The Office of Student Development at The American University in Cairo WRAP
Ibrahim
12-04-2011

Audio feature final by sara-radio 

LEAD-IN: Questions marks are starting to rise when it comes to The American University in Cairo (A-U-C)’s Office of Student Development (O-S-D). Students are starting to probe its role and whether it's professional enough. A-U-C’s Sara El Kady reports.

The role of The Office of Student Development (O-S-D) at The American University in Cairo (A-U-C) is to help the students in extracurricular activities ensuring that they gain experience in the real world and have hands on practice in several fields in order to develop a well-rounded personality.

Several administration and staff members praise the (O-S-D).

HAROUN: "Oh, The (O-S-D) has done a fantastic job. Umm, I think our students here at (A-U-C) are benefiting a lot from that. There is nothing like it in the other, uhhh, universities,” (00:26)
said Medhat Haroun, (A-U-C) Provost.

Although the OSD is considered to be offering the top guidance in leading students to the professional world, they can still have more to offer, but they are trapped into believing that they can’t. Dalia Issa, Associate Director for Student Organizations, said:

ISSA: "We try as much as possible to uhh, give the students a glimpse of the real world. But then again, this is not the real world; this is only a simulation.  It won't be a real world until he graduates." (00:13)

By believing so, the (O-S-D) gives itself no space to expand till it reaches the professional level. Having said that students will not gain the professional skills till they graduate, Issa made it clear that alumni are the ones withholding the professional skills. However, the (O-S-D) doesn’t utilize those alumni in such a way, as to know the missing skills that can be offered to undergraduates.

The professional level is only a step away from the current status of the (O-S-D). The alumni association is already active, yet it doesn’t play an important role in (O-S-D). This association offers a program called “Loyal for Life A-U-C-ian” which aims at encouraging alumni involvement in the A-U-C community. Its goals are to promote class identity among alumni, loyalty towards AUC, a culture of volunteerism and to keep alumni engaged with the university. If the O-S-D utilized such program in a way as to help students benefit from the skills of those alumni, who have practiced the professional life, they may actually reach a professional level and not limit it to a simulation.
Sara El Kady A-U-C News.
     

Links:

Loyal For Life AUCian Campain: http://www.aucegypt.edu/alumni/LoyalForLife/Pages/LoyalforLifeAUCian.aspx

Office of Student Development Heirarchy: http://www.aucegypt.edu/studentlife/Documents/OSD%2012.1.10.pdf

The Office of Student Developmet Web Page: http://www.aucegypt.edu/studentlife/involve/Pages/getinvolved.aspx

AUC Provost Web Page: http://www.aucegypt.edu/about/Provost/Pages/default.aspx

By: Lojain Ibrahim and Sara El Kady

Muslims Fighting for Israel

• Produced by: BBC World Service
• Narrated by: Rachid Sekkai
• Length of the documentary: 22:32

The documentary is discussing Israel's Muslim Soldiers. It starts off with the memorial scene, which gets the audience in the mood, then a brief background on Muslim soldiers who join the Israeli Army. The documentary mainly aims at shedding light on different perceptions on Muslims being Israeli soldiers. The documentary generates a holistic picture in which Israeli officials, the soldiers, their families, religious leaders and Muslim-Israeli citizens share their thoughts about this job.

The documentary is very interesting, as the topic is very unique. It is the first time I know that that are Muslim soldiers in the Israeli army. The oddness of the issue allows audience to remain alert throughout the documentary to be able to grasp the whole idea from the experiences of people who are actually in the scene.

The sound quality is perfect. It is very clear regardless of the strange accents they are using. The Nat sound is perfectly used. Starting off with the opening of the memorial and the Qur’an added to the intensity of the documentary and setting the mood for the audience.

The narrator’s voice is clear. The pace is slow, yet the issue itself was magnetizing that I was fully attended for the whole 22 minutes.

The length of the documentary is good, since it allowed to include several people of different perceptions along with the inclusion of background information.

The writing quality was good as I was able to fully understand what the story is about from an objective angle and was not left out with unanswered questions.

The documentary began strongly with setting up the mood for the topic by using Nat sound and ended strongly by the well written summary that was narrated.