Northwestern University in Qatar holds an annual graduation ceremony and related events to honor NU-Q students who have completed their studies. On May 1, 2016, 41 students graduated from NU-Q with bachelor's degrees in communication or journalism. Read more.
The Class of 2016
The Class of 2016 has accomplished an incredible amount in their four years at NU-Q. Our seniors have produced, filmed, animated, edited, directed, researched, written, reported, and broadcast no less than 700 pieces of work during their time at NU-Q.
Our seniors have published in or worked for the following publications, institutes, media, and news companies: Al Jazeera English, AJ+, Al Jazeera Children, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, National Geographic, Washingtonian, Ooredoo, Mediadante, Doha News, Doha Film Institute, Film House, HuffPost Live, USA TODAY, Bloomsbury Publishing, The Daily Q, BLJ Worldwide, Grayling, Brookings Center, Hill+Knowlton, Memac Ogilvy, Oxford University Press, Resolution Productions, White House Post, Qatar Foundation, QF Radio, Quiller Consultants and Tonic Life Communications.
Our students hold passports from fourteen countries, including Qatar, the US, the UK, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Oman, Korea, Jordan, China, Canada, Bulgaria and Bangladesh. They are fluent in nine different languages. Almost every senior is bilingual.
Academic Excellence
Ten of the students graduated with academic honors - with four students having made the Dean’s List five times, two students making the Dean’s List six times and four student making the Dean’s List seven times. (GPA above 3.75 for Communication and 3.7 for Journalism).
James Copplestone Farmer is this year’s winner of the Dean’s Award, while Youmna Al-Gailey has been granted the Student Leadership Award. Syed Owais Ali is the recipient of the Communication Award, Ralph Martins is the winner of the Journalism Award and Tamador Al Sulaiti has won the Liberal Arts Award.
Awards and recognition
Layan AbdulShakoor’s film, “Lor,” was screened at Cannes Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Raindance International Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortFest, New York Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, AFI FEST and 2016 SF Shorts: San Francisco International Festival of Short Films.
Shahnawaz Zali received the “Award of Merit” in the Best Shorts Competition for “Mohammad” (with Syed Owais Ali); “Best Short Film Award” in the Accolade Global Film Competition for “100 Steps – Sou Qadam;” “Best Short Narrative Film Award” in the Miami Independent Film Festival for “100 Steps – Sou Qadam.”
Mayar Hamdan won “Best Short Narrative Award” in the Ajyal Youth Film Festival. Abdulla Gamil was awarded “Best Director” in a 48-hour film competition on Qatar TV, and Reel Mahir won first place in the team category for the same competition.
Syed Owais Ali won “Best Documentary” and “Best Documentary Concept” at the 10th LUMS International Film Festival; “Best Documentary Short Nomination” at the 43rd Athens International Video and Film Festival, a presitigious, Academy-qualifying festival.
Research
Many students were engaged with research projects throughout their time at NU-Q.
Several students, including Tamador Al Sulaiti, AlDana Al-Mesnad, Nayla Al Thani, Sara Al-Thani, Alya Al Harthy, Alanood Al-Thani and Noor Al-Tamimi, worked on the QNRF UREP “Qatari Women: Engagement and Empowerment.” Hissa Al-Sowaidi worked on the QNRF UREP “Global Regulation of Parody and Satire.” Additionally, Syed Owais Ali worked on the QNRF UREP “Chicken is for the Birds: Changing the Deadly Driving Behaviors for Young Qatari Men,” while Sara Al-Nassr worked on QNRF UREP “Arab Children and Youth Media.”
For the Northwestern University Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition, Syed Owais Ali worked on “Embedding Identities in CGI Animations: A Case Study of Pakistan’s Burqa Avenger and U.A.E’s Freej Series.” For the Georgetown University Middle East Studies Student Association Undergraduate Research Conference, Yazan Abu Ghaidah worked on “Dub, Dub-Key and Dabkeh.” For the International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference, Yazan also worked on “Visions of Nationalism in Reality TV – An Analysis of Arab Children’s Collective Identity in Live Safari.”
For the International Association for Media and Communication Research, Layan AbdulShakoor worked on the project, “Portrayals of Role Models in Children’s Media in the Arab World,” while Shahnawaz Zali worked on “Cartoons in Protest. For the Middle East Studies Conference, Nayla Al Thani worked on “Female Engagement and Participation in the Arabian Peninsula: Majlis Al-Hareem in Qatar.”
Youmna Al-Gailey and Chantelle D’mello worked on research for a summer course in undergraduate research in media.
At the Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference, Noor Al-Tamimi won second prize for her student poster presentation in social sciences pillar.
International experience
Most of our seniors have had at least one international experience. Twelve students participated in service learning trips to South Africa, China, Nepal, Zambia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Thirty-five seniors have traveled for reporting trips, academic trips, research conferences, Journalism Residencies and Student Affairs trips to the following countries: United States, France, England, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Cuba, Canada, South Korea and Puerto Rico.
Leadership
Fourteen of our seniors have served in important leadership capacities in NU-Q student clubs. Syed Owais Ali served as Editor in Chief, Managing Editor and Web, Social and Visual Media Editor of The Daily Q; Vice President of the NU-Q Student Union; Founding Member and President of NU-Q International Students Association.
Silma Suba served as Editor in Chief of The Daily Q and President of the Bibliophiles.
Malak Monir served as Managing Editor of The Daily Q.
Shahnawaz Zali served as Vice President, Events Coordinator and Sports Coordinator of the NUQSU; Founder and Vice President of the Music Society.
Mayar Hamdan served as Events Coordinator of the NUQSU; Secretary and Events Coordinator of Purple Project; Vice President and Events Coordinator of Film Society; Events Coordinator of Music Society; Studio 20Q President and Script Chair; Founder and President of Not Another Film Club.
Buthaina Al-Zaman served as President of the Best Buddies Club.
Reel Mahir served as President of Film Society.
Layan AbdulShakoor served as Secretary of Film Society and NUQSU.
Alya Al Harthy served as Vice President of Replay Film Society.
Yazan Abu Ghaidah served as President of the Music Society and Media Coordinator of the NUQSU.
James Copplestone Farmer served as President of the Football Club.
Abdulla Gamil served as President of the Basketball Club.
Eun Ah Rhee served as Public Relations Officer of the International Student Association and Peer Advisor of the New Student Program.
Malak Alomari served as President of the International Student Association.
Mayar Hamdan, Silma Suba, Reel Mahir, Ruba Shaath, Shahnawaz Zali, Reem Al Baker, Lolwa Al-Amri, Eun Ah Rhee, Maryam Al-Thani and Youmna Al-Gailey served as class representatives in the NUQSU. Maryam and Youmna also served as New Students Program Co-Chairs. James Copplestone Farmer, Malak Monir, Maryam Al-Thani, Mayar Hamdan, Paulo Fugen, Ralph Martins, Shahnawaz Zali, Silma Suba, Syed Owais Ali, Yazan Abu Ghaidah and Youmna Al-Gailey served as student ambassadors.
Sports
Kauthar Odwan, Sara Al-Thani and Reel Mahir were part of the NU-Q women’s basketball team (League Champions 2012, 2014, 2015).
Abdulla Gamil (captain) and Paulo Fugen played for the NU-Q Men’s Basketball team (League Champions 2013, 2014).
James Copplestone Farmer (captain), Shahnawaz Zali (captain) and Abdulla Gamil were part of the NU-Q men’s football team.
AlDana Al-Mesnad (co-founder), Sara Al-Thani, Lolwa Al-Amri, Amna Nasralla, Maryam Al-Thani, Nayla Al Thani and Buthaina Al-Zaman were part of the NU-Q women’s football team.
Keynote speaker: Lyse Doucet, award-winning BBC correspondent and presenter
Lyse Doucet is the BBC’s award winning Chief International Correspondent and senior Presenter who anchors news programmes for BBC World TV and World Service Radio. She is regularly deployed to present special news coverage from the field, interview world leaders, and report across the BBC’s domestic and global outlets.
Lyse has covered major stories in the Middle East for more than 20 years and is a regular visitor to the region. Her interviews have included King Abdullah of Jordan, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Rached Ghannouchi of Tunisia, and Syria’s President Bashar al Assad, among others.
Before joining the BBC’s team of presenters in 1999, Lyse spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent with postings in Amman, Islamabad, Kabul and Abidjan. In 1993/4 she played a key role in discussions to open a BBC office in Tehran.
Lyse’s most recent awards include an Emmy and a Peabody in the United States in 2014 for her team’s reporting from Syria. Her broadcasting won her the Women in Film and Television Studio award. She was also honoured with the Sandford Her report from the Palestinian camp of Yarmouk outside Damascus was honoured with the 2014 Prix Bayeux Calvados for war reporting. In 2013 she was awarded Britain’s James Cameron Award, in 2012 an Edward R Murrow award for radio reports from Tunisia, and a Peabody and David Bloom Award in 2010 for television films from Afghanistan. Earlier awards include Gold and Silver Sony Awards for News Journalist of the Year, International Television Personality of the Year from the Association for International Broadcasting and the News and Factual Award from Women in Film and Television.
Last year Lyse was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Honours list for her services to Broadcasting. She has been nominated for Journalist of the Year in the Royal Television Society awards to be held this month.
Born in Canada, Lyse has eight honorary doctorates from leading Canadian and British Universities. She has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto and a BA Hons from Queen’s University in Kingston.
Lyse is an honorary patron of Canadian Crossroads International, and a member of Friends of Aschiana UK which supports working street children in Afghanistan.
Class of 2016 speaker: Alya Al Harthy
Alya Al Harthy is a communication senior from Muscat, Oman. She came to NU-Q as a transfer student in the fall of 2014 from Texas A&M. In her two years at NU-Q she has distinguished herself as an intellectual thinker, a great writer, and an engaged community member.
Her experiences include presenting at the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations last February, as well as spending this past summer as a student with Engage Chicago, an eight-week immersive field study program that combines academic coursework, placements at top community organizations and powerful community experiences amidst the rich culture and history of the city of Chicago.
She served as the HBKU Film Society's vice president and has worked collaboratively across Education City to organize the HBKU leadership program – Cultivate. She is committed to service programs, having served as student leader at the NU-Q service learning program to Vietnam in March 2016 and on an Education City wide service trip to Nepal in 2014. Additionally, she participated in organizing to TEDxEC events in 2012 and 2014.