Indeed, during his time at AUC, Elghandour started a WhatsApp group called AUC Food, which published information about events and activities that offered both interesting scholarly opportunities and free food.

Tracing Elghandour's journey through these formative vignettes in El Da7ee7: Behind the Scenes allowed El Moataz Bellah to tell the story of Da7ee7 the way he sees it: "It's not just a story of a genius but also the luck and privilege of having a loving family and inherent ability transformed through a world-class education and hard work."

Now at Harvard Business School, El Moataz Bellah is all too familiar with case studies, and he continues to reflect on his own takeaways from observing, contributing to and studying Da7ee7 -- chief among them, the power of communicating big ideas through entertaining characters and narrative. It's a thread that's clear in his El Da7ee7a ("The Nerds") series, his biography of Princess Diana and his upcoming work about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

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By Katie Marie

Ahmed Sameh (MA '18, MA '20) is on a journey to help himself and others get in touch with their authentic selves.

In the nearly 10 years since he founded his social enterprise Emmkan, it has grown from a career guidance hub for young people to become Egypt's first organization for developing social and emotional learning (SEL) workshops and tools that help people of all ages to better understand themselves and others.

Sameh at AUC New Cairo, photo by Ahmad El-Nemr

"When you're connected to your true self, you are way more confident, more at peace when it comes to mental health and less fearful of judgment or failure," Sameh explained. "Better social and emotional awareness enables you to live more intentionally. It lets you have healthier, more harmonious relationships."

For much of the company's existence, Emmkan has focused on supporting and teaching Egyptian youth. Starting just two years after Sameh graduated with a bachelor's in computer engineering and an MBA in marketing, the company originally aimed to help students explore their personalities and make better career decisions.

Almost immediately, though, Sameh's focus began to shift.

"Instead of using the safe space we created to discuss career or academic choices, many of the students talked to us about stress and challenges in their lives. Some had experienced severe traumas and didn't have an outlet to deal with them," Sameh recalled.

Today, Emmkan offers workshops and retreats to K-12 and university students at schools across Egypt, including AUC. Through its free Student Ambassador program, Emmkan also trains and mentors high school students, empowering them to lead community development and volunteer projects.

Digging Deeper

In 2015, after several years as a practitioner, Sameh felt compelled to return to school -- this time to AUC, where he obtained two master's degrees in international and comparative education and philosophy.

"I only had a very basic introduction to the humanities in my own undergraduate degree, and felt like I needed to expand my own knowledge in order to be able to dig deeper in our work," Sameh explained.

"Better social and emotional awareness enables you to live more intentionally. It lets you have healthier, more harmonious relationships."

Bringing together educators from different fields, AUC's Department of Educational Studies (formerly the Graduate School of Education) provided Sameh with the opportunity to connect with and learn from other practitioners. "Many of the students are teachers or administrators working on the ground," he said. "This experience has given me one of the most powerful networks I have in my career."

During his master's studies, Sameh also learned the professional language needed to explain his passion. "At the Comparative and International Education Society's 2016 conference in Vancouver, I attended a workshop about social and emotional learning. I had never heard the term before, but I understood that it was exactly what I had been trying to do. I finally knew how to explain Emmkan's mission."

Play to Learn

The card game, Share, photo by Ahmad El-Nemr

More recently, Emmkan has sought to broaden the reach of its programs, sharing SEL knowledge via its Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels. It has begun to develop learning tools for adults, the first of which is an SEL card game called Share. Several editions of the game have been published, including versions for friends, families and married couples -- the last of which has become a bestseller. Share is tailored to the Egyptian social context, and the decks are bilingual in both English and Arabic.

While anyone can purchase the game, it has become a popular tool among life coaches, psychologists and others working in SEL and mental health.

"Our pivot to focus on all ages is really aimed at amplifying the impact of SEL to the community level. Adults, especially parents, or couples with these skills can create a more supportive environment for children to grow in," Sameh explained. "If SEL is adopted more widely, this will create increasingly authentic and balanced communities. The change would be massive."

 

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By Claire Davenport

In Youth in Egypt: Identity, Participation, and Opportunity (NYU Press, 2023), Nadine Sika '97, '00, associate professor of comparative politics, paints a picture of young people as Egyptian citizens in their own words.

"I wanted to investigate how Egyptian youth see themselves as a force for transformation and how they are passionate about making a positive change," she explained.

The book tells a new story about young people -- looking at them not just as an age group but as actors for change in the public sphere. Sika was inspired to explore this topic while conducting research on youth in the South Mediterranean. "We got a lot of insight into how young people participate and engage differently in the public sphere," she explained. "After the research project ended, I wanted to do more."

The book draws on qualitative and quantitative analysis with almost 100 interviews and focus groups and a survey analysis of 1,200 young people. Sika worked with AUCians, including undergraduate and graduate students as well as alumni, to conduct the qualitative analysis, interviewing youth and civil society actors from various sociopolitical and economic backgrounds over a three-year period. "AUCians are the backbone of this research," she said. "As a team we would sit together, think about what questions we wanted to pose, how to do the research and who to target."

Youth as Active Citizens

Sika's research shows that youth in Egypt perceive themselves as members of society with agency and a desire to contribute to positive change.

"A lot of people think that youth aren't interested in public engagement, but the majority of young people we worked with see themselves as a force for development and impact," she said.

Sika also looked at what marginalizes and disenfranchises youth as well as the lack of economically marginalized youth representation in the public sphere.

"We always hear that education is the opportunity for upward mobility. However, educated young people coming from lower economic backgrounds are less likely to have better life chances," she said. "What we found through our research was that youth from disenfranchised backgrounds really need to have their voices heard."

Sika hopes that this book serves as a reminder that young people want to continue taking part in shaping the future of society in Egypt and the region at large.

"Youth in Egypt are actually vibrant, present and optimistic about their future," she said.

Nadine Sika 

L'Aroma: Peacefulness

You like cats, or at least tolerate them, given how many will be trying to sit on your lap while you sip your drink. You enjoy the simple things in life, like spending time sitting in the garden, and you don't mind stretching your lunch break just a teensie bit to enjoy the weather.

TBS: Balance

You enjoy the sweeter things in life. Never without a pastry or sandwich in hand, you strike a balance between the bitterness of your espresso and the sugar in your freshly baked croissant with the same poise that balances all things in your life. That being said, you have things to do, people to see! You take your coffee to go, balancing your teetering treat atop your steaming coffee lid as you head to your next appointment.

Cilantro: Patience

You are blessed with the gift of patience and understand that the best things in life are worth waiting for, which is why you visit the locale with the longest line. You're certainly a social butterfly; your friends spot you across Bartlett Plaza and pop over to chat while you wait. Like a caterpillar waiting calmly to receive its wings, your time is best spent relaxing while you wait for the aromatic experience of a fresh espresso.

Quick 24: Efficiency

As the name implies, you appreciate efficiency and embody self-efficacy. No need for a barista, you'll make the coffee yourself, thank you very much. With two clicks of a button, a quick peruse of the shelves and a no-nonsense conversation with the cashier, you are in and out with coffee and snacks in two minutes flat. You're a person who gets things done. As you stow your chips in your bag and sip your self-made coffee, you know you're saving precious time.

Need a container for all of this coffee? Visit the AUC Shop!

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By the News@AUC team | These stories appeared online at aucegypt.edu/news and in this format in the Spring 2018 edition of AUCToday.

Longtime AUCian Richard Bartlett

Richard Bartlett Chairs Board of Trustees

AUC's Board of Trustees elected Richard Bartlett, managing director of Resource Holdings Ltd, as its chairman, succeeding Atef Eltoukhy '74, chairman of Aurum Capital Management.

Bartlett has known AUC since his childhood, when he lived in Egypt during his father Thomas Bartlett's tenure as AUC president from 1963 to 1969. Sharing his father's passion for education and for AUC, Richard Bartlett has been a trustee since 2003 and previously served as chairman of the board. Richard Bartlett has contributed significant time and energy to the University, as well as philanthropic support for numerous programs and scholarships. In 2011, he established the Molly Bartlett Endowed Scholarship in his mother's name to support top-performing Egyptian public school students who wish to attend AUC.

More recently, Richard Bartlett and his brother Paul Bartlett, both AUC trustees and Princeton University graduates, established the Bartlett Family Fund for Innovation and International Collaboration between AUC and their alma mater.

"Richard Bartlett has extensive experience as board chairman and is a dedicated and committed trustee," said AUC President Francis Ricciardone. "We are proud to have him lead the board during this momentous time for the University with the centennial campaign and celebrations in 2019 -- ushering the next 100 years of excellence, innovation and service."

Bartlett received his JD from Yale Law School and his BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Before joining Resource Holdings Ltd, a private equity firm in New York City, he served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, and prior to that, as a law clerk on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the boards of several private companies.

"I am honored to serve the Board of Trustees again in this capacity and will build on Atef Eltoukhy's able leadership," said Bartlett. "AUC is a very unique institution with a strong and vibrant community. I look forward to working with President Ricciardone, the Board of Trustees and the AUC community as a whole as the University enters another milestone in its history."

Read the full story here.

Accreditation Aced: AUC's Accreditation Reaffirmed

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) has reaffirmed its accreditation of AUC through the 2026-2027 academic year. The University received the top level of MSCHE's reaffirmation of accreditation, without any requirements. Out of 523 institutions worldwide that are accredited by MSCHE, only 17 -- including AUC -- are outside of the United States, with four in the Middle East. AUC is the only University in Egypt that holds this accreditation.

"Congratulations and thank you to all whose daily work to make AUC an amazing institution has won us this vitally important, highest official recognition of our performance at, or exceeding, the highest American standards," said President Francis Ricciardone.

After a rigorous self-assessment process and the production of a 100-page self-study report, AUC welcomed a team from MSCHE in March 2018 to observe the University's congruence with its self-study, determine AUC's compliance with MSCHE standards, provide recommendations for areas that can be further enhanced and meet with all AUC constituencies. AUC's Accreditation Steering Committee had been compiling data, considering University needs and seeking input from community members, to finalize the self-evaluation presented to the MSCHE team.

With AUC's recent reaffirmation of accreditation, MSCHE gave recommendations and noted a number of AUC accomplishments, including the establishment of Employability and Career Development Centers at several Egyptian public universities; improvement of the enrollment process; implementation of a cocurricular transcript; integration of planning, resource allocation and assessment in all areas of the University; as well as documentation and data usage for planning and assessment.

"In higher education, institutional accreditation by a reputable agency such as the Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an unparalleled hallmark of quality," attested Iman Megahed '90, '93, AUC's chief strategy and institutional effectiveness officer.

"At a time when accreditation is becoming considerably more rigorous, with accreditation probation and warnings issued to some institutions worldwide, AUC's accreditation was reaffirmed and praised on multiple fronts by the visiting team. Every member of the AUC community can feel a genuine sense of pride that they belong and contribute to the well-being and advancement of this University."

Read the full story here.

Nora Abousteit, left, and Kristin Lord, right

Jumping on Board: Nora Abousteit and Kristin Lord

Nora Abousteit '00, founder and CEO of social-crafting business CraftJam Inc., and Kristin Lord, president and CEO of the global development and education nonprofit IREX, are AUC's newest trustees.

Abousteit speaks German, Arabic and English. She graduated from AUC with a bachelor's in Middle East studies and a minor in philosophy. She is the founder of online crafting communities, including the world's largest sewing network, and Kollabora, an online community for DIY [Do It Yourself] projects and makers. Her current company, CraftJam, organizes hundreds of monthly social crafting occasions in New York City.

"My time at AUC was one of the most formative in my life," said Abousteit. "It nurtured a great love of the institution and the people there, as well as a strong belief in the mission of AUC and my responsibility to help carry it forward."

Lord, who received her MA and PhD in government from Georgetown University, previously served as acting president and executive vice president of the United States Institute of Peace and held two associate dean positions at The George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

She is also a member of the board of directors for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. "I am truly honored to join the Board of Trustees of AUC -- an institution devoted to preparing young people to contribute to an even brighter, more prosperous future for the people of Egypt, the region and the world," Lord said.

Read the full story here.

Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr '85, '90 speaks at the midyear commencement

Commencement Speakers: A Tip from the Top

At AUC's 2018 Midyear Commencement, Naguib Sawiris, executive chairman of Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding and chairman of Orascom TMT Investments, shared "the secret to success" as the keynote speaker for bachelor's degree candidates. "Don't accept 'no' for an answer," he advised. "Whenever someone tells you it's not possible, don't just trust what [they say]. Try [it] yourself. ... Intelligence without hard work won't get you to the end of the road."

Egypt's Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr '85, '90 came back to her alma mater at the midyear commencement as the keynote speaker for the graduate Class of 2018. "You will, at some point in time, get disappointed and experience tough times. But never let this put you down -- ever," she affirmed. "When it seems like it's getting too hard, push back even harder. This is the only way you will be an achiever."

At the 95th Commencement held in June 2018, Mahmoud Mohieldin, senior vice president for the 2030 Development Agenda, United Nations Relations and Partnerships at the World Bank Group, received an honorary degree from AUC. "I am profoundly honored," he said, "by the decision of The American University in Cairo and its Board of Trustees to confer upon me the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters." Advising graduates to "broaden the scope of [their] opportunities...beyond borders, beyond disciplines," he said, "Your journey starts now. It is yours to define."

Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat '95 addressed master's and PhD candidates at the June 2018 Commencement. "I just remember my own graduation [from AUC], which happened to be June 22, 1995," she reflected. "I will never forget the vice provost at the time looking at all of us and saying: 'The certificate you have in hand is more important than your marriage certificate. It will not be revoked, and it cannot be nullified.' So to that, congratulations to all of you!"

Read the full story about 2018 graduate and undergraduate commencements here. Click here for videos of the commencement speeches on AUC's YouTube!

Celebrating 50 Years of CASA

At its seventh annual Benefit Dinner in New York, AUC raised more than $600,000 to go toward the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) Endowment Fund. The fund will support CASA, the world's premier, full-immersion Arabic-language program that is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Prominent and long-standing members of the AUC community, along with Egypt's Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr '85, '90, were present to thank donors and encourage support for the University.

President Francis Ricciardone and Lois "Elle" Johnson

U.S.-based TV writer and producer Lois "Elle" Johnson opened the event by describing her time at AUC in 1986, when she came as a presidential intern to work at the Office of Development. "Although I was not a CASA participant, AUC's Presidential Internship Program opened my eyes to this part of the world," said Johnson, now a writer and producer for shows including CSI: Miami and Law & Order. "It was also my first time living outside of the U.S., in a place where I didn't speak the language and couldn't read any of the signs."

Johnson continued, "I was a black girl who had attended predominantly white schools. At AUC, my right to be there was never questioned. To be thought of as 'other' in your own country then go halfway around the world to finally, casually, be accepted as 'American' was an incredibly empowering experience for me. Being at AUC, being in Egypt made me believe I could do anything."

Dr. Marie Ricciardone, President Francis Ricciardone, Former AUC President Lisa Anderson, Former AUC President David Arnold and Sherry Arnold

Over the last 50 years, CASA graduates have shared Johnson's feeling of empowerment through immersion. A number of the program's alumni came to the dinner -- one of whom took the microphone to share her success story.

Susan Peters (CASA '98), senior advisor at ABANA, described how much the program influenced her language skills and preceding career, which has been spent in nonprofit management, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa region.

"There's a moment when you stop having to pay attention to language and get to engage in a meaningful exchange of ideas in that language. It's when you actually get the punchline," Peters said. "CASA's real gift is that moment when the penny drops. It provides a self-confidence and familiarity that allow you to be a participant in another culture, not just a student or observer."

To support CASA and contribute to the CASA Endowment Fund click here.

To read the full story about the benefit dinner, click here.

Better off Blended: AUC Offers First Blended Degree in Region, Pairs with MIT

Pioneering new pathways in education, AUC is now the first University in the region to offer a blended degree, pairing with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to grant MITx MicroMasters online learners credits that would count toward the completion of a full master's degree at AUC.

AUC is the first University in the world to collaborate with MIT in recognizing credits for this particular online program on Data, Economics, and Development Policy (DEDP), offering a possible pathway to earning a full master's degree from AUC in economics in international development. The Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, one of the largest privately funded philanthropic education initiatives in the world, will fund eligible Arab students for the DEDP.

This move was instigated following the launch of a program, led by the foundation in collaboration with MIT, to build the capacities of AUC and the American University of Beirut faculty members and instructional designers/staff in blended learning. The broader goal of the program is to develop and promote quality online learning in the Arab world.

"I am thrilled that AUC is the first University in the region to take on the exciting challenge of formally adopting blended learning," said Maysa Jalbout, CEO of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education. "This is a visionary move and one that will encourage other universities in the region to follow suit and to open up a new world of higher education opportunities for Arab youth."

MIT offers several online MicroMasters credentials through its online course database, MITx. Participants who complete the online program are given the opportunity to use their earned credentials to complete a master's degree in person at MIT. With AUC now in the fold, participants will be able to apply these credits toward completion of a master's degree at the University. "We are excited that AUC will offer credit towards [its] own master's programs to students who complete the DEDP MicroMasters credential and pass the AUC admissions process," said Krishna Rajagopal, dean for digital learning at MIT. "We believe that [this] collaboration will advance the education and careers of many learners who would not otherwise have been able to complete master's degrees."

Online learners who complete the MITx MicroMasters in DEDP will be able to earn nine graduate credit hours toward completion of the AUC master's degree in economics in international development at the School of Business, if accepted into the program. This opportunity will be available to potential applicants to the AUC program in economics in international development starting September 2018.

To read the full story, click here.

 

 

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By Elizabeth Lepro, photos by Ahmad El-Nemr and Elizabeth Lepro| This story appeared in the Spring 2018 edition of AUCToday.

The beginning of a 1995 written history of AUC Press puts it plainly: "The growth of the Press over the last 35 years has been neither smooth nor steady."

Bearing down initially through the trials of working with outdated machinery and paper and ink shortages, and consistently through tough economics and political upheaval, AUC Press has endured a storied history in its persistent pursuit of sharing stories.
Current Director Nigel Fletcher-Jones came to Cairo post-revolution in 2012.

Nigel Fletcher-Jones in his office at the AUC Press headquarters in Downtown Cairo. Photo by Elizabeth Lepro.

"I had a number of things to deal with, not the least that essentially the market for books had simply disappeared in Egypt, almost overnight," the British-born director said, echoing many AUC Press directors who have arrived with a mission to reinvigorate the publishing house after turmoil.

Yet, AUC Press has grown.

A little more than 20 years ago, AUC Press boasted 140 printed works in total, catered to a majority Egyptian readership and had only one location outside of Tahrir. Today, it prints up to 60 books per year, with plans to grow to 80 annually. Fletcher-Jones takes advantage of technological advancement to reach a widening audience, and -- in the last several years -- AUC Press has expanded well beyond University gates.

The most recent successes of AUC Press include creating the Hoopoe fiction imprint in 2016, opening a permanent bookstand at the Egyptian Museum and appearing in Amazon's brick and mortar pop-up shop in Manhattan. Two of its books were internationally recognized as distinguished works of 2016, and three received PROSE Awards in 2017.

These accolades represent the resilience of the publishing house as an institution dedicated, despite the odds, to bringing Egypt and the Middle East to the world.

Humble Beginnings

At the time of its creation by AUC's Board of Trustees in 1960, AUC Press was made up of two staff members. In one room, an Al Ahram editorial executive and his assistant, a journalism professor at AUC, labored over the production of K.A.C. Creswell's A Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts, and Crafts of Islam. The next few directors of AUC Press were also journalism professors, and the institution's main function was to disseminate University research.

As AUC Press worked extensively with the University's New York Office, it became an integral part of the tenuous bridge connecting AUC with North America. Tenuous because in 1967, Egypt broke diplomatic relations with the United States over its support of Israel in the Arab-Israeli War. The upheaval reduced tourism and affected national economics -- two factors that typically sent the success of AUC Press nose-diving.

There was one positive outcome to the political situation: The U.S. Embassy and Cairo American College donated a new paper cutter, a Davidson printer, a camera, a Varityper headliner and other small fundamentals. AUC Press rattled on.

Two years later, Mason Rossiter Smith, a publisher and journalist from the United States, took over as director. Released from the obligation to also teach journalism courses, he took AUC Press beyond its usual borders, sending exhibits to global book fairs and conferences in Europe and the Americas. A book list from this time describes a number of available titles in philosophy and religion, art and architecture, history and English-language learning.

By 1974, several years of conflict in the region meant tourism had once again taken a hit. Imports were low, unemployment was high and exports were only beginning to increase. Director John Rodenbeck said his main objective was "keeping the [AUC] Press alive at all."

The Naguib Mahfouz Legacy

Neil Hewison, who spent 30 years as an editor at AUC Press before retiring last year, remembers getting a mysterious call from Sweden in 1988:

"Hi, can you please tell us how to get in touch with Naguib Mahfouz?'"

The beloved Egyptian novelist had won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature, a turn that neither AUC Press, which owned the rights to translations of his work, nor the author himself anticipated. "It was a surprise to him, and we certainly weren't expecting it," said Hewison.

By the late 1980s, what was once a tiny, struggling Egyptian publishing house was blossoming. The late German-born Mark Linz, two-time director of AUC Press, oversaw an expansion that included hiring new staff members, moving to roomier headquarters and doubling production. Other well-known writers coming out of AUC Press publications at the time included Yusuf Idris, Taha Hussein, Nayra Atiya and Tawfiq al-Hakim.

"There was a great sense of excitement and certainly optimism when Naguib Mahfouz won," Hewison said. "Perhaps we all, or many of us, thought over-optimistically that this would throw open the doors of Arabic literature to the world. What it did, of course, was throw open the doors of Naguib Mahfouz to the world."

Mahfouz became an international literary phenomenon. His books now appear in 40 languages, amassing somewhere near 600 editions -- all either published or licensed by AUC Press.

The late author's earnest and fond descriptions of everyday Egyptians offered an impactful lens into the country's reality. This is a mission that AUC Press has always shared, according to Fletcher-Jones: "to try as best as we can, but in a very small way, to represent what the realities are about life and history in the Middle East."

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Best-selling AUC Press books 1960-2018:

                   

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Technology and Future Expansion

By the 1990s, there was a sense of excitement at the publishing house, buoyed by a healthy flow of tourism to and interest in Egypt. AUC Press doubled the number of books it published per year.

But success was always tempered, warned Hewison, tied to the ever-changing heart-rate monitor of Egypt. When militants killed 62 people in Luxor at Deir el-Bahari in 1997, "I remember particularly an almost immediate effect on not just the book market for us, but on the whole economy of the country," Hewison said.

At the same time, a 1996 AUC Press newsletter featured the new electronic publishing editor discussing the promise of the internet, while AUC Press expanded its genres, adding more nationalities of authors and making international partnerships with other universities.

Customers browse the AUC Press section of the Egyptian Museum.

In 2007, the AUC Press online shop launched, allowing sales to continue even if tourism dipped, though roughly 80 percent of its sales were still within Egypt.

Nowadays, with the proliferation of technology and social media, Fletcher-Jones sees an everlasting audience in what he calls "armchair Egyptologists," people without Egyptology degrees who have a passion for learning about Egypt's history. On a public Facebook page under his name, Fletcher-Jones interacts with nearly 4,000 armchair Egyptologists all over the world.

"On social media, we can continue to generate communities," he said. "With the rise of technology and Amazon, it no longer matters where in the world you are publishing from."

A more singular focus on fiction has also defined change in the last decade, said Jody Baboukis, interim managing editor at AUC Press. The Hoopoe fiction imprint features authors from across the Middle East. Some of Hoopoe's popular novels include The Televangelist (Egypt), Whitefly (Morocco) and the winner of this year's Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature Mukhmal, or Velvet (Palestine).

Despite finding success in fiction and social media, AUC Press knows it owns a niche no other publishing house can usurp: Egyptology. It recently made a substantial donation of books on Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology to the Shafik Gabr Foundation for distribution to schools around Cairo, Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities, Theban Mapping Project in Luxor and Amarna Project library in Tell el-Amarna.

In 2020, AUC Press will celebrate its diamond jubilee, with 60 years of success, and AUC Press Bookstores will celebrate their 35th anniversary. Throughout the past decades, AUC Press has remained true to its brand.

"We aren't a huge, comprehensive academic publisher like Oxford University Press or Routledge. We specialize in what's closest to us and what we know best," said Baboukis. "We're the largest English-language book publisher in the Middle East, and both our fiction and nonfiction books regularly win international publishing and translation awards. Clearly, we're doing something right."

Visit the AUC Press website here and follow it on Twitter here.

 

By Ioanna Moriatis | This story appeared in the Spring 2018 edition of AUCToday.

Click here for quotes from public school teachers about AUC's training program.

AUC's role in shaping lives starts the moment a student is first admitted, aspiring to be part of the values the University constantly emanates.

But what about all those years before a student steps onto campus -- those years of schooling when a student first learns to absorb knowledge?

Working to be present at all stages of a student's life, the University is partnering with organizations and community members to help enhance Egypt's education system -- a hefty task given a system with more than 23 million students.

AUC's Graduate School of Education (GSE) partnered with the Egyptian Refining Company (ERC), a subsidiary of Qalaa Holdings, to provide a capacity-building professional training program for 30 public school teachers of early-year learners from three different educational directorates: East Shubra Al Kheima, Al Matareya and Al Khosous. "At Qalaa Holdings, we have a very firm belief that education is extremely important for the advancement of Egypt," said Ahmed Heikal, chairman of ERC.

"I'm very proud of this program. Those are neighborhoods that are extremely in need of upgrading their public school systems. So we're very proud to be involved in this initiative."

AUC's Center for Sustainable Development has also launched a project, School of 2030: Education for Sustainable Development, in Boulaq Al Dakrour - EduCamp III. The project's main objective is to transform education in Egypt by building schools in informal settlement areas, working toward achieving the country's larger sustainable development strategy, known as Egypt Vision 2030.

"The world has turned to education for sustainable development after witnessing the impact of human exploitation on each other and the environment," said Hani Sewilam, mechanical engineering professor and founding director of the Center for Sustainable Development who is managing the EduCamp project.

Training Teachers

The first cohort of AUC's GSE-ERC program recently celebrated the completion of its professional training program, ushering in another cohort of public school teachers.

Through such collaborative initiatives, AUC encourages external entities to build programs and projects that promote positive local change. In this way, AUC acts as the nucleus of educational transformation in Egypt, both producing knowledge and effecting change through its own programs while also establishing partnerships to pioneer impactful projects using the University's venues and resources. "It's a very good initiative because different companies and businessmen fund the training of public school teachers at AUC as part of their professional development," said Heba El Deghaidy, associate professor and chair of AUC's Department of International and Comparative Education.

This professional training program falls under phase two of the ERC's Mostakbaly [My Future] initiative, which was launched to tackle inequalities in Egypt's education system and improve the quality of instruction in public schools. "I'm particularly excited about this program," said Adham Ramadan '91, dean of graduate studies who served as acting dean of the Graduate School of Education in Spring 2018. "We are all working with local government districts in ERC's region. This is a great example of how businesses can actually support communities around them."

ERC awarded the scholarships specifically to kindergarten and primary school teachers, enabling them to participate in AUC's Professional Educator Training Program, a customized GSE capacity-building professional training for educators of young learners.

The one-year program covers a range of topics, including child development, teaching strategies, assessment, active learning and technology in the classroom. To cater to the new cohort's needs, the program is now delving into even more subjects, such as communication, presentation, time management, interpersonal skills and differentiation in the classroom. "The teachers have actually started to apply these skills inside the classrooms," noted El Deghaidy.

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Click here to see what public school teachers have to say about AUC's training program!

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Setting a Model

EduCamp III marks the third phase of the Education for Sustainable Development Beyond the Campus initiative (EduCamp), which was initiated in 2010. Granted support from the European Union's Tempus program, AUC and the RWTH Aachen University in Germany launched the initiative to introduce education for sustainable development in Egypt. The main component of the current phase involves establishing models for Egyptian schools to exemplify how to enhance education in tune with Egypt Vision 2030.

The project is focused on transforming two schools in Boulaq Al Dakrour: Mohamed Farouk Wahdan Preparatory School and Gamal Abdel Nasser Primary School.
"We wanted to create a model that is representative of Egyptian schools, and in order to do that, we had to target national schools in areas that need intervention," said Sewilam. "Sustainable development is needed the most. We chose two schools in Boulaq Al Dakrour that represent the real problems most Egyptians face. We want to develop solutions tailored specifically for Egypt's unique socioeconomic challenges."

During the first phase of the initiative, EduCamp I, the team created education for sustainable development kits and delivered them to various schools in Egypt, opening seven centers of excellence at seven Egyptian universities. For the second phase of the project, EduCamp II in 2014, AUC's Center for Sustainable Development began working to introduce education for sustainable development in informal areas around Egypt.

EduCamp III now aims to introduce sustainable development teaching in Egyptian schools over one year, implementing the initiative on a larger scale with support from the European Union and German government. Plans include creating and conducting a capacity development program for school stakeholders, renovating school facilities to include the necessary resources and developing education for sustainable development kits.

"If you produce sustainability-literate youth, then you will have created a new generation aware of the problems facing them and can develop suitable interventions for Egypt's unique challenges," affirmed Sewilam.

The schools in Boulaq Al Dakrour will help stakeholders in Egypt's education system uncover solutions to recurring issues in public schools, such as infrastructure problems, overcrowded classes, teaching quality and violence. The project is particularly taking into account children with special needs, females and mothers in designing the model schools based on the specific needs of the community.

Since September 2017, the project team has assessed the needs of the two schools and developed plans for renovation and implementation of the training programs. "We are currently training the school teachers and managers and working on renovation," said Sewilam.

A Change in Teacher Mindset

AUC seeks to set an example for public schools, engaging individual teachers and prompting instructors to rethink their teaching styles and roles in the classroom, rather than tackling the larger education system itself. "We are helping teachers become agents of change in education," said Ramadan.

Now in the middle of the second round of training with a new cohort of teachers, Dahlia Fouad, one of the instructors in AUC's Professional Educator Training Program, has the chance to observe the various challenges public school teachers face in building their skills and bettering their schools.

"Having worked in the education field for a while, I can see a big gap between private and public schools," noted Fouad. "This is not because the public school teachers are not as good as those in private schools, but the ones in private schools get exposed to international training, peer acquaintances and professional development in certain areas."

Fouad indicated that these differences lead public school teachers to the conclusion that the system itself is the main obstacle to advancing school instruction in Egypt. "In their minds, they are more stuck on the system itself," she reflected. "They feel they are victims of the system. What we have been trying to do to these teachers is break the chains and train them to become autonomous teachers. Yes, we have problems in Egypt's education system. No one can deny this. But, it's all about the teacher. If you remove the classroom, curriculum and system, it's still the teacher and student."

Although she initially spotted some resistance amongst teachers, Fouad noted significant changes in their mindsets by the end of the first cohort's program. "They're more self-assured," she said. "They have self-esteem and are confident about their capabilities. They want to make a change. This is not just on an academic or pedagogical level, but also on a personal level."

Saeed Ghoneim, a teacher from Al Khosous Language School, benefited from the program's emphasis on knowledge-sharing and exchange, and learned about himself as a teacher in the process. "This course developed many things in my personality," he reflected. "At AUC, I learned how to share and exchange my experience with my colleagues. The most useful course was how to deal with technology and present material in an updated way. The way we were trained at AUC was excellent, very different. I have changed as a teacher and learned to not stop learning."

Emphasizing the crucial role teachers play, Sewilam noted, "You would be surprised at what well-qualified teachers can do inside classrooms with no or minimal resources. This is why the teacher is the most important stakeholder in the education system. Another equally important goal is the restructuring of the technical and vocational education system. If we focus on this, it has the potential to solve many other problems, such as the lack of skilled labor, and to help the Egyptian economy as a whole."

AUC's impact might begin with a cohort of 30 teachers or two schools in Boulaq Al Dakrour, but that effect -- even if gradual -- has the potential to spread, transforming mindsets and making an impact across the country. "It's about leading the way forward for change," said Ramadan. "Sometimes people say it's outreach, but I think it's beyond that because you're developing skills that will hopefully have a domino effect."