d News Office ar v Justin Ide/Har Emad Shahin ’80, ’83 is cool under pressure in the classroom Page 16 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 7 LEBANON: A STORY OF RESILIENCE 4AUSCENES Alumni living in Lebanon recount their experience and anxiety during the war. O’Connor appointed as BEC dean, Stelzer awarded, vice president for 10 WHAT’S NEW ON THE NEW CAMPUS continuing education welcomed, Construction is proceeding on the new campus, and the information technology AUC and University of Zurich sign infrastructure is put in place. law agreement 16 THE PROFESSOR OF PERSUASION ALUMNI PROFILES Emad Shahin ’80, ’83 is an inspiration for his students at AUC and Harvard. 15 Mai Khaled ’85 recounts her days at AUC through her new book 20 CAMPUS LIFE 101 The First-Year Experience program helps incoming students understand the ins and 28 Ben Wedeman (YAB ’81), CNN’s outs of AUC. former Cairo bureau chief, treasures his time in Egypt 25 WARMING THE WELCOME FOR REFUGEES Through its academic programs and extracurricular activities,AUC lends a hand to refugees. 39 Ahmed El Attar ’93 explores new 30 CAREER CHAMELEONS avenues as theater director From banking to aerobics, alumni switch careers to realize their full potential. 39 CLASS NOTES 33 AMBASSADORS OF AUC Class updates, weddings and deaths Six regional representatives are working to promote AUC in the Arab world. 40 AKHER KALAM 36 A NEW ALUMNI CONNECTION Ahmed Fath El Bab, mechanical Raymonda Raif ’91 serves as alumni director, and Mary Iskander ’76 continues to work engineering senior, leads a campaign to with alumni in a new role. help war-torn Lebanon On the cover: Incoming students take part in the First-Year Experience program, photographed by Ahmad El-Nemr Editor’s Notes AUC TODAY New Beginnings Fall 2006 Volume 15, No. 1 Our life is full of new beginnings.This is my first issue as editor, and for me, this job marks the start of a new phase of my time at AUC –– new responsibilities, challenges and opportunities. Beginnings are usually scary and The American University in Cairo is a unclear, but I am lucky to be taking over after Dina Abulfotuh, the previous nonprofit private institution devoted to editor, who was instrumental in reshaping the magazine and upgrading its look providing English-language liberal arts education to serve Egypt and the and content. I hope to develop and build on the great work Dina has done. Middle East. In this issue, several articles focus on the theme of new beginnings. In “Lebanon: A Story of Resilience,” students and alumni talk about the hardships Editor in Chief of surviving the month-long war, but also express hope about the rebuilding of Dalia Al Nimr Lebanon and the country starting anew.“Campus Life 101” takes readers Designer through the new First-Year Experience program, which introduces the Rehab Farouk incoming class to life at AUC as they begin their new career as college students.With “A New Alumni Connection,” Raymonda Raif ’91 begins her Writers Cole Gibas, Dana Dinnawi, Larissa new responsibilities as alumni director, while Mary Iskander ’76, who has held Lawrence and Lily Hindy that position for exactly 30 years, will continue to work with alumni as the associate vice president of institutional advancement for alumni affairs and with Advisory Board President David Arnold as his special adviser, helping to develop and support Louis Greiss ’55, Laila Rustom, Nahed Dajani ’83, Mirette Mabrouk ’89, ’90, the university. Tarek Atia (YAB ’91), Lamya Tawfik ’97, AUCToday is also embarking on a new start. Having just surveyed 500 alumni ’04, Mohamed Selim ’04, ’06, Nada living in Egypt (see page 6), we now have a clear picture of what you as readers Sabet ’05 and Sarah El Sirgany ’04 want from your alumni magazine.As always, we will continue to strive for Photography good quality issues and stories that hit on a variety of topics and interest you as Ahmad El-Nemr, Graham Waite, readers. On your part, we want your input. Send us your story ideas, your Justin Ide thoughts, your experiences as alumni –– anything you would like to share with fellow alumni.We also welcome your letters, submissions and comments on the Illustrations Maryam Farrag magazine.We are always looking for ways to make the magazine more interactive and appealing, and this will only come about through your AUCToday is published three times participation. a year by the American University In addition to the print copy in your in Cairo. hands, AUCToday has now gone online. We welcome all letters. Submissions Visit our Web site, may be edited for space and clarity. www.aucegypt.edu/publications/auctoday, Please send all correspondence to: and let us know what you think and how AUCToday The American University in Cairo we can improve it. 113 Kasr El Aini Street I look forward to our new beginning P.O. Box 2511 together. Cairo 11511 Egypt or AUCToday The American University in Cairo 420 Fifth Avenue,Third floor New York,NY 10018-2729 USA tel 20.2.797.5448 (Egypt) e-mail [email protected] www.aucegypt.edu 2 AUC TODAY Fall 2006 ox InB Thank you AUC for giving me the chance to know a good side of the world, where people are there to help and support one another. I don’t study at AUC any more, nor elsewhere,knock on butmy professors’I know I can doors always and Igo will and find them, to support, encourage and push forward Appreciated as they always did.Thank you AUC for making When my cousin, who got her PhD from Oxford Sylvia Zaky ’04, ’06 me feel appreciated. Cairo, Egypt University, came back from her trip to the United States after lecturing there as a professor, she was excited about the whole trip and said,“I felt appreciated.” That word struck me Eye on the Environment like thunder, and I thought about Bottom row left to r recipient; I was Ambassadorgladight: MoushirAhmed El Or to see the article,“A Way With Waste,” a Khattababi, President’ , secretar s Cup recipient and undergr Ag y-gener a Khan Deli al of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and gr aduate c it for a long time. Do I feel the v lass representativ ers Undergr e; Heda yat Heikal, President’ lished in the last issueaduate commencementof speaker the magazine. It not only adua s Cup and P t var te Commencement arents pub ious Association Cup “ times in step A , the application of kno w same? Frankly, I don’t feel it that histor orld Knowledge y, the locus of pur , after all, Ad knowledge has poses or bad. wledge dr mo can be used w, is also demanding.ess ved fr Throughout histor… center of learom one often been deter ell or poorly y, the application of kno , for good to another ning dominant go mined b once came .toEur the these outmoded,vernments. y a fe deals with a very importantope w potopic,wledge has i.e. recycling, it is also a often, but I did feel it from the w Islamic w knowledge should be utilized.But I belie erful r its o top-hea uler wn classical r intellectualorld for vy w ve the hour iss passingor b for In such a time ays of deciding ho y highly Indeed, oots b enr and mor dynamic Islamic cultur y sear ichment and e on what, wI calle need the toinstitutions depend… less of cion go ching in ev These ci w , constantly r en redisco East and to Eur e in past centurArabic texts. b vil institutions ar eaching out — both to India and thevered ut the I belie ies w … y are committed to the pub v moment I entered AUC gates. ope and the as distinctly In the long s e nor ernment live exampleve that same patter of how AUCmally prprofessors and students are very s k vil society eeping with our past traditions,W among the fir est — for enr weep of human histor ivate and v . ear present needs, n m lic good. ust be our modelichment. toda learning. stawareness and most distinguished center oluntar of the various activities that world’ w Building on those traditions, … y, o y s kno e must to go out and find the best of the… region can again pla y, Egypt has been and in r muchBut accessingwledge kno involved in social service.The article helps raise , wher esponse to oury. In of the futur I graduated from AUC in ever it exists. y a central r s of w exciting pr e, and each of y this countr wledge is only the fir ole in the kno orld and tw ocess. ou can be a vital par y and this wledge society st step — .The second The Aga Khan, of the honor ” t of that take49th Imam of Shia Ismailiplace Muslims on campus, and this could be ary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from 2004 with a bachelor’s in the undergr , recipient aduate commencement speaker a wayAUC and to build a bridge between the business administration,ved my MBA from the same castle of AUC community and Egyptian I recei 9 later, society. Many people think that AUCians are isolated from their education.Through those gates, you can experience lots , but the article provides unity ned and lots of emotions: happiness after success, stress before comm y’s and during exams –– although that was all fun for me. I a good examplee deeply of how concer AUC felt satisfied with the work I did and with the great students arabout their countr development.