#PeopleOfAUC

With Mother's Day coming up on March 21, working mothers in Egypt and at AUC are facing a lot of challenges in light of the coronavirus situation — they are trying to keep their kids safe at home and entertained, keeping pace with their online learning at home and — on top of that — working in their daily jobs.

We spoke to AUC's staff working mothers, and here are their thoughts on this year's Mother's Day:

We are now facing the coronavirus pandemic. Everyone is feeling anxious, disorientated, worried and generally uneasy. Workplaces are being disrupted to an unprecedented degree, and nobody knows how long this will last. Many of us have to work from home, and this in itself can be not only challenging, but also isolating and lonely. Social bonding is important, and many of us will miss out on interacting with colleagues, and for our faculty with our students too. So, what can we all do about it?

Amira Mohamed, a graduate student in environmental engineering, received the STEM Star of the Year award at EGYPS [Egypt Petroleum Show], and the Highly Commended award in the same category went to Farida Elharouni, double major in mechanical engineering and physics. Both students were also panel speakers at the event.

If you were on campus last Wednesday and Thursday, you would’ve seen crowds of new students eager to begin their lives at AUC wandering among a sea of caps and gowns, graduates ready to start their journeys beyond this campus.

AUC's campus is sparkling with energy and hope as new and returning students kick off the Spring 2020 semester. More than 80 new undergraduates and 140 graduate students started their studies as the University approaches the final phase of its centennial celebration: Experience the Future. 

The new undergraduate class — 47.5% females and 52.5% males — is enriching campus diversity, with students coming from the United States, Syria and Yemen. 

AUC ranked 132 out of 780 institutions in the annual UI Green Metric initiative, moving up from its 136 ranking last year. Universities Indonesia (UI) ranks thousands of universities globally based on amount of campus green space, energy use, transport, water use, waste management and green policies.

For the first time, AUC was the main partner and host of #RiseUpAtAUC, the one-stop-shop event connecting startups in the Middle East and Africa, with more than 20 of AUC’s faculty and alumni as guest speakers.

According to the World Bank, with rapid population growth and urbanization, annual waste generation is expected to increase to 3.4 billion tons in 2050.