Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

On Saturday, August 16, the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar) officially welcomed the Class of 2012 into the community during its New Student Convocation ceremony. The event, held in the LAS Building at Education City, formally inducted the new class of scholars into the academic community.

Dean of SFS-Qatar, James Reardon-Anderson led the ceremony welcoming 41 new students from Qatar and around the world. Eleven of the students come to Education City from Qatar, with the remainder representing Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macedonia, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, Syria, and the United States of America.

During the ceremony, students and their families joined Georgetown University faculty and staff in listening to addresses by government professor, Gary Wasserman, student Madhoorya Mantha (SFS ’11), and Dean Reardon-Anderson.

The speakers reminded the new students of the unique opportunity ahead of them. In describing a Georgetown education, Wasserman described the university experience as “a democratic marketplace of ideas, a place to pause and reflect, and to reason and question.”

In her message to the Class of 2012, Mantha explained what it means to be a Georgetown student. She emphasized the role of students as agents of change and how a Georgetown education will help students define and discover themselves and the world around them.

“You are now part of humankind’s seminal moments, armed with a brush; a brush in your hands to paint the canvas of history … you have the brush and the canvas and Georgetown will beautifully and skillfully teach you the craft,” she said.

In his keynote speech, Dean Reardon-Anderson highlighted the three fundamental elements of a Georgetown education which he also referred to as the three dimensions of learning. “You will be instructed in the existing body of knowledge, and you will learn how to learn, and thus be equipped for a lifetime of learning... and to feel the rewards of learning,” he said.

The ceremony marked the close of a week of orientation events for the new students, which included information sessions on Qatar and Education City, as well as lectures on academic integrity, privacy, and other subjects. The students also participated in fun activities such as a scavenger hunt, ceramic painting trivia quiz and a singing competition.