BLOGS

VCUQ’s incoming class of 2014 embarked their university life with a week-long orientation organized by a group of 4 students.  The orientation began with the Family Night, during which the families of the students were welcomed by the university staff and students. Along with students from Qatar, the class of 2014 (BFA) also  has 24 students from other countries which incluedes Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philipines, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, the US and Yemen

Besides the 61 freshmen who were accepted into the BFA program, 6 new students, comprising the second batch of MFA students also joined VCUQ.  Deanna Demonch and Jennifer E. Kim hail from the VCU main campus: Richmond, Virginia, as exchange students.

Farzana Hoque, Noor Sulieman, Rabab Abdulla, Sultana Jesmine were the Organizer, Activities Coordinator, Program Coordinator and Event Coordinator respectively. Together with an enthusiastic and fun group of leaders and volunteers, the organizers planned activities that ranged from fun and interactive to educational throughout the summer. Ice-breakers and activities such as “cultural awareness session”, “the wind blows” (one of the VCUQ orientation ritual), etc encouraged the students to socialize with each other and get to know their campus better. The organizers also put together a cartoon animation and a presentation on plagiarism while the students prepared themselves for the academic year. The Art Foundation department also had a crowd-drawing activity called “Pika- Pika” in which students were introduced to time: a component of design, by playfully creating an animation using colored lights.

The beginning of the fun ended with the students participating in the QF hosted welcome event “Ya Hala”, during which the VCUQ students maintained the school spirit while making new friends around the different campuses.  If you are pondering about the rest of the fun, well, it hasn’t ended, since the students are enjoying their new academic year with a lot of creative and mind- teasing courses.

The Class of 2014 will be remembered for one reason: they joined the campus “at a significant time in the university’s History”, as put in by the Dean Allyson Vanstone while welcoming the new students. They will be the first class to enjoy the university’s new expanded facilities that’s more than double the existing VCUQ building.

 “The VCUQ freshmen orientation for the year 2010 was a memorable one! All the freshmen walked in with a confused look on their faces, and all were impatient to find out the surprises they had in store for us. The leaders were great because we got to communicate with them and learn about their experience here at VCUQ, the Dean’s welcome was sweet, short and straight to the point. And the activities were major ice breakers because they involved interaction with all of our group mates. All in all, it was a wonderful start for a wonderful year!” said Hisham Dawoud, on behalf of all the freshmen.  

“It was really exciting to meet some of my fellow upper class-men and hang out with some amazing freshmen, during the VCUQ Orientation. I learned a lot about the VCUQ campus and got to participate in some of the activities, like Pika-pika which was my favorite activity during the orientation”, said Deanna Demonch, when asked to share her perspective of the VCUQ orientation week as an exchange student.

 “Working on the Freshmen Orientation takes me back to the old days- my days as freshmen. I could feel the anxiety, wondering what it is like to be a design student. But up until then, the experience has been extremely enlightening, and I know that there are more yet to come”, added Noor, the Activities Coordinator.

As the orientation begin to leave its mark in the minds of the freshmen, I smile strolling down the hallways at the new students, while I reflect upon the gushing memories of the past two years of my life at EC.

-Sultana Jesmine , Junior, Interior Design & Fashion Design.