AUC Hosts Students From George Washington and DePauw Universities

Working toward its goal of internationalization and fulfilling its mission as Egypt’s global University, The American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted 20 students from the George Washington (GW) University in Washington, D.C. and 27 students from DePauw University for the Faculty-Led Program.

Over the course of two weeks, both AUC and GW students took the course, State and Society in Modern Egypt, co-taught by AUC Trustee Nathan Brown (CASA '84), professor of political science and international affairs at GW, and Nesrine Badawi, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science. The course focuses on state institutions in Egypt and their engagement with Egyptian society, with a special focus on religious and legal institutions.

"The program is designed for American and Egyptian students interested in Egypt,” said AUC Brown (CASA '84), who co-taught the course with Badawi. “Both AUC and GW are internationally oriented universities. It is critically important for AUC to serve as a bridge between Egypt on the one hand and the region and the world on the other. This is also an opportunity to meet a large pent-up demand from GW students to come to Egypt."

Badawi said: "I believe that the course, as structured, provided a unique community-based learning opportunity for our students, in addition to the cultural interaction with international students."

During their visits to the different institutions like Al Azhar and the Supreme Constitutional Court, the students were able to speak with people who work there in order to gain a thorough understanding of how each place operates. "It’s been really interesting. I had no background on Egypt other than reading the news or ancient Egyptian history, but I've been able to pick up on social nuances, the political patterns and the ideas of the structures easily,” said Yael Sternberg, a junior studying international affairs and conflict resolution at GW.

“Not only are we learning from an Egyptian professor, but when we interact with classmates, they’re giving us real and contemporary perspectives,” said Andrew Morales, a first-year graduate student studying security policy at GW.

This is not the first collaboration between AUC and GW. Both universities signed their first Student Exchange and Outgoing Study-Abroad Agreement for undergraduate students in 2010. Two years later, they signed a student exchange agreement for graduate students from the School of Business. In 2018, AUC and the GW Elliott School of International Affairs have signed a new agreement for Graduate Student Exchange.

As for students from DePauw University, Indiana, they took a 10-day course at AUC, titled Leading Change: A Design-Thinking Challenge in Cairo, Egypt, and also attended lectures about Egyptian culture and history. This is DePauw’s first collaboration with AUC and the first time its students take part in the Faculty-Led Program.

The course presents students with an issue in Egyptian society and requires that they come up with a solution. It aims to promote creativity and leadership among the students and expand their awareness of the world around them by introducing them to the multifaceted culture and history of Egypt. “Our challenge was related to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030,” said Eduardo Garcia, a junior majoring in global health. “We had to identify solutions and initiatives we saw in Egypt that we could take back to the United States and implement in our own society.”

Giselle Villegas, a senior majoring in computer science and Spanish, added that the class, in addition to the experience as a whole, succeeded in reshaping any prior knowledge and misconceptions about Egypt that stem from misrepresentation in the media.