What do you like better, Christmas or Graduation Season? GRADUATION SEASON!

May is a special time of year when working in Higher Education. Graduation season. Graduations will start as early as the first weekend in May and some take place as late as Memorial Day Weekend (shout out University of Delaware!). The last two weeks have been dominated by graduation festivities here at Education City. Each partner campus has their own ceremony (that makes 8) plus a general commencement put together by HBKU and the Qatar Foundation. All of the ceremonies were incredible and I had the privilege of attending many of them.

The QF ceremony was particularly impressive. It celebrated the nearly 500 graduates from across the 8 partner campuses. It was held at the Qatar National Convention Center and had many notable guests including Her Highness Sheikha Mozah (head of the Qatar Foundation) and Jimmy Wales (keynote speaker and founder of Wikipedia). Every graduate was given a platinum and diamond ring, compliments of QF, to celebrate their graduation. In addition, QF hosted a graduation concert on Thursday night featuring the Script. Overall the foundation spares no expense for commencement and it was truly an amazing event.

 

Several work colleagues and I volunteered to help at commencement and had a variety of roles. Some helped with registration, others distributed the coveted rings, I was an usher. As an usher our role was supposed to fade into the background to feature the graduates. Easy enough. Unfortunately my role ended up making me the center of attention as the FIRST person to walk in the ceremony. We were running behind schedule a bit and we had to slow the procession as we waited for students to get through security. As I walked the first University (VCUQ) to the entrance of the hall, the producer for the event told me to walk with them and walk as slowly…as…I…possibly…could. So there I was, on the big screen, walking in front of all the Qatari royalty, across the stage, step…by…step….by…step. Everyone at work found it to be hilarious and I hear my picture was in some local newspapers as well. Definitely a great Doha memory even though I shouldn’t have been there in the first place!
 

QF’s graduation ceremony got me thinking a bit on my own views about education here. The education that students receive at QF I truly believe is world class. They have challenging curriculum, from world renowned faculty, interacting on a daily basis with people from around the globe, have word class facilities, and incredibly small class sizes and interactions with faculty. All of that being said, the education model is WILDLY expensive to educate such a small number of students. I often think to myself, how many students could we adequately educate with the money that we pour into these approximately 2,000 students? But now I wonder, is that the question I should be asking? Maybe the education offered at Education City is what education is supposed to be. Intimate class settings, nearly unlimited financial support to pursue initiatives, trips across the world to experience other cultures, attentive staff to ensure your success, and people that care about you as an individual. If we have the opportunity to offer all of this to students, then why not? I continuously go back and forth on the idea of whether the way we educate students is responsible here and I think it is something we should always be analyzing. Depending on how you look at it I think we could be serving as a global model of how education should be offered or an example of investing too much money into too few people to be seen as acting responsibly. I am not sure there will ever be an answer, but an interesting question none the less.

On a much less reflective and work related note, I went to a boat party this weekend. This boat party had me under the illusion that I was sailing somewhere off the south of France and not Doha. A group organized rentals of 3 Dhow boats (similar to what Brennan and I rented a few weeks back). There was a massive DJ booth set up on the middle boat and then two boats on the outside filled with people. In total about 200 people came out and we anchored off the Doha skyline at a remote sandbar. We were surrounded by multiple yachts, boats, and jet skis all enjoy the 100 degree sunny weather. As the music was blasting and I was looking around at the group of friends I was with, I could not believe where I was. It was another one of those mixed messages moments, where we are living in a reserved/conservative culture yet in that moment it was anything but reserved. The day itself was an absolute blast and we were out on the water from 2pm-8pm. For me, this was my first boat party experience. Many others do this multiple times per year. And evidently May is that start of “boating season” and this will be a regular occurrence. 

 Brennan just got back from the US for his sister’s wedding and I leave for the US next Wednesday for Brandon’s graduation! Once I leave next week it will start a whirlwind of summer travel that will take me to New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and a few others most likely. I CANNOT wait for the summer to get started and feel incredibly lucky to be able to travel around for most of it.