All Desert Hoya Posts

Showing 62 posts

  • Desert Hoya

    Ask Any GU-Q Student – This Is the Only Way to Survive the Busy On-Campus Schedule

    December 9, 2025 · By Abdrakhman Serikkali (GU-Q '28)

    How should you spend your time “rightly”? Is it to be “productive”? If so, what constitutes productivity: maximizing work hours, spending time with family and friends, or snuggling up in your bed for personal space? Since I entered high school, all I have heard around me was the loud static of the “Don’t Waste Your Time” sentiment, whether from my parents or thoughtful teachers. And it confused me, because my time – no matter how I spent it – never felt like a waste.

  • Desert Hoya

    How Georgetown Feeds My Multilingual Obsession

    November 23, 2025 · By Radiyah Ahmed (GU-Q'28)

    If there’s one thing people figure out about me pretty quickly, it’s that I have a soft spot for languages. I speak seven so far, emphasis on so far, and I’m always picking up new words, accents, or phrases from whoever I’m sitting next to. That’s why Georgetown Qatar just fits. You walk through campus and it’s like a hundred different worlds sharing the same space. Arabic, Urdu, French, Tagalog, Somali, Korean, it’s all there, blending together in the halls and classrooms. Every conversation feels like a new story, and honestly, that’s my kind of music.

  • Desert Hoya

    How To Not Waste Your Summer 101

    November 19, 2025 · By Abdrakhman Serikkali (GU-Q '28)

    For me, summer is usually a heap of unrealized plans, spontaneous travels, and the irritatingly slow mind marches of daydreaming on my bed. The summer of 2025, however, to my surprise, was completely different.  In the spring semester of my first year, I knew I wanted to spend the summer doing what I love—writing. Good writing, nevertheless, flourishes when one is in a new setting, with differences capturing your every sense. So, I looked for summer writing courses in various countries, with the intention of challenging myself.

  • Desert Hoya

    Raising the Georgetown Flag at the Biggest International Law Moot Court Competition

    November 18, 2025 · By Carl Jambo (GU-Q’28)

    Sometimes the most courageous step you can take is to clench your fists, whisper an affirmation of hope, and press ‘submit’ on that Google form. It was 11:00PM, less than an hour to the deadline as I sat staring at the application for the Georgetown Moot Court team. I couldn’t help but wonder whether I would be good enough,  right up until the moment I clicked submit. That single click became the spark that set the stage for an unimaginable intercontinental journey to North America.

  • Desert Hoya

    I am the First Turkmen Hoya at Georgetown University in Qatar

    November 17, 2025 · By Jennet Soltanova (GU-Q’29)

    On my 20th birthday this year, I left Turkmenistan, with excitement, nerves, and the pressure of walking into uncertainty. After a gap year following my FLEX exchange in Texas (Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) is a competitive, merit-based scholarship program funded by the United States government), I was finally traveling abroad, alone this time. In the U.S., I had always had a safety net: a host family waiting with warm meals, a host father who drove me to school, a host mother who answered every question I had – and yes, even the ones that probably made her question her life choices. This time was different.

  • Desert Hoya

    I Emailed This Professor Hoping to Join Her Class – It Became the Most Influential Course I Took at GU-Q

    November 12, 2025 · By Jay Pacer (GU-Q '26)

    At GU-Q, certain professors’ names become part of how students help one another to navigate this place. These names are passed along with a simple recommendation such as, “take her class if you get a chance.”

  • Desert Hoya

    How to Make the Perfect Georgetown Pancake: A Note to Present and Future Hoyas

    November 10, 2025 · By Jannat Almazbek (GU-Q '28)

    Today, I will tell you my secret (or not so secret anymore) recipe and ingredients that make the Georgetown pancake perfect.

  • Desert Hoya

    Beyond Borders: What a Fishing Village in Indonesia Taught Me About True Community Engagement

    November 9, 2025 · By Hassan Amin (GU-Q'27)

    As part of Georgetown University in Qatar's Community Engagement Program, I traveled to Indonesia expecting to make a difference. Instead, the community made a difference in me. Our journey began with three days in Jakarta, conversations at Georgetown Asia Pacific with Scott Guggenheim and Yuhki Tajima, walks through old Batavia exploring the remnants of five different colonizations, and visits to the Istiqlal Mosque and Jakarta Cathedral. But it was the four days that followed in a fishing village that truly transformed my understanding of what it means to engage with a community.

  • Desert Hoya

    Teaching English, Learning Everything Else

    November 6, 2025 · By Radiyah Ahmed (GU-Q'28)

    If there’s one thing people eventually learn about me, it’s that I have a thing for languages. I currently speak seven, and am always on the lookout for new ways to use them, or sneak an eighth onto the list. That’s why Georgetown Qatar feels like such a perfect fit for me. Every hallway, you hear sounds like an orchestra of accents and dialects; Arabic, Urdu, French, Tagalog, Somali, Russian, you name it. Every conversation feels like a mini language exchange, and for someone like me, that’s basically heaven.

  • Desert Hoya

    How GU-Q Taught Me the Value of Unlearning

    October 30, 2025 · By Zarrish Ahmed (GU-Q'26)

    Zarrish Ahmed is a senior at Georgetown University in Qatar majoring in International Politics with an independent Certificate in South Asian Studies. She reflects on how studying South Asian history reshaped her understanding of identity, power, and education.