AUK's Student Government acted as an
intermediary between the university's
student body and needy members of the larger
Iraqi Kurdistan community this past November
2. Thanks to all who participated on that
day, the AUK Clinic was abuzz with charity.
Out of the goodness of their hearts, many
AUK students selflessly gave some of the
blood which their hearts were pumping.
Proper medical precautions were strictly
observed, so all who volunteered to give had
to undergo preliminary tests to determine if
they were in a position to do so.
The five-hour event was a success of which
AUK and its numerous charitable students
should be proud. A hospital in Amedi will
receive the donated blood, which is bound to
save lives.
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Books are supposed to transport their
readers "beyond borders" of the conventional
and the familiar. It was the appropriately
named Ideas Beyond Borders organization that
provided AUK students with scores of books
on the second day of November.
Through the generosity of Ideas Beyond
Borders, AUK students could enjoy "The Book
Booth." This event featured 500 books, on
various topics, for various audiences,
absolutely for free.
The keenness of student interest in the
books available to them was evident to
anyone who waited until the originally
scheduled 4 PM end of the event to visit. By
then, all the books were long gone.
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Simulation
Training Workshop for Nursing
Faculty
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AUK's Nursing Lab was even more
professionally equipped and staffed than
usual on November 6 and 7. Representatives
from the US-based company Nasco were at AUK
facilitating "upskilling" training for the
nursing faculty. The Nasco operatives
carried out this training with
state-of-the-art simulation devices from the
US and the excellent equipment sourced by
Clever Scientific Laboratory that was
already on campus. It was made possible by
the US Department of State Grant titled
“Support to American-Style Higher Education
in Iraq,” awarded in 2021.
AUK Chief Nursing Administrator Dr. Jervy
Bernardino, his Nasco partners, and the
lifelike "patient simulators" together added
real vitality to the training. Dr.
Bernardino saw a clear need for the training
and was very appreciative of the visiting
experts who delivered it, remarking: "They
are transmitting the knowledge to us so we
can transmit it to the students. The
high-fidelity mannequins allow us to perform
simulations bridging the gap between theory
and practice."
For a full-length article about this, please click here.
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AUK &
Alexandrion Foundation Forge
Partnership
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The Alexandrion Foundation has a history of
philanthropy and is now extending its
charitable reach to Kurdistan. Delegates
from Alexandrion and the American University
of Kurdistan (AUK) participated in an MoU
signing event in AUK’s Rotunda on November
8.
Both parties envision this MoU as just the
first step of a collaborative relationship.
At the event, the Romania-based Alexandrion
Foundation and AUK wasted no time discussing
the next steps. The Foundation has committed
to financing internships in Romania for
students from the College of Business. After
the MoU signing, the Alexandrion
representatives interviewed five students
for this coveted international experience.
Later, several dozen AUK students had the
chance to ask questions of Mr. Nawaf
Salameh, founder, president, and director of
the Alexandrion Foundation, and Mr. Nicholas
Kass, Executive Director for International
Corporate Affairs of Alexandrion. From the
nature of the questions asked, it was
apparent that many AUK students are
interested in the manifold opportunities the
AUK-Alexandrion partnership presents.
For a full-length article about this, please click here.
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Even with all the excitement surrounding the
visit of the Alexandrion Foundation on the
same day, the American University of
Kurdistan (AUK) hosted classes of
kindergarteners from the nearby Avro City.
AUK’s Center for Academic and Professional
Advancement (CAPA), which delivers AUK’s
“continuing education” for older learners,
demonstrated its versatility in putting on a
fun tour of AUK’s facilities for these very
young learners and their teachers. When AUK
President Dr. Randall Rhodes saw the
students filing through the main entrance,
he predicted that these children would
become “the future of AUK.”
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On November 10, an AUK delegation attended
an awards ceremony at Erbil’s Rotana Hotel
to celebrate the philanthropic initiative of
Genel Energy in supporting higher education
in Kurdistan and at AUK. Twenty incoming AUK
freshmen were formally acknowledged as the
scholarship recipients, dubbed “Genel20
Scholars.” The “20” represents both the
number of recipients and the number of years
Genel has been operating in Kurdistan.
Rwanga, a local educational NGO, worked with
AUK to select the awardees from a pool of
over 600. Genel also supported the awardees
with laptops and stationery. Rwanga is now
working with Genel on the possibility of
sending these same 20 students to leadership
training in Istanbul and London.
Speakers included Genel Energy’s CEO Paul
Weir, Deputy Chairman Sir Michael Fallon,
AUK President Dr. Randall Rhodes and HE
Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of
Iraq Masrour Barzani.
For a full-length article about this, please click here.
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AUK
Hosts MEPS Forum
2022
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From November 15-17, AUK convened the third
Middle East Peace & Security (MEPS) Forum.
For three days, AUK was the scene of
stimulating conversations and stirring
debates involving scholars, diplomats,
politicians, and – to a degree of which AUK
should be proud – students.
Day 1 consisted of three concurrent
workshops. The workshops were roundtable
discussions involving experts on various
aspects of Middle East affairs.
Days 2 and 3 consisted of conference
sessions. These were panels of four or five
people, who were academics, government
representatives, or diplomats. Each panel
addressed dimensions of the year’s unifying
topic, “The Middle East in the Emerging
International Order: New Threats, Old
Realities?”
On Day 3, there was also an interview with
HE Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of
Iraq Masrour Barzani, conducted by Dr. Karen
Young. He spoke to a transfixed crowd eager
for his comments on Kurdistan’s present
challenges and future potential. One of his
numerous reassuring quotables, in this case
in reference to Erbil-Baghdad relations,
was: “We don’t need to fight over resources.
There are plenty. It is just about
management.”
In addition to the contribution to MEPS by
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, HE Latif
Rashid, President, Federal Republic of Iraq,
and HE Mohamed Al-Halbousi, Speaker of the
Parliament, Federal Republic of Iraq,
delivered Keynote Speeches the morning of
Day 3. Panels that same day included US
Ambassador to Iraq Alina Romanowski and UK
Ambassador to Iraq Mark Bryson-Richardson.
Scholars from over a dozen countries added
to the conversations over the course of the
three-day event. Clearly, the MEPS Forum at
AUK was a gathering of international
significance.
For a full-length article about MEPS Day 1,
please click
here.
For a full-length article about MEPS Day 2,
please click
here.
For a full-length article about MEPS Day 3,
please click
here.
For a wrap-up of the event as a whole, please click
here.
For an interview with one of the many
accomplished MEPS guests, please click here.
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AUK’s
7th Soccer Tournament
Concludes
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Just in time for the start of the FIFA World
Cup, the AUK Soccer Tournament came to a
close. It was AUK's seventh soccer
tournament, and Student Government organized
it. The original bracket included 12 teams,
but, after the group stage and two knockout
rounds, only a single pair of competitors
remained.
The climactic finale took place at Rizgari
Stadium on the night of November 21. It
pitted the team called "Kurdistan" against
the "Born to Win" squad. With names like
those and the supreme effort put forth by
both sides, it was a pity only one team
could come out victorious. Revered AUK
instructor and administrator Dr. Honar Issa
donned the referee’s shirt for the last
game, to make the occasion all the more
memorable. As of the final whistle
from Dr. Issa, "Kurdistan" won the match, 4
goals to 2, and, with it, the championship
trophy. The “Man of the Match” was
goal-scorer and overall contributor Aiser
Darwesh of “Kurdistan.”
This soccer tournament was another success
for Student Government, but they are not the
only ones deserving of praise for the way
the soccer tournament turned out. AUK
President Dr. Randall Rhodes presented
certificates of appreciation to tournament
sponsor “Business Class” and to the two main
referees for the tournament, Sarbast Khalid
Nabi and Waleed Ahmed Muhammed. On the
pitch, Areen Barzani of “Kurdistan” stood
out for his sportsmanship during all his
team’s matches, Shandar Hishyar, once again
of “Kurdistan,” won recognition as the
tourney’s top goalkeeper, and Goraz Ridha of
“Hawks” and Ali Hassan Murad of “Zaxo”
shared the title of leading goalscorer, each
with 9 to his credit.
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A Very
Special Art Exhibit
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Norwegian Church Aid, the American
University of Kurdistan, and the Lutheran
World Federation collaborated with a number
of talented female artists to exhibit 60 of
their works in the AUK Student Lounge on
November 27. These artists had certainly
created their works to express themselves
and share their talents, but there was yet
another motivation: art therapy. All of the
artists were recovering victims of
gender-based violence in Iraq.
“Phoenix: Rising from the Ashes of Violence”
was the name given to this event, to signify
the rebirth of the female victims as
artists. Norwegian Church Aid, the patron of
the artworks, is renowned for its
humanitarian outreach in multiple countries,
and counteracting gender-based violence is
just one of its three areas of activity in
Iraq. This event was about artistically
delivering the voices of survivors to the
world and advocating for women’s rights. The
American University of Kurdistan was a
proper venue for the event, in view of its
own commitment to women’s rights and its
related work with refugees and IDPs.
It is impossible to do the artworks justice
here, so it will have to suffice to say that
tremendous variety and noteworthy virtuosity
were on display. The paintings generally did
show women in the throes of some form of
abuse (domestic violence, shaming from
members of the public, silencing, or virtual
imprisonment), but this should not for a
second be taken to mean that the art was
“negative.” Recovering females bravely faced
their anguish and summoned their artistic
capabilities to depict it on canvas, thereby
taking one extremely important step toward
conquering that anguish. The artists have
been reborn, and through their works of art
they can even claim a measure of
immortality.
For a full-length article about this, please click here.
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