Beyond King's (Vol. 4, Spring 2016)

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EDITOR’S NOTE Spring 2016 Volume 4 Editor in Chief Vera Azar Editor Hanan Abdallah Designer Shadi Hasweh

Welcome to the fourth annual issue of Beyond King’s. We’ve come a long

purely an alumni magazine, whereas now we’re more a school magazine, with a big focus on one of our most important constituencies: alumni.

Contributors Lilli Audeh, John Austin, Matt Westman Photo credit Wasim Ayesh, Rob Bahou ’11, Ala’a Hamdan,

You’ll notice there’s quite an emphasis on the arts in this issue. That’s because we started out the year with Headmaster John Austin talking at Convocation about the important of the arts at a school like King’s, and as the year went by there was so much that was new and different and well done in the arts that we wanted to share as much of it as possible with you.

Zeina Rehani Front cover Dining Hall bell by Wasim Ayesh Beyond King’s is published by the King’s Academy

The big news at King’s this year is the upcoming opening of the Middle ! ! " #$ grades 7 and 8.

Department of Communications and Publications P.O. Box 9, Madaba-Manja 16188 Jordan. tel +962 6 430 0230 ext. 1005 email beyondkings@kingsacademy.edu.jo

These are just a couple of the highlights. There’s so much more, not least of which are some great alumni stories. As our alumni body grows in number and in age, so will these stories, something we look forward to highlighting in future issues of the magazine.

www.kingsacademy.edu.jo Š 2016 King’s Academy, Jordan. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted without express written

On a more personal note, I’d like to say goodbye and thank you to Writer and Editor Hanan Abdallah, whose name and imprint has been all over Beyond King’s for the past three years. Hanan is off to greener pastures (literally, as she’s moving to the United States!) and she will be greatly missed. – VA

LETTER TO THE EDITOR On last year’s issue: It is really excellent. High quality paper, photos and articles. Impressive alumni stories, exciting developments at King’s, a discussion of liberal arts ed, a bit on fundraising and alumni news. It presents a high quality image of the school. Congrats to the people who put it together, it is a major effort. Jim Zug, friend of King’s Academy

consent from the publisher.

IN THIS ISSUE

2 Why a middle school? 6 The alumni project 8 Out with the old, in with the new 11 Managing water smarter 12 Operation: Take back Amman 14 Putting Arabic on the map 16 Opportunity knocks: Internships are key to opening career doors 18 The Muhlenberg connection 20 Why the arts matter 22 Interpret this! 23 Lights, camera, action 24 Remembering King’s 28 Syria through the eyes of a Jordanian 30 Friendship pays 32 Fearless and feelin’ good 34 Boston alumni reception 2016 36 Refugees and Islamophobia: Daniel Leal gets down to business 37 6 new ways Round Square inspires change 38 Teaching is in my DNA 40 King’s parents become King’s students 42 King’s Academy says goodbye to Ryuji Yamaguchi 44 Summer reading 46 Class notes

WHY A MIDDLE SCHOOL? HEADMASTER JOHN AUSTIN EXPLAINS HOW THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED MIDDLE SCHOOL REPRESENTS A DEEPENING OF THE SCHOOL’S MISSION

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Note from BK: In the October 2015 issue of the student newspaper, The Rexonian, Katie Jonsson ’16 wrote a lengthy and thought-provoking article entitled “Does King’s need a Middle School?� Headmaster John Austin was given the opportunity to respond in the newspaper, and Beyond King’s is reprinting excerpts from his response here. BK thanks The Rexonian for granting it permission to reprint. For those who wish to read the full article as well as Katie’s article, these can be found online on the King’s Academy website.

BY DR. JOHN AUSTIN

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$ ! concerns regarding the Middle School, and I would like to summarize and address a few of them.

The campus cannot comfortably accommodate 600 high school students and 120 students in grade 7 and 8. It would be interesting to conduct a study of the indoor and outdoor square footage that our students enjoy compared to other schools. Having visited many schools across the world, I suspect that if we studied this question we would discover that King’s has much, much more space than most schools. We are blessed with an extraordinary campus — dozens of buildings extending over 144 acres. Many visitors have remarked to me that, in its size and expansiveness, the campus feels more like a liberal arts college than a school. As the idea of the Middle School was discussed, the general consensus was that we have more than enough space to add 120 students and grow the school downward into grades 7 and 8, and that we could do so without taking space from students in grades 9–12. Katie remarks that during “passing period� there seem to be “too many people in one place.� I take it Katie is referring to the Academy Building. This may be true, but it may not be a bad thing since physical proximity can lead to a stronger sense of community. It is worth noting, however, that at least as far as the Academy Building is concerned, the possible crowding Katie mentions is something we would have experienced regardless of the addition of the Middle School, which, as she notes, will be housed in a separate building. It is also worth noting that the Middle School will have a separate schedule and this will allow grade 7 and 8 students to use other facilities in the school (dining hall, auditorium) when they are not in use by older students. SPRING 2016

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Each of these shifts was in keeping with a number of not always easy to reconcile priorities: to situate !

!! & ! the school (and one another); to use our existing space to best serve our present students; to ensure that the students in grades 7 and 8 have a facility adequate to their needs; and to make sure staff and faculty have adequate working spaces — while also minimizing cost. There are, of course, trade-offs here but many, if not most, of these priorities have been achieved. '

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< =! now closer to students, nicely situated in the largest of the three wings of the Academy Building; the UCO is closer to the Academy Building (and to students) in a lovely space in the library; and administrative functions that were at some distance from one another have been brought into closer proximity in what is ! ! #

Students will (and should) always be free to make their own friends, but we need to do everything possible to combat cliques, especially when they work to make some students feel excluded and fragment the community. How do we combat cliques? This, I believe, can only be accomplished by students themselves. Students are the best and only defense against cliques, and the unkindness and pettiness that sometimes emerges from them. I hope we can have a school without cliques, and I hope that as we welcome these younger students to our school next year we can embrace and, in the words of our mission, “cherish� them as part of the King’s family. I have always been impressed by the warmth and care with which we begin each year and the manner in which we welcome new families and students to the school, and I have no doubt that this will continue next year.

The Middle School will strengthen social groups and cliques at the school, and increase divisions between students, particularly between the rising 9th grade students and those newly admitted to grade 9.

The Middle School, and the lack of a boarding program in the younger years, represents a departure from the founding blueprint of the school.

I believe we can work to ensure that the rising grade 9 students can come together with new grade 9 students to create a class that is diverse and strong in spirit,

# # ! < # grade 9 students can serve as buddies to new grade 9 students, and grade 11 and 12 students can serve as mentors, and big brothers and sisters to students in grades 7 and 8.

The Middle School certainly represents a departure from the original blueprint, since King’s was not originally envisioned as a 7–12 school but not, I would argue, from its vision and founding mission. The modest expansion of the school is consistent with the goals of its educational program and the school’s founding commitment to educational opportunity. In this way it represents a deepening of the school’s mission, not a departure from it.

I share Katie’s general concern about cliques, a problem with which every school struggles. Much of what we do at King’s is designed to discourage cliques. That goal informs our admissions policy — we seek a diverse student body — and our approach to such things as House assignments and our family-style meals. In both, students and faculty are deliberately mixed. One of the great opportunities that King’s students enjoy, compared to their peers at other schools, is the chance to make friends across the boundaries of culture, nationality and religion. Given what is happening in the world today, that is a precious gift. (I was very pleased to see that in a & # > Q mindedness� as the quality of mind — of the 15 polled — for which King’s best prepared them, with 89 percent of graduates responding that they were well or very well prepared for the diversity they experienced at colleges and universities.)

There are many “high schools� both in the United Kingdom and the United States that begin in grade 8, and the 7–12 model is quite common. Indeed, it is both established and proven — not surprisingly. Beginning at grade 7 will allow King’s to introduce students to its values earlier, to create a more coherent and intentional educational program, and to provide students with a longer “runway� for success. That King’s will be able to serve more students and give the gift of a King’s education to more young men and women in Jordan is consistent with the founding vision and spirit of the school. Given our resources, the spaciousness of our campus, and our ambitions to educate generations of young men and women who will lead in a positive way, should we not share the opportunity of a King’s education more widely, if we can at the same time preserve the essential integrity and mission of the school?

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On the question of boarding, I would say the following: we have not ruled out the possibility of a boarding program for younger students; the Board of Trustees, the body responsible for the governance of the school will study the possibility of a boarding program for younger students at some point in the future. King’s was founded as a boarding school, and it will remain a boarding school. My hope is that in the future more and more students will elect to board. One thing is certain: schools evolve — or at least the best of them do — and King’s is committed to # # & X # [

Academy has changed course many times over of the last century. In the early part of the 20th century it was a boy’s school with students living in the town. It later admitted female students and then slowly morphed into a full boarding school. In 1948 it reverted again $ \]] [

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is true of all great schools: they evolve to meet the times and develop new programs that align with their mission.

The Middle School will not be as diverse as the High School. We will continue to seek diversity, since this is the lifeblood of the school. As Katie’s article makes clear, we will seek to preserve the socio-economic & ! " #$ _ #

lower grades, and we will also welcome international students. Will there be fewer international students in the middle school than in grades 9–12? That is ! # (as one of the last safe havens in the Middle East) is itself a diverse and cosmopolitan city. Not all of our “international� students, moreover, are full boarding students who live abroad. Many of our international students live, as it were, in our backyard. We have at present 28 international day students and 38 weekday boarding students (a majority of whom live in Amman) and they carry passports from 17 different nations and & SPRING 2016

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OUT WITH THE OLD IN WITH THE NEW Harkness tables are taking over campus. And they’re here to stay. BY HANAN ABDALLAH

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The Harkness method of teaching is employed in numerous classrooms at King’s Academy.

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lassrooms at King’s Academy are looking a lot different since the introduction of shiny new Harkness tables that have replaced traditional desks throughout the Academy building this past year. To accommodate this shift in much more than just dĂŠcor, the entire King’s faculty underwent intensive professional development training on how to implement the innovative Harkness method of teaching — or, as Dean of the Faculty John Leistler prefers to call it, “approachâ€? — that complements the tables of the same name. “Harkness is a unique pedagogy that creates powerful interest and a deeper understanding in students,â€? explains education consultant and 15-year teaching veteran Alexis Wiggins, who administered the comprehensive training session at King’s. According to Wiggins, the method achieves the “ultimate purposeâ€? of school-based education: creating curious, inquiry-based and independent life learners who have real relationships with knowledge. To help students reach this milestone, Wiggins designed the “spider webâ€? graphic, a discussion

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` ! & Based on the acronym for Synergetic Process Independent Developed Exploration Rubric, the process trains students to work together in their problem-solving and self-evaluate the learning process along the way, creating authentic collaborators and communicators. “It isn’t meant to replace the traditional method of teaching, but rather achieve a new balance,� says Wiggins. “Educators recognize that it’s a different kind of world today and students need to be prepared for an unknown future; they need to learn a certain set of skills in order to be successful.� Skills that can’t be acquired in a traditional chalk and talk classroom. So what exactly does a Harkness classroom look like? # # & in a relaxed setting to discuss the material. But they do more than go through the content; they debate ideas with their peers, ask their own questions and make discoveries independently. They challenge one another, draw conclusions and are held accountable for their learning. The teacher, though always present, SPRING 2016

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takes a back seat and rarely intervenes – only providing support and ensuring the group remains on track. “It is teaching, for the adult, with our mouths shut,� as Leistler puts it. “Harkness teaching puts the student at the center of developing meaning. It’s experiential and it allows students to conceive through their own interpretation of something.�

Spider web graphic taken from John Leistler’s AP Capstone class

At King’s, the tables are currently housed in over 20 classrooms dedicated to the humanities, but the Harkness approach isn’t limited to subjects in that '

as Department of Physical and Life Sciences Faculty Member Alexander Funnel, have quickly jumped on the innovative bandwagon. “There’s no rote memorization with this type of learning,� says Funnel, who has applied an approach modelled on the Harkness method in his honors physics class well before the tables arrived to campus. “Students produce knowledge and it tends to stay with them longer. That’s much more valuable.� That King’s has taken this on as an initiative speaks volumes about the kind of learning at the crux of the school’s mission, adds Wiggins. “It’s important to have people who really understand how to collaborate, how to behave ethically, work as a team and see the big picture,� she said. “King’s is a school that will produce a lot of movers and shakers. Its alumni will go into things that will ultimately help solve a lot of the world’s problems, particularly in this region.� 10

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“Harkness teaching puts the student at the center of developing meaning. It’s experiential and it allows students to conceive through their own interpretation of something.�

Harkness 101 Where did the name come from? Edward Harkness (above), an American philanthropist who sought to reform education in the United States. Where did it originate? Philips Exeter Academy in the 1930s. Harkness made a gift to the school in an effort to begin reinventing the pedagogical techniques at American boarding schools. In his own words: “What I have in mind is [a classroom] where [students] could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method, where [each student] would feel encouraged to speak up. This would be a real revolution in methods.� Which schools have adopted it? Over 40 of the world’s top educational institutions, # [

{ & Academy, Miss Porter’s School, Choate Rosemary Hall, The American School in London, Seoul Foreign School, The Hotchkiss School, St. Paul’s School and King’s Academy!

MOUNIR ENNENBACH ’12

MANAGING WATER SMARTER BY JESSE ADAMS Ennenbach calls “a veritable walking encyclopedia� of environmental expertise, and researcher Paulina Concha Larrauri at the Columbia Water Center. He and Larrauri recently won a weather challenge for their research hosted by the environmental services ~ & # invitation to visit the company headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. “Our goal was to look at rainwater harvesting from a regional perspective by exploring its wide-scale applicability as a water resource, similar to the way that solar/wind energy are disrupting the standard electricity grid,� explains Ennenbach. “Our use of gridded precipitation data led us to create a novel deconvolution algorithm that increased the accuracy of our calculations.�

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/ / # Q # career in medicine, Mounir Ennenbach ’16SEAS found himself outraged by a leaky showerhead in his residence hall. After it dripped for several days to general indifference, just submitting a maintenance request wasn’t enough; he measured

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# # _ # more water every day, 35 gallons, than the per capita daily consumption of the nation of Jordan, where he’d grown up. Cultivating his interests in water management and environmental preservation, Ennenbach explored the university’s broad array of disciplines tackling these challenges, but none combined quite the rigor and sheer practicality of Columbia Engineering’s Earth and Environmental Engineering program. Transferring | }

! # solutions for water treatment and management within a broader framework of environmental sustainability. “The most exciting thing about being an engineer is

& & &

everyday problems,� Ennenbach says. “In class we’ve been trained to analyze problems and ask the right questions to move creatively and reliably from Point A to Point B.� His central focus was a national assessment of rainwater harvesting potential, working closely with engineering professor Upmanu Lall, who

Ennenbach has also learned extensively from professors Kartik Chandran, Robert Farrauto, and Pierre Gentine, and has been collaborating with classmates to build a wastewater reactor in Chandran’s lab as part of the Columbia Urban Water Design Challenge for Rio de Janeiro. Last summer, he worked at New York City’s Department of Environmental { #

engineers play in getting vital resources like water from source to consumer. In addition to his stellar academics, Ennenbach is also an accomplished musician. He earned a degree in piano performance from the Royal Schools of Music in London, and on campus holds regular chamber music performances in addition to playing in various capacities with the Morningside Heights opera scene. After graduation, Ennenbach will pursue environmental risk management at Citigroup. His team is focused on demonstrating how addressing

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# term, he hopes to continue applying the programming and data analysis skills he’s acquired at the Engineering School towards weather and environmentrelated applications. “I’m going to miss the variety and intensity of the academic atmosphere at SEAS,� he says. “People like to complain how many problem sets we have due, but the rigorous and far-reaching theory and practice # & #Q

workplace and any other future endeavors.� Originally published by Columbia Engineering, April 2016

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OPERATION: TAKE BACK AMMAN Nadine Zaza explores sustainable solutions for Amman’s Gate Towers BY HANAN ABDALLAH

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adine Zaza ’12 can’t stay away from her beloved Jordan for very long. At every

` # ! Providence, where she’s a student at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and returns home to Amman, the city she grew up in since age 11. “I was born in California but I walk in the streets of Amman mentally all the time,� says Nadine, who is also cross-registered at Brown University. Earlier this year, she found herself back home to work on an independent study based on the Jordan Gate Towers, the notoriously deserted abraj that stick out like a sore thumb in the heart of west Amman. In 2006, just one year after the Greater Amman Municipality green-lit a plan for the towers to become Phase I of Gulf Finance House’s billion dollar Royal Metropolis project, shareholders began pulling out of the investment, which allegedly had licensing issues from at the outset, and construction was halted altogether. Today, the 40-storey towers loom over the Sixth Circle, completely idle, and have done nothing more than “hijack the city’s skyline,� says Nadine.

“The towers have always been a metaphor for me in life. After leaving something like that behind, as citizens, it feels like we need to take it back.� “I’ve cared about them from the time I was a kid living at my grandfather’s house, which is right under the towers,� said Nadine, whose concentration (within architecture) is nature, culture and sustainability. “As much as I enjoy my classes and studios, I’ve been wanting to apply what I’m learning to something that matters to me personally.� This past winter, Nadine did just that. During her semester break, she interned at the Studio-X lab (Columbia University’s graduate school of architecture) within the Columbia University Middle East Research Center (CUMERC) in Amman. While there, she

& Q

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! } and “reimagined a reuse of its haunted remains� through a series of cultural and sustainable designs she created. “The towers have always been a metaphor for me in life. After leaving something like that behind, as citizens, it feels like we need to take it back,� Nadine said.

Nadine also took advantage of her time at CUMERC to explore Amman’s master plans and initial designs dating back to the 1960s in order to gain a better understanding of the city’s history. She discovered that the capital’s exponential growth over the years – due ` _ ! ! #

! # # high fertility rates and the emergence of a new labor market, among other factors – had placed a major strain on the sustainability and development of city infrastructure. “The master plans show that urban development was not recommended for the safety and wellbeing of the city,� she said. “There’s not much agricultural land left for expansion and Amman is growing more and more congested ... we can’t ignore what we create anymore.� To gain a “youthful perspective� on the current sustainability dilemma and potentially come up with viable solutions, Nadine held a design charrette on campus on ways to repurpose abandoned public spaces and positively contribute to the urban fabric of the city. “It’s very important to start engaging the community, especially future leaders of the country, in the problems the city is currently facing,� she says. “We need to begin by at least implementing ideas and being creative.� And her King’s Academy successors didn’t disappoint. Inspired by the many ideas submitted by students who attended her talk at a special school meeting, which included attaching solar panels to the towers to create sustainable energy or turning the buildings into “vertical slums� for the many displaced refugees in the country, Nadine plans to compile the information and turn it into a book based on this case study to raise awareness and hopefully incite change. She also hopes to return after graduation to do a whole slew of things architecturally “within small nuggets in the city,� like opening an arts center with a working space or repurpose abandoned villas and historical homes. For Nadine, nothing is too far-fetched. “Architecture is conceptual. You can pull from social and economic problems, and react visually,� she said. “At RISD we’re taught that if something is a ‘crazy idea’ then come up with an even crazier one. When you start to create, design and envision, that’s how things happen.�

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PUTTING ARABIC ON THE MAP Four King’s graduates tutor Arabic despite their busy college schedules BY MATT WESTMAN

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utoring Arabic has proven to be an opportunity for the King’s Academy community to grow. With every new Arabic student that alumni tutor, they bring King’s into their college communities in a meaningful and important way. And as those conversations unfold and those relationships grow, King’s Academy and Jordan become places on the mental map of the Middle East that Arabic 101 students start to create.

Hamza’s story During his freshman year, Hamza Al Sarhan ’13 was sitting at a table doing some work in the Middlebury College Library cafĂŠ when he heard a few students behind him struggling to pronounce Arabic words. Turning to them, Hamza offered his assistance, which they enthusiastically accepted. Soon one of the students, Maggie, asked if he would tutor her in Arabic, and Hamza agreed. “A month or two after he had begun to tutor me,â€? Maggie recalled, “it became clear that Hamza thought he was volunteering and didn’t even realize he was going to get paid! I was really touched since he had 14

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already been spending hours each week to meet with me and go through material.� While there are a number of Arabic-speaking students on campus, it was Hamza who was asked by the Arabic department chair, Professor Usama Soltan, to tutor students in the highest level of Arabic at Middlebury because of his strong background in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). “It’s not just that I speak Arabic,� Hamza said. “I did a lot to improve my Arabic grammar at King’s, including taking Arabic Honors and A-level. By tutoring, I’m using those skills, and it feels really rewarding.� Hamza has spent this past year — his junior year — at Dartmouth College. When, in the fall, he was asked to help with Middlebury’s International Student Orientation, he ran into incoming freshman and fellow Lion, Sammy Abdulrahim ’15. Hamza told Sammy that tutoring Arabic was a great way to stay connected to the language and to remember the grammatical intricacies that are not present in everyday conversations. It also helps to develop a different kind of relationship with fellow students, Hamza added. “They’re your peers but you also feel like you’re in a position that not every student gets: you’re a teacher. And you’re teaching them your language, something that you’re proud of.�

Lillian’s story [ & & ! ‚ the rocky Atlantic Coast of Maine, and there’s Lillian Gharios ’12 working as an Arabic teaching assistant at Bowdoin College. Upon realizing that her beginning and intermediate students were craving lessons on Arab culture and dialect not covered in their MSA courses, Lillian decided to use her TA classes as an opportunity to expose the students to Jordanian dialect and answer their questions regarding culture and traditions. This year, she taught colors, numbers and how to order food, subjects conspicuously not covered in the ubiquitous Al-Kitaab (the Arabic primer that has dominated Arabic language instruction in the United States over the last two decades). Lillian also offers review sessions during which students often show up with homework but quickly ask to “have a normal conversation in Arabic� or translate a YouTube video.

Some of her students will be studying abroad in Jordan next year and the TA classes simulate the conversations they will soon be having with their host families and Jordanian friends in Amman.

Omaymah’s story & Q & ! †

Upper West Side of Manhattan, where Omaymah Harasheh ’14 tutors Arabic in the peer-to-peer tutoring program at Barnard College and in the Language Resource Center at Columbia University, where there is a particularly high demand for Arabic tutors. In her freshman year, Omaymah, who is now a sophomore majoring in human rights and economics, tutored a few undergraduates before they went to study in Jordan. This past year, she began working with a handful of graduate level students, one of whom is an Australian pursuing his MBA at Columbia and who recently secured a job in Irbid. “Our conversations are very interesting,� Omaymah said. “I’m learning from this grad student while helping him improve his Arabic.� Unlike undergrads, graduate students often have a

work in the future, making their tutoring requests more targeted and more relevant than the broader MSA lessons taught in college Arabic classes. As a senior at King’s in 2014, Omaymah earned Jordan’s highest grade on the A-Level Arabic exam, the third King’s student to win the honor. Despite her fus-ha prowess, she has gained a new appreciation for Arabic through her tutoring, learning to see language through the eyes of her students.

# # ! and gives him a valuable new perspective on life as a college student. “As a student, you walk into lectures and think, ‘that class was interactive’ or ‘that teacher was boring.’ But you never realize the amount of work that goes into preparing a class until you actually do the teaching!� Several of King’s non-native Arabic speaking alumni are currently enrolled at Middlebury, including Jinseul Jun ’13, Josh Claxton ’14, Rob Engel AY’14 and Alex White AY’14. According to Sammy, they’ve been doing well on their own without his services, due in part to the preparation that King’s has provided for them. “They are usually a step ahead compared to the other Arabic students.� Some of Sammy’s favorite “aha� moments with students come when they make the connection between words through a shared root or pattern. “Seeing the surprise and happiness on their faces when they connect words on their own is really ! # ƒ As Sammy can attest, King’s has already earned a special place in the world of Arabic instruction at Middlebury. And many of his students know of the school not only because some studied abroad in Jordan, but also because King’s is part of the conversations that alumni are having in their Arabic classes, in their tutoring sessions and around campus.

“I started thinking in their way, seeing it more like a mathematical equation or a system that I don’t fully understand. But I have to learn the tricks behind it.� Sometimes she prepares for a tutoring session by reviewing a particular grammar topic online, brushing up the skills that earned her that top A-level score as a high school senior. “Tutoring has been a refresher for my grammar as well!�

Sammy’s story Completing the triangle leads back to Middlebury and to Sammy, who has taken Hamza’s advice and assumed the Arabic tutoring mantle. He notes that SPRING 2016

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OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS INTERNSHIPS ARE KEY TO OPENING CAREER DOORS According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), college graduates applying for a fulltime job prior to graduation are far more likely to receive a job offer — and to be compensated at a higher level — if they had an internship or co-op experience.

The summer internship at the Embassy of Jordan in Washington, D.C. was a very rewarding experience, which has provided me with invaluable insights about international relations and diplomacy.

Amer Al Hadid ’13 University of Wisconsin

The writing’s on the wall. And King’s alumni are reading it. Here’s what some alumni have said about their recent internships.

I interned at the Consolidated Contractors Company’s headquarters in Athens. I worked with highly skilled professionals, engineers and architects to develop engineering drawings, plans and layouts for the Riyadh Metro Project. This internship was the perfect experience that helped me get a clearer image of the work I want to be pursuing proceeding graduation.

Zain Abdelrazeq ’13 Rochester Institute of Technology

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My internship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put me in a great position to learn a good deal about foreign affairs from a Jordanian perspective. The internship provided me with an opportunity to learn not just soft skills necessary in a work atmosphere but concrete information on topics relevant to my studies in global politics and economics.

Dana Alasker ’10 London School of Economics

I had the opportunity to intern with Ernst & Young in their disaster recovery department, which is responsible for verifying

of multiple banks in Jordan. It was an incredibly enriching experience as I was exposed to how IT and infrastructure can be applied to a business setting.

Ali Shajrawi ’11 talks INTERNSHIPS

Farouk Ghandour ’14 Suffolk University

I interned at the Economic and Social Affairs Directorate at the Royal Hashemite Court. As a double major in economics and political science, I gained a lot of expertise and knowledge, especially in conducting research and formal writing. The position was very helpful for me to get a better idea of

interests.

Aya Abuosbeh ’13 Cornell University

I interned at the Consolidated Contractors Company’s HQ in Athens, Greece. Interning at one of the most prestigious construction companies in the Middle East helped me comprehend the responsibilities that we as future engineers and future leaders hold to make the world a more resilient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly place for future generations.

Shareef Abdelrazeq ’12 Virginia Tech

What advice would you give to King’s alumni studying in the United States who are contemplating working there after graduation? For international students who come to the States, it is very important to secure summer ‡ would like to work in, you have to have the experience going into your job interviews and summer internships give you a chance to prove yourself and your value to a company. How does the visa process work for international students after graduating from college? X & ! ! to secure a job after graduation because the company has to incur a lot of the costs in the visa process. They have to hire a lawyer and go to court on your behalf. In order to secure your visa, they have to make an argument as to why they’re hiring you and not an American citizen. That whole process can cost thousands of dollars. What is unique about the post-college job landscape for international students who have studied in the States? There are hundreds of thousands of students graduating from college in the United States every year. As an international student, you have to put out good reasons for why a company should hire you and not someone else who is American. That comes down to how hard you work during your internship, how much you want to stay here and work here. I was fortunate that Karbone [Ali’s employer] didn’t even look at whether or not I needed visa sponsorship, because they hired me based on my record during my internship. The summer internship gave them a clear sense of the value I could add to the company. SPRING 2016

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THE MUHLENBERG CONNECTION ALUMNI FIND PARALLELS WITH THEIR KING’S EXPERIENCE AT THIS SMALL LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE BY MATT WESTMAN

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n 2013, the former president of Muhlenberg College, Peyton Randolph Helm, visited King’s Academy and addressed the community during a school meeting. At the end of his presentation,

# # ‚ # ` # members of the audience. Eventually, he drew his arm

` # ` X #

over the senior section and disappeared, getting stuck in the rafters. The president and the crowd laughed. The memory of President Helm’s talk and ill-fated toss | * $ }

his junior year at Muhlenberg College. After hearing about Muhlenberg in that school meeting, he decided to apply and has been in Allentown, Pennsylvania ever since. Since then, Mohammad Tobolat ’14 and Leen Madanat ’15 have joined him there (and this coming fall, Jouman Barakat ’16 will also matriculate at Muhlenberg). All three King’s alumni are now at Muhlenberg and each is engaged in the academic and social life of the college in ways that echo their experiences as students at King’s. Emran Lallow At his commencement, Emran Lallow ’13 earned the King Abdullah II Award in addition to the top prizes in Arabic and science. Like many of his classmates,

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Emran had initially planned on pursuing a degree in engineering after King’s. “You’re not successful unless you’re an engineer or a doctor,� he says, summing up the societal pressure that many Jordanian students feel. But Emran is now majoring in physics, and plans on pursuing a PhD in physics after college. Muhlenberg’s small classes have allowed Emran to develop a close relationship with his physics advisor. Last summer, he did research with that professor at the storied Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. He will be back at Brookhaven with the same professor this summer to continue that research. Muhlenberg does not have a men’s volleyball team but Emran has continued with the sport, serving as an assistant coach and occasional practice player for the Muhlenberg women’s volleyball team as well as coaching a regional youth club volleyball team. Emran enters the student union, just as gregarious and affable as he was at King’s, and immediately shouts “Kayf si’htik?!� to the woman working behind the counter. Allentown is home to a large and historic ! #

& # arrived over a century ago. This unexpected Arabicspeaking community serves as a welcome reminder of the Middle East to King’s alumni whenever they get food in the dining hall or grab a snack at the Muhlenberg “Kaziyeh.� Mohammad Tobolat ‚ ' $ Œ }

sophomore year, has secured a room in the spacious International House on the edge of campus, across the street from the president’s residence, thanks in large part to his upperclassman roommate and residential life wasta, Emran Lallow. Mohammad also puts his knowledge of computers to work as an assistant technician at the on-campus IT Helpdesk. Mohammad is studying neuroscience and hopes to pursue a master’s degree in cognitive science # ! # # ! Muhlenberg. Many of Mohammad’s friends in Jordan Q !

universities, while many of his American peers, whose families are familiar with the liberal arts college model, do not have a clear sense of their career paths after Muhlenberg. When he mentions that he’s “majoring in neuroscience� to people back home,

< Q # prospects from skeptical family members. “They ask me, ‘But where are you going to work?!’�

Unlike some of his King’s classmates, Mohammad sees the abundance of engineers in Jordan as a disincentive for studying engineering in college. He points out that many Jordanian engineers have to leave the country in }

‚ $ to study what he is interested in, continuing to hone

& # at King’s, demonstrates his faith in the liberal arts philosophy that undergirds educational institutions like Muhlenberg and King’s. Leen Madanat Leen Madanat ’15 was a freshman this year and has yet to declare a major. She has found many parallels with her experience at King’s, including living in a # # friendly faces around campus. Time management learned at King’s has proven a valuable asset in her ! #

! ! #

#

“I’ve got the King’s schedule ingrained in my head! Gotta eat at the dining hall, work after dinner, etc.� Leen talks passionately about going from her physics lab to her seminar on religious migrations. In physics, students move along at the same pace, grappling with extremely challenging material. In religious migrations, students are encouraged to bring their own experiences and backgrounds, and are in turn required to listen to and engage with their peers in a meaningful way. Having recently been through the college process herself, Leen encourages King’s students to ask questions and reach out to older King’s alumni when trying to learn about colleges and universities. Her experience at a small college has given her a support system that is not always available to students at a large university. She seeks out her professors outside ! ! # *

& said that when she can’t track down her physics professor, another professor in the department is always ready to help answer her questions. Her comfort with professors is apparent as she walks through the science building, striking up a quick conversation with her calculus professor. While some King’s students might want a more anonymous university experience, sitting in the top row of a 600-student lecture, Leen explains what life can be like at a small college. “You are an individual and not just a number. The college knows you and is interested in you. People care.�

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T

he making — and the study — of art remains an important, powerful and, I believe, essential component of our educational program, and I am always inspired by the work of our student-artists.

The arts — both the practice of the arts and the study of works of great beauty — are often seen as a frill, an add-on, an extra. When the curricular axe comes out

#

# #

WHY THE ARTS MATTER BY HEADMASTER JOHN AUSTIN

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I believe that this is profoundly wrong. The arts are not extras; they are essential, especially for a school like King’s and especially for our students — if we wish to prepare them well for college, career and most importantly a meaningful life. There are capacities of mind and qualities of character that the arts are uniquely suited to impart. So allow me here to offer & # !

'

# study the arts is that they allow young people to practice courage. I believe that schools need to teach courage, give young people the willingness to take risks, not to shrink from challenge, and to discover the hidden strength and talents each of them possesses. The performing arts do just this; they give us courage. To risk oneself before an audience — a real, breathing audience — requires a kind of courage, and I wanted to begin by recognizing that. This is especially true of young artists who are just beginning — who are acting !

& } instrument or who are exhibiting their paintings and # !

Over the years we have seen some remarkable individual performances and works by King’s students. But most of the performances we have seen are the work of groups — and this is my second point. An education in the arts teaches teamwork, collaboration and group creativity. Working as part of dance or theater troupe and ensemble, orchestra or design team requires that we learn to work together towards something that is greater than ourselves. We have — for better and for worse — a highly individualized concept of success, but success in life, at least in my experience, rarely happens alone or in isolation. As His Majesty King Abdullah II noted in his Commencement address of 2012: “The greatest accomplishments, the deepest joys, are shared.� The joy of art, like the joy of working in a school, is fundamentally a shared experience — between a reader and writer, a performer and an audience, and between the musicians and dancers themselves as they

combine their talents and energies to create something that transcends the individual. An education in the arts also teaches us the value of practice — and, as it does, the value of failure. What parents, somewhere deep within themselves, do not fear for the future of their child? Success, especially in school, has become all and everything, and for that reason there are few places in schools where children can make mistakes or stumble. There is no time for a misstep; the stakes are too high — with the result # &

resiliency and patience that comes with not getting # #

‘ # essential part of the learning process (one reason I have encouraged our faculty to teach for mastery and to develop in our students a growth mindset). The Irish playwright Samuel Beckett wrote: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.� Learning to play a musical instrument, like learning to speak a language or developing excellence in athletics, requires long hours of practice; there are no shortcuts. Practice leads to mastery, and practice is nothing less than the ability to move forward through continual failure and incremental improvement. When you practice an art, you learn how, as Beckett says, to “fail better� and you come to realize that there are very few things of value that do not require long hours of disciplined practice, trial and error. The ethic of practice may be one of the most important things a child can take from school, because once you have acquired it there is very little that, with patience and time, you cannot learn. As a classroom teacher, I am envious of my colleagues in the arts, because the teaching of art offers a powerful model for education at its very best. So much in school — perhaps too much in school — has become focused on test results and high stakes testing. I am very proud of our students’ achievements in this area, and I recognize the important role they play in our students’ future. But this testing mindset worries me; since it encourages a strategic, short-term mindset

#

# characteristic of the scholar and the life-long student. I do not need to tell you that many of these tests are divorced from the kinds of tasks that we confront in !

! '

_ school and for school, and only for school. The standard for excellence in the arts is very different; it is the live performance and the exhibition: the song,

the play, the dance, the drawing. These are profoundly real — real because they are not far removed from the kinds of performances and exhibitions in which professional artists engage. The difference between our orchestra and the London Philharmonic is one of degree, not kind. One of the great challenges that schools today face, I would suggest, is the challenge of making school more real and making what we do more like the arts — to provide students with performance tasks that excite their imaginations, their curiosity and intellect; that result in authentic performances of mastery; and that approximate the kind of work scientists, historians and scholars actually do. The arts show us the way forward. Finally, the arts offer all of us a window into the beautiful. The way we talk about school tells a lot about what we value. We are living through a great age of school reform and innovation, driven by advances in online learning, cognitive science and educational research. Yet certain words have all but disappeared from the conversation about teaching and learning: words like wonder and awe, curiosity and enchantment — and beauty. We talk a great deal about critical thinking — and that is all to the good — but very little about appreciative thinking. Yet an education that neglects the study of the beautiful, that does not provide opportunities for the appreciation and the contemplation of the beautiful, is an impoverished one. The study of works of art sharpen our perceptions; they help us see and hear with greater sensitivity. Early this year my English class was exploring Roberts Frost’s famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,� and a student asked: “Why is this poem so celebrated? Why has it endured?� I could really only come up with one answer: because it is beautiful. When read carefully and with appreciation for craft, it stirs the soul and it explores eternal mysteries, confronting us with fundamental questions about the purpose and meaning of our lives. A great education should confront students with great works of art and literature from a range of cultures and traditions; it should develop a young person’s powers of perception and discrimination — and to see beauty in unexpected places: in science, math and scholarship. There are many capacities an engineer must possess, but I would hope that one of those is a capacity to apprehend beauty and to appreciate grace, form and color. A great education should provide ample opportunities for expression and performance; it should, in short, ask them to contemplate the beautiful. SPRING 2016

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Remembering King’s Tala Habbab ’15 reminisces about the community she holds dear

I

know it has been a hectic year and everyone’s busy, whether it’s because you’re all preparing for the addition of 7th and 8th grade or because everyone’s just trying to get #

$ # step back every once in a while and take it all in. I have to say; I haven’t done that in a while. X $ / # ‚ ’ & from Jordan, my family, my friends and my home. And I’m surprised to say so soon that I really want to go home. Now don’t take this the wrong way, college is amazing; it’s been a wonderful learning experience so far, and I already feel like I’ve grown since I arrived. And yet I can’t help but sit here in my dorm at 3:00 am on a Wednesday, thinking about my home, wondering how everything is going, and wishing I could be there to witness it all and be a part of it.

I’ve been looking back at my past years at King’s quite often recently and feeling as though I left with words in me that I didn’t have the chance or perhaps enough perspective to say. Looking around at all the changes in my environment this year, I’ve realized one of the most amazing things about King’s Academy that I only really realized once I had left. I’ve always appreciated all the opportunities that I was given there and the events, classes and activities that I got to take part in, but I completely missed the one thing that was right in front of me the entire time: the sense of community. Sometimes it’s hard to maintain true sight of something when it is all that you see. This may sound like a paradox, and it is, but it’s also true. I’d grown so accustomed to the nurturing

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environment I was exposed to at King’s that I only noticed it when I went away. Even though I went back to my family at the end of every school day, you’ve all felt like a second family, and King’s my second home. I never think of home now without thinking of King’s and planning on visiting it when I return to Jordan. In my time at King’s, I bonded with every single one of my teachers, created deep friendships with my classmates and made memories that will last me a lifetime. I was surrounded by people who genuinely cared about my growth as both a scholar and an individual, and this isn’t as common in other environments. You see the best !

# at us during the applicant interviews, and you continue to look at us the same way all throughout the years we spend learning from this community and contributing to it all that we can. You’ve all welcomed me into the school like a parent would welcome a new child into the world. And you’ve changed my life, helped me grow more than I knew, and I would just like to truly thank you for this community that you have built. It is truly like no other. I only hope that this sense of community grows larger with the incoming students who will be joining us next year. And just to clear up one more thing: they say college years are the best years, but my years at King’s Academy will always be of the most cherished times of my life. Truly, Tala

“They say college years are the best years, but my years at King’s Academy will always be of the most cherished times of my life.”

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GOOD LUCK CLASS OF 2016! SPRING 2016

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SYRIA

THROUGH THE EYES OF A JORDANIAN BY SAMMY ABDULRAHIM ’15

PHOTO CREDIT: AUMIT LEON (MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ‘19.5)

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A

s the new year arrived, the Syrian crisis

! ! # With a UN estimate of 6.5 million dis `

# refugees, no near end is in sight. Older teenagers and adults, however, reminisce to a time of malaise when the Jordanian capital (Amman) was a mere two hours’ drive from the Syrian borders. It was not uncommon for Jordanians, Lebanese and Arabs of other nationalities to spend their weekends in Syria exploring its farmlands, visiting its old shops or touring its archaic landmarks. My own family used to take road trips to Syria, even reaching Turkey. These trips seem incongruous now considering the infeasibility of crossing a war torn country. Nonetheless, failing tourism is the smallest of concerns right now. I grew up in a Jordan that had a population of roughly 5.5 million people, and even then the country had little in the way of natural resources to support its growth. In point of fact, Jordan is now the world’s second water-poorest country. The scarcity of resources once obtained from Egypt and Syria falter the country’s progression and stop it from reaching its sought-after goal of self-dependence. The population of Jordan could not sustain itself even before the crisis =&

& “ ! #

& ` ” # “ ` _

$ X 2016, one in three inhabitants of Jordan is a refugee, including Palestinians, Syrians, Iraqis, Libyans and Yemenis among other nationalities. Not only are these refugees creating a heavy demographic burden, the conditions the refugees themselves live in are beyond miserable. Many of the refugees arrive with serious medical conditions, thus occupying much needed hospital beds. Moreover, most of the refugees are hauled into refugee camps where the youth and adults cannot work but have to sustain their families, thus constraining them within a legal state of limbo. Most famed among these camps is the notorious Zaatari refugee camp located in the Mafraq governorate of Jordan. The camp’s inhabitants

!! !

! ! ! supplies and better accommodation. And without ! ! ! ! & drug dealing and prostitution have gradually risen. In addition, the geography of Mafraq has not helped. An open desert, Zaatari has suffered over the years !

& & ` that have led to multiple evacuations. The refugee camp now houses 80,000 refugees making it the fourth largest city in the country. And although living conditions are well below acceptable, life there is beginning to stabilize. According to the Telegraph the camp has “a pizza delivery service, a coffee shop selling shisha and a street named Champs-ElysĂŠe.â€? This newly found stability may seem like a ray of hope for the Syrian refugees, but personal and mutual experience proves otherwise. My own family is originally { ! #

! ` to Jordan after the Palestinian-Israeli ` \Œ] ‚ ! members lived in one of 12 Palestinian refugee camps that were set up by the UNRWA. These camps, like every other camp established in the Middle East, were intended to be a temporary solution until the refugees could return home or were given citizenship or residency. In reality, these camps are now bustling urban slums and ghettos that have transformed into permanent cities and districts in their own rights. The fear lies in the transformation of Zaatari into one of these camps. With no end in sight to the growth of the camp or the crisis itself, the situation may seem helpless from where we stand as college students. But what if each one of us Middlebury students can help? There have been many college-based organizations like Amnesty International aimed at helping these refugees. But to create a bigger impact, we have launched a petition (Go/Refuge), in collaboration with the University of Jordan, aimed at creating a minimum quota of refugees to be admitted to Middlebury College. With every extra signature we get, we are one step closer to helping those in need even in our Vermont remoteness.

Originally printed in The Middlebury Campus of Middlebury College, January 2016

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FRIENDSHIP PAYS BY MATT WESTMAN

KING’S ALUMNI HELP EACH OTHER GET AHEAD IN THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD

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O

n a chilly March night, Ali Shajrawi ’11 and Hamza Zaidan ’10 sit in the lobby of a hotel just steps from Manhattan’s historic Grand Central Station. Both

& # !

! both are sharply dressed, having outgrown the King’s tendency to wear their ties loosely. They sit in leather # ! ! #

from the street and the neighboring bar’s happy hour crowd drifting in. During the summer after his junior year at Wesleyan ’ & # " specializing in renewable energy and environmental markets. His summer at the company’s New York ! " !! # }

! # December. After graduating from Wesleyan a few months later in May 2014, Ali moved to New York City to begin his full-time work at Karbone. Initially, he was

# the company’s new director of research. Karbone spent the next couple of months looking for someone with

_ #

got my coffee, got my breakfast. Then, all of the sudden, I got a phone call at 9:15. Ali asked, ‘Hey where are you?’ I responded ‘Downstairs actually,’ and he said, ‘Good ‘cause he wants you to come up now!’� Hamza had come well-prepared for the interview, !! &

types of questions that the CEO and managing partner might ask, as well as a detailed description of the job responsibilities. However, acing the interview turned out to be only one part of the equation. As Hamza later explained, “After the interview, Ali told me that arriving early showed them that I actually wanted the job!�

After graduating from Williams College in the spring of 2014, Hamza also moved to New York City. He worked at a couple of different companies, putting his economics degree to use and gaining valuable work experience. As his contract came to an end in summer 2015, he had a fortuitous encounter with Ali at a reception in honor of Jordanian Independence Day hosted by Her Excellency Ambassador Dina Kawar. Ali and Hamza had not seen each other since playing rugby against each other in college. Exchanging news, Ali described his new job with Karbone, and Hamza told him about his work since graduation, including

_ #

& same skillset that Karbone was looking for. Hamza recalled, “I was just out of the job I was previously working at, and I told Ali, ‘You know, I’m looking‌’ and he said ‘We’re looking...’â€? The conversation stuck with Ali the following week at work. “Every time the CEO would bring up the idea, # –‘ $ modeling?!’ I was like ‘I know a guy. I know a guy.’ So he said, ‘Okay, bring him in on Friday.’â€? That Friday morning, Hamza hopped on the subway in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and arrived at Grand Central Station at 9:00 am, nearly an hour early for his 10:00 & " $ ! >X

Ali elaborated, describing his conversation with his bosses immediately after Hamza’s interview. “They told me to give him a call and tell him to start on Monday. I thought ‘Really?!’ We’ve never done that. Usually, it’s like three rounds of interviews. But they said ‘We need him —

& !

† # in.’� Ali was thrilled with the CEO’s feedback. He had

" # !

} helped a fellow King’s alumnus. As Ali started to leave

/|= # Karbone’s new hire, “‘And if he messes up, you’ll be —$ƒ Hamza summed it up succinctly, “I interviewed on Friday, and I started Monday.� SPRING 2016

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FEARLESS & FEELIN’

GOOD After graduating from the University of Jordan in 2014 with a degree in theater acting and directing, multifaceted artist Nairuz Al-Ajlouni ’10 has since been juggling his two passions — music and theater — in Jordan’s local art scene and beyond, determined to make his mark in either industry. Earlier this year, he brought his “good vibes” to King’s Academy to share his exciting life updates, including what teaching drama to refugees was like and how surreal it was working alongside a renowned Oscar-winning actor. BY HANAN ABDALLAH 32

BEYOND KING’S

A L - A J L O U N I

What are you up to these days?

What inspires you?

X$&

# TV. Most recently I’ve travelled to places including Lebanon and Morocco as part of a touring theatrical production called Berserk. I do a lot of voiceover work for documentaries, cartoons and Nickelodeon Arabia. Last year I had the opportunity to teach drama at the Haya Cultural Center. Many of the kids there were refugees from different countries and they were brilliant. As much as I love performing, seeing how art can touch the hearts of others is very special in its own way. On a different note, I was lucky enough to be chosen to participate in a master class taught by Kevin Spacey at the Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts!

My mother has a lot of experience as a voiceover actress for many well-known Arabic cartoons and my late father was a director, writer, cinematographer and set designer. Being born into a creative

As an only child I was always looking for ways to entertain myself. I played the violin then the keys before I fell in the love with the guitar. I was swayed by the strings — the technique and physicality of it. At eight years old, music became my best friend.

What was that like? Kevin is incredibly talented and very down to earth. Seeing him step down from being Frank Underwood in House of Cards to coach us was a truly amazing experience. We learned a lot about the craft, especially improv. The workshop culminated in a performance of Hassan Abdulrazzak’s Dhow Under the Sun, which was done in collaboration with the Kevin Spacey Foundation and the Middle East Theater Academy. It was so much fun!

N A I R U Z

Do you prefer acting or music? Oh, that’s a tough one! Let me put it this way: I’m married to theater but my mistress is music. My ultimate dream is to direct ! I’ve been designing sounds over the years, working on original soundtracks for theater in Jordan as well as children’s music.

Are you in a band? My band Telefreak broke up but I’m currently part of two new ones: Random ˜ feel, and Le Garcon, which is more experimental with electronic beats. The name is a reference to my favorite director, Quentin Tarantino. Don’t worry there’s no violence in my music but I do ‘kill it’ when I’m on stage! I’ve also got a solo project, El Donnie, which is a one man show. I sing and play different instruments; it’s a form of stand-up comedy too!

you were a student at King’s Academy? I lived in the Gallery! King’s taught me to not be afraid. I fell in love with the performing arts and realized how freeing it was to be on stage. Everyone knew I was the music guy on campus. My friends (Zaid Nasser ’10 and Fadi Hamati ’10) and I are the ones who started Open Mic nights!

How would you describe the artistic scene in Jordan? It’s tough but it’s growing beyond the small artistic circles in Jabal Al Luweibdeh. Today’s youth are emerging with lots of new '

$ # are changing slowly but surely. I’m trying to gain as much experience as I can abroad in order to give back because I want to help reinvent the artistic scene here. We have so much to offer and we all have the capacity to get involved.

Anything in the works right now? I just signed on to do an Arabic series on Abu Dhabi TV called Samarqand. It takes place during the Abbasid period and I play Ahmad Khan, a young man who is transitioning into manhood and dealing with the struggles of becoming a future leader.

Any advice for up-and-coming artists? We’re all the same, we’re equal in this. But I do think it’s important to stay humble. That’s the key to success and to just being a good human being. Nothing but good vibes; be thankful and be happy. Keep your egos in check!

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REFUGEES & ISLAMOPHOBIA DANIEL LEAL

GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS

D

aniel Leal ‘15 had Syria on the brain when he launched Btania, his oneto-one business venture, at Babson College last fall. In partnership with the Collateral Repair Project, Btania — taken from the Arabic word for “blanket� — donates one `

! #

” !

Â’ '

& # Islamophobia by educating Americans on the plight of these refugees, the majority of whom come from welleducated Muslim households, following the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS. To achieve their goal, the Btania team at Babson have organized information sessions about the refugee crisis in the Middle East and set up pop-up shops across campus where people can purchase the blankets adorned with the company logo, an Islamic geometric pattern.

36

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“When I was at King’s, a teacher of mine once said, –^

tend to have more of it.’ I see business as the science of making an idea sustainable. Btania is an experiment ! ™ ! successful at raising awareness, then it is able to grow and amplify itself, causing change one ripple at a time

& ` # ƒ In addition to Btania, Daniel has set up two other organizations at Babson: Al Tareeq, which he hopes will bring Babson’s entrepreneurial education to the ‚ | ” † / # # ˜ ' ! # ! † [ is just getting warmed up! Want to help? Visit btania.com

NEW WAYS ROUND SQUARE INSPIRES CHANGE The Round Square Office at King’s Academy may have moved to a new location — goodbye library, hello Academy Building! — but that hasn’t deterred the expansion of community service opportunities at the school. In addition to yearly Habitat for Humanity builds, volunteer work with the King Hussein Cancer Foundation and raising awareness about cerebral palsy in Jordan through Kursi wa Kitab, several new initiatives took off this year at King’s, giving Lions even more ways to give back to the community.

1 Inspire to Acquire empowers orphans from a local SOS Children’s Village through sports and art activities.

2 Fikra 3al Mashi makes education more accessible to Iraqi and Syrian refugee students around Jordan.

3 Key Club teaches refugees English language and entrepreneurship skills.

4 Co-curricular Tutoring helps Iraqi children and students from public primary schools improve their English and engage in art, sports and critical thinking activities.

5 Reading Sessions both on campus and at a local library engage kids from the nearby community of Madaba.

6 Composting makes environmental sustainability a reality by simply collecting vegetable and fruit waste on campus.

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TEACHING IS IN MY

DNA BY LILLI AUDEH

T

eaching is in my DNA. It’s not something I do. It’s something I breathe and live and it is literally a part of my genetic makeup. This may sound dramatic; however, if I were to trace the roots of my journey as a teacher to almost a hundred years before I was born, it may have something to do with who I am today. At a time when receiving an education was somewhat of a luxury, my great-grandfather was the headmaster of an all-boys school in Bidya, a village in Palestine. Many years later, his daughter Hind, my paternal

! " Haris and Beita, two small towns on the outskirts of Nablus, Palestine. Her brother, my father, received a scholarship in the 1950s to get his undergraduate degree at the University of Cairo, and after that, he was granted two scholarships to receive his Masters and PhD in Education from Ohio State University. My maternal aunt was also a headmistress for 20 years at a school in Ramallah, Palestine. Fascinated by birds since childhood, I thought my _ ` # # X didn’t pay attention to the fact that my genetic makeup was beginning to make its way into my being in a variety of ways. At school there was a science fair every year and my father always helped me come up with an experiment !`

˜ didn’t do the work, but guided me with the reasoning and physics behind what I would present on that day. 38

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Visiting the high school where my father spent his days and writing on the black board with chalk that would leave my hands and clothes powdery and white ! X to classrooms and labs that kids my age did not. It felt like having a special back stage pass at a rock concert. I could go into any lab I chose and simply wander around and gaze at mysterious instruments, glass containers, tubes and colorful liquids. I was even allowed to look at exam questions and sometimes my dad would give me an answer key and say that I was a teacher for an hour. I got to grade papers! Years later, I would visit one of my father’s classes at the University of Jordan. Positioning myself as inconspicuously as I could, I observed my father lecture with love. It was a science education class and he was making references to what an effective assessment should look like and the thought process behind formative and summative mechanisms for monitoring student progress. It was Chinese to me. I had no idea what all this meant, but the attentiveness of his students was enough for me to say that what was happening in the room at that moment was magical. My father was preparing a group of teachers to become the best they could be. Their lives would ultimately impact the lives of thousands of children across the kingdom, and I got to witness a snapshot of this. I cannot say that during those moments over 20 # X X ` #

now. Nor can I say that I decided to become a teacher at that moment, but I know that what was happening in that room was something profound.

Reading this, you may be wondering why I have left out a big portion of my schooling and why I have not made reference to a teacher who, at some point, inspired me to become who I am today. The sad truth is that I did not have inspiring teachers. I went to public schools in Amman and my memories of growing up were that I was always treated like an outsider and was constantly referred to as the “ajnabiyeh,� the foreign one. The fact that the way I looked did not blend well with my surroundings and that my Arabic was weak because my formative years were spent in Canada only compounded my feelings of alienation. This is not to say that I am not thankful because I am, very much so. I thank the teachers who disliked their jobs, who treated me unfairly and even the ones who hit me a few times. I thank them because if it were not for them, I would never really have known who I did not want to be like. They created in me a need to be different and to give kids the opportunity to have a teacher who can be caring and inspiring. So, to go back a mere nine years ago, which will take me to the most current part of my career, I accepted an offer to work at a school which came into being because of the late King Hussein. Although he passed years before this school was established, it was because of his decision to send his son to a boarding school in the United States that King’s Academy became a reality. Upon succeeding is father to the throne, HM King Abdullah II laid the foundation for what is now one of the best schools in the Middle East and maybe even the world.

As the lands surrounding Madaba gave birth to this monumental educational institution, my journey as a teacher, and ultimately as an administrator, began. It started with a man and woman who believed in my abilities to become a leader and as time passed, I was given the opportunity not only to teach but also to guide teachers on the path to becoming better educators. What I get to do now reminds me of the lectures my father gave so many years ago. X $ ` & X # ` # # ! literature and teaching them allows me to soar higher than any bird could reach. And although I never had the chance to be the pilot I once dreamed I could be, my students, and often teachers, are the passengers who allow me to take them to heights they never thought they could attain. “

# & me a copy of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet. His words on teaching have stayed with me ever since: The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness. If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads to the threshold of your own mind. Lilli Audeh has taught English at King’s Academy since 2007. She is also associate dean of the faculty.

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KING’S PARENTS BECOME

KING’S STUDENTS BY HANAN ABDALLAH

L

ast fall 18 parents from the King’s Academy Parent Council eagerly enrolled in a special visual arts class taught by King’s very own art history veteran, Dean of the Faculty John Leistler. For 10 weeks, the back-toschoolers learned about art spanning from prehistoric times to the present day, all under the umbrella of “visual calisthenics,� a term coined by Leistler. Leistler gave Beyond King’s the low-down on what it was like teaching the parents of some of his best students and how the apple truly doesn’t fall far from the tree. BK: Explain the meaning behind the name of this class. JL: When you hear the word “calisthenics� you think of the gym. This class was meant to be exercises for our eye, to really see the changes in visual arts over the centuries. BK: How did you develop the curriculum? JL: The class is essentially AP Art History, a class I’ve # & " #$ & & school. Basically, you’re asked to study any artwork from any given time and explain it — speculate what it means and what it represents. It’s much more about the social history than about just the art side. BK: Did you need to adjust AP Art History to make it more accessible to parents? 40

BEYOND KING’S

JL: It was more of a tour through the history of art. There were no tests and it was more informative. So you don’t get depth but you get breadth. I also tried to make sure their eyes could see differences in changes when looking at art over the centuries. You don’t have to know all the answers. Facts can be overwhelming. Trust your eyes! BK: Why did you start with art that dates back 25,000 years?

JL: When you look at modern art, so much of it goes back to the primitive look of ancient art, like the stuff in caves. If you don’t know that, it can be very enriching. A lot of the men who painted after World War II were wondering whether they were more advanced than cavemen. Based on all that carnage and brutality it was hard to tell. It’s interesting to know why these artists chose to break the rules, so to speak. BK: Which artwork was the most popular during the course? JL: The last piece I picked was from 1996 and it’s called “Bohemia Lies by the Sea�. It’s a reference to a Shakespearean fantasy play that claims Bohemia is just that, but geographically it’s actually landlocked.

# ! #

you wonder what the artist was trying to do. He spent a lot of his career trying to sum up what it meant to be German in the year they “made the world sick.� A friend of the artist wrote a poem about the painting stating that if we can believe Bohemia lies by the sea then we can believe in hope and change. I thought that was a nice way to end the course.

they went and they enjoyed it. The art world tends to make people feel like they “can’t be in the club.â€? But if you just learn a little bit, you’re already in. BK: What’s the most gratifying part of teaching this class for you (to students of any age group)? JL: When I see a lot of the works I’ve taught, I feel that I’m with all of the kids that I’ve taught. That makes the art even more fun and meaningful to me. Seeing the adults get excited when they came to class after a long day — to sit in the dark for an hour and a half — that got me excited. You certainly don’t want anyone to be bored, so you have to just let the art work its magic. Someone once asked me why I teach ‌ well because once in a while it works! BK: What’s your favorite kind of art? JL: Normally my answer to that is “I like what teaches well.â€? But I do like the Dutch in the 1640s! They’re urban and they have multiple perspectives. They like pondering what matters in life, they like their faith and they like their things. They’re just trying to grapple with a lot of the things people today deal with.

BK: What was your goal for the class? JL: This course makes you feel smarter quicker. For me, in a math class it might take a year to feel smart. With a work of art you learn one piece of context that makes you say “now I understand this guy or that time better.� A few of my students traveled to Amsterdam

~ š # ‚ because of this class. They were giddy in telling me

BK: Who do you enjoy teaching more: students or their parents? JL: Truth be told, students are cuter and sweeter about epiphanies. Experience makes us more jaded. But the parents were so polite and gracious! We’ll see if this group wants to try something new in the future or where the interest goes!

“Bohemia Lies by the Sea� by Anselm Kiefer

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BEYOND KING’S

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SUMMER READING With summer just around the corner, Beyond King’s has asked some of the most avid readers on campus to share their book recommendations.

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

Headmaster John Austin suggests Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World by David N. Perkins explores the question of what our students need to learn in order to thrive and ` # # 21st century. It argues that yesterday’s curriculum is no longer adequate for tomorrow’s challenges and that education must prepare young people for an unknown future, not the past.

What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain asks what are the attitudes and mindsets that distinguish the best college students from their less successful (and happy)

› † of qualities: the courage to take risks, the ability to make connections across disciplines, a learning orientation driven by curiosity and wonder, and the ability to make sense of messy problems.

was the kind of book I couldn’t wait to come home and read more of. Some of the characters are thoroughly distasteful people, but what resonated with me is that the book really asks you to examine how one lives, the meaning of life, and if disabilities plague you, then do you try and overcome them? – John Leistler, Dean of the Faculty

Čż Ç Ĺą Ç?Ɔş ČłĆžĆŻĹżČ Č¸Č¤ĆžĆŞĹś Ç€ĆƒƸĆƒĹś ȲǞų ÇœĹž Ç€Ć ČšȜȿÇ?ŽȚ Ç ĆłĆŽ ÇœĹž ƞȚźƞƸŜČ– Ç€ƸƇƸƉŞ Čż ÇœĆ Ç?ƪƯŽȚ Č´Ç?ƲŽČš Č?ƞƸƜƸŰǞŰ ÇœĹž ĆžƸŝČšÇ?ƯŽȚȜ Č°ČšÇ?ƯŽȚ ČœƞƸŲ Čż .ÇœĆ Ç?ƪƯŽȚȜ Ç‹ŲȚǞŽȚ Č´Ç?ƲŽČš ÇœĹž ȲȿȜÇˆČš Ç‹ƲƯŽČš Ç€Ć ĆžĆˇĹż Ç&#x;Ĺ˝Č˜ ĆžĆˇĹżĆžĆ Č˘ĆşĹŽ ȨƞĆˆĹľÇˆČš Č?ƞŝǞŸ ƞơƾƴƲŎ Ç€ĆƒůƞƳŽČš ǛŴÇ?ĹŻČś Ç€ƸſƞĆ‰ĹżČ Čš Č?ƞƹ ƍŽȚ ČœČĽÇ?ĆƒĹž Ç€Ÿ ǞƜƄƓȚ ƞơĆƒĆ€ČšÇŒŞȜ Ç€ƹƴĆ„ĆĽČš Čż Čż Čż .ǀƇƸĆƒƲŽČšČś Ç€ƴƸĆƒȿƜŽČš – Atef Abu Sarris, Arabic

The Short and Tragic life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs is the true story of a young African-American from Newark who is offered a full scholarship at Yale and struggles to navigate between his two worlds. The book takes a hard look at the privileged world of the Ivy League and raises important questions about the realities of class and race. – Monica Matouk

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BEYOND KING’S

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson is hilarious. I found myself laughing out loud many times while reading this book. Jonasson offers an interesting and pretty objective perspective on some events in our recent history. – Dragana Babic Al Mahasnah, Mathematics

Perfect by Rachel Joyce is a poignant novel about a young boy to whom something happens in a split second that ends up determining the course of his life. Highly original and beautifully written. – Vera Azar, Communications and Publications

Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak gave me insight into the life of Rumi at a time in history where so much negativity is being spread regarding Islam. – Lilli Audeh, English

The Fate and the Furies by Lauren Groff tells a tale of fortune, fame and deceit #

! and excerpts from letters, plays and phone conversations. It is a beautiful, innovative and exciting read! – Hannah Gross, History

by Donna Tartt is a fast-paced art theft drama that blends high and low culture in a compelling and engaging way. – Chase Procknow, English

ȤÇžžƞŸ ȡÇžǤÇ?Ĺ˝ Ç€Ć Č¤ÇžƭƜƭŽČš ÇœĹž ƞơŎ Čż Ç?Ĺž ƞŞȜ Ç€ƸƜƸƭƉƴƹŽČš Ç€ƸƏƲŽČš ǀƍŝ țƞƄƳŽČš Ç ĆłĆ‡Ć Ç€ƸƜƸƭƉƴź Ç€ƴǣƞŸ ǀƍŝ ČľÇ?ƸƭƉů ȲǞų ÇœĹž Č?ƞŝƞƹůȚȜ Č?ƞŴƞƳƄſȚ ƞƀȢČšÇ?ĹşÇˆ ȞNjŲ ƞŞȜ Č†Ç€ĆƒƳƜŽČš ȳƞŸ ÇšĆƒĹť Ç€Ć Č¤ÇžƭƜƭŽČš Ç€Ć Ç?Ĺť Ç Ĺş Ç?ƸƯů .Č´ČƒČš Ç&#x;Ĺ˝Č˜ ǽǞǧȜ Ç™Žȣ Ç‹ĆŻĹŽ – Shaden Al Salman, World Languages

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer tells a compelling, not-so-typical love story during the Second World War. – Jesus Gonzalez, Learning Center

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2010 CLASS NOTES

Mohammad Al-Quraan After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Mohammad went on to graduate from Virginia Tech with a Master’s degree in geotechnical engineering. He is currently working for Geosyntec Consultants outside of Washington, D.C. Rakan Al-Shbeikat ! ! #

/ # of Surgeons in Ireland – Bahrain. This past year he has explored the ! # # is also interested in psychiatry, neurology and general surgery, and plans to do an attachment in psychiatry in Jordan over the summer. Sally Bisharat Sally graduated from the American University in Cairo with a degree in integrated marketing communications. She loves working as the marketing communications executive for the Jordan Marriott hotels as it is a “great space for creativity with little routine involved.� Leen Sinokrot After graduating from SOAS, University of London with a Bachelor’s degree in politics and economics, Leen decided to pursue a Master’s degree in development and planning from University College London (UCL). She plans to travel to Nepal to learn more about practical development and hopes to return to Jordan and implement developmental plans to improve her country.

Sally (center) with her Marriott collegues during Global Customer Appreciation Week

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BEYOND KING’S

Nairuz (right) reconnects with fellow Class of 2010 classmate and current King’s teacher Ghassan Gammoh

2011

CLASS NOTES

Saleh Abdellatif After graduating from Lund University with a degree in medicine, Saleh took a gap year to travel across Europe and spend some time living in a meditation village. Malik Al-Jabori Malik completed his Master of Laws at the University of Edinburgh and plans to pursue a PhD from the same university.

Burhan and his beautiful bride, Sonia. Mabrook!

Yazan Fanous Yazan is studying mechanical engineering at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He has worked hard to become the youngest * | # | & [ # œ*||[� & ’† ‘ # project aimed at creating solutions for the world’s energy crisis. Omar Malkawi Omar recently graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s degree in architecture. He is excited to join the ! ž # he learned “back home to the Motherland.�

Seema (center) poses proudly during the Tuck Business Bridge Program graduation Mohammad Diab Al-Oran Mohammad is studying civil engineering at the University of Jordan. Last summer he traveled to Doha, where he interned at Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) and learned about construction design, site supervision and project management. The experience inspired him to pursue a Master’s degree in construction project management in the United Kingdom.

Qxhna in ultimate frisbee action

‚ #

! ! X <$

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Farah Matalqah Farah graduated from Wheaton College 2015 with a degree in economic sociology. She landed her “dream job� working with Syrian refugees in Zaatari and Mafrak as an economic analyst and } # !

Q # ‡=X~

Farah visits Zaatari refugee camp

Mohammad at the site of Dukhan Highway Project in Doha Adel Nesheiwat ! ! ‚ $ ’ & ˜ ‡ =! |_ #

& $ | / # œ

” � and has served on the International Federation of Medical Students Association.

Seema Samawi Seema graduated from Smith College in May of 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and a minor in music. She then did the prestigious Smith-Tuck Business Bridge Program, taught by Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. While at Smith, Seema competed on the varsity tennis team, reigning in eight wins from various singles and doubles matches during her senior year. Seema is now working as a quantitative consultant and programmer ‚ ‚ Â&#x; š # ‚ X October, she won third place in the Northeast NAGA Championship, † ” ”Q

& ! the Killington Spartan Race.

Suhayb Al-Jawhari looks sharp in front of the White House

[

/ # —

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BEYOND KING’S

Qxhna Titcomb Qxhna graduated from Tufts University in 2015 with a degree in international relations (with a focus on the Middle East) and a minor in Chinese. Last summer she helped raise US $45,000 to run a female college all-star cross-country ultimate frisbee tour to promote women athletes.

2012

CLASS NOTES

Shareef Abdelrazeq Shareef is studying civil engineering at Virginia Tech. Last summer, he and his sister Zain (Class of 2013) interned at the Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) headquarters in Athens. They worked closely with engineers and architects on implementing design projects for a petroleum plumbing system located in Abu Dhabi. Shareef has interned at CCC for three years now, and says the experience has helped him develop a vivid image of the industry he hopes to work in after graduating.

Dima reaches the top of KĂśnigswinter in Bonn, Germany Hunter Bell Hunter is majoring in earth science and environmental science at the University of Toronto. He has been heavily involved in earth systems science research and his current project focuses on improving the accuracy of oceanographic reconstructions of climate in the North { = ˜

&

| & !! =!

& and worked to create a campus greenhouse gas inventory.

‚ # # !!

! Â&#x; X Anwaar AbuShugair Anwaar is double majoring in political science and economics at Oglethorpe University. In the last four years, she has worked in the & $ !

& & in the Student Government Association. In addition, she started an Arabic club and joined the Rotaract club as well as the interfaith club, COEXIST. Over the past few summers, Anwaar has interned at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Central Bank of Jordan. Noor Alhaidary Noor is pursuing a degree in international studies from the University of San Francisco, where she is majoring in global politics and societies, and minoring in Middle Eastern studies. Dima Alhourani Dima is graduating from Trinity University with a degree in economics and urban studies. She received the KSP Excellence Scholarship to attend the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po where she will pursue a Master’s degree in international development beginning this August. Mumen Alzubi Mumen is enrolled in the dual engineering program between Skidmore College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He is double majoring in physics and industrial management engineering with a minor in mathematics. Mumen is currently interning as a support engineer at the contracting software company WorkTech in Somerville, Massachusetts. He has previously interned at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and at Evolv Composting LLC.

Dima Masri Dima is in her last year of translation at the German Jordanian University. She did a semester abroad in Bonn, Germany, where she volunteered with Amnesty International. Last summer, Dima interned as a writer and editor for the “positive Middle Eastern news� website, BarakaBits. She is currently working on a personal website, where she publishes her own writing and translation. Osama Sbeitan = # year at Ryerson University, where he is studying entrepreneurship and strategies. He is involved in various initiatives including the Middle Eastern Student Association, which he co-founded. In addition, Osama and his friends have launched a manufacturing and distributing company based in the United States. Abdel-Muiz Shawar Q‚ year at Imperial College doing research in Jordan as part of his Master’s in engineering. The research focused on waste management in Jordan, with the goal of moving towards “a more circular economy� by using waste to generate energy and recover vital resources.

Abdelrazeq siblings Shareef and Zain at CCC in Athens

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2013

CLASS NOTES

Awn Al-Hadeed Awn is in his third year at the University of Reading’s School of Law. During the summer of 2014, he interned at the Inner City of London Crown Court and at the Queen’s Counsel, which taught him about criminal law and “what it takes to be a successful lawyer� respectively. Awn’s academic areas of interest are corporate law and international dispute resolution. Near completion is his manifesto for the establishment of the Jordanian Conservative Party, which he estimates will be ready to enter candidates for Jordan’s 2021 parliamentary elections. He strongly encourages King’s students with a passion for politics to contact him if they are interested in being a part of this political party. Aya Al-Jalamdeh Aya is in her third year of medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She began this term with clinical rotations in hospitals, a “drastic change� from attending lectures. This past summer, Aya was part of the RCSI Research Summer School and presented her research at the International Conference for Healthcare and Medical Students (ICHAMS). She is currently the class representative for third year medical students, and is an active volunteer for the RCSI REACH program and the Teddy Bear Hospital.

Awn (right) attends a dinner at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Alaa’ Haddad Alaa’ worked as a research assistant at Harvard Medical School, where he took part in a project that aimed to create a model of

& & ˜

technician at Janelia Research Campus on a project that involved tracing individual neurons in the brain.

Aya presents her research at ICHAMS Shahd Al-Jawhari Shahd is at Mount Holyoke College where she is studying mathematics with a double minor in Asian studies and biology. This year, she served on the executive boards of the Student Government Association and the Muslim Student Association. Shahd also still works at the Alumnae Association as an assistant and coordinator.

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BEYOND KING’S

Omar loves engineering!

Omar Megahed Omar is the general director of the Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIE) chapter at Concordia University. Most recently, he has served as a delegate at the John Molson Logistics Conference and at the annual IIE conference hosted by the University of Waterloo. Omar has also enjoyed traveling while pursuing a degree in industrial engineering.

2014 CLASS NOTES

Larisa (left) with Hussam Alkhreisat ‘13 and Bayan Majali ‘14 during GJUMUN Larisa AbuGanam Larisa is studying water and environmental engineering at German Jordanian University. Last summer, she interned at Oasis500 in the marketing and investment departments. While there, she worked with " #$ # * ‚ $ “ ‚ } ! # – Â&#x; Kasih ’11 and Sama Sarraj ’16. Larisa also worked at the Jordanian Language Academy as a speaking partner, teaching American college students how to speak colloquial Arabic. Most recently, Larisa participated in GJUMUN alongside fellow King’s graduates Bayan Majali ’14 and Husam Al-Khreisat ’13. She has enjoyed having good friend Rakan Momani ‘14 by her side and learning German as her ! # # Mayss Akasheh Mayss is studying law at the University of Nottingham. She is a cofounder and treasurer of the university’s Jordanian Society and works to help rehabilitate ex-prisoners at the Nottingham Youth Commission on Police and Crime. This summer Mayss plans on shadowing a barrister in criminal trials. Saif Samawi Saif is a sophomore at the University of Surrey, where he is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. He works with a local radio station, Stag Radio, as an events DJ and show producer. In addition, he is a private Arabic tutor at the university. Hussam Yaseen ˜ #

! Jordan with the aim of providing young athletes with an opportunity to play sports in a fun and safe environment. He currently plays on the football team at the American University of Beirut, and has already received two professional offers to participate in the Middle East football league. His team, the Amman Barracudas, is eligible to play in the International American Football World Cup in 2018.

Mayss (left) takes a break with friends at the University of Nottingham

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2015 CLASS NOTES

Omar Abdel Latif Omar is studying business administration at John Cabot University. [ #

& ! ' ‡[ # # # =

a “positively overwhelming� experience so far and looks forward to more adventures.

Eunsol (right) and Salindi Hearth ‘13 kickback at the MSA Eid dinner Aviselle Diaz Aviselle has enjoyed her freshman year at Georgetown University, where she has continued taking Arabic, and where she’s been working as a tutor for the children of immigrants in the Washington, D.C. area. She has also continued to promote Arab culture as a board member of the Arab Society and to raise awareness about the Syrian refugee crisis. This summer she will return to Jordan for an internship with the Jordan River Foundation and to teach at King’s Summer Enrichment Program (SEP).

Aviselle stands up for a cause

Mallak Al Husban Mallak is studying economics and political science at Barnard College of Columbia University. She caught up with good friend and fellow King’s classmate Sarah Azly ’15 over Thanksgiving break. Sarah Azly Sarah is studying psychology at West Virginia University. Last winter she reunited with some King’s alumni in New York City including her good friend Mallak Al Husban ’15.

Jalil is pumped about Boomshaker’s performance at Northwestern University

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BEYOND KING’S

Mallak (right) catches up with Sarah Azly ‘15 in NYC

Eunsol Jun Eunsol is a freshman at Dickinson College, where she has taken courses including Muslim Lives in First Person, social psychology, Middle East history and Arabic. She has particularly enjoyed learning Arabic and sharing her experiences of King’s and of Jordan. Jalil Khoury Settling in at Northwestern University was initially challenging for Jalil, but he soon learned how to balance out his life and says the opportunities at college are endless. Jalil plays basketball and volleyball, he joined the university’s premier bucket drumming and dancing group, Boomshaka.

Do you live in the United States? Want to show your Lion’s pride? Check out the new digital version of Al Dukkaneh, our US-based online store, and get your King’s Academy gear today! www.aldukkaneh.com

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