“Reflection” Posts

Showing 25 “Reflection” posts

  • Desert Hoya

    An Open Letter to my First-year Self

    May 12, 2026 · By Anna Lemma (GU-Q'29)

    Dear First-year me, You just got into Georgetown University in Qatar. You’re excited. You’re anxious. You’ve already made three Pinterest boards titled “Uni outfits” and “college glow up.” You think you’re prepared. I’m writing to you from one semester in the future. Sorry to inform you that the glow up is still pending but it is safe to say that I have learned a few things. So before you overpack, overthink, and over-plan your entire academic career, read this.

  • Desert Hoya

    ¡Yalla Hoyas! How GU-Q Became Home, One Moment at a Time

    May 12, 2026 · By Itiafa Ayeni (GU-Q’29)

    In the weeks before starting at Georgetown, I found myself worrying about something new. This time, it wasn’t the acceptance rate or the cost of tuition; instead, it was the campus culture. I had watched far too many American sitcoms and imagined college life as football games, cheerleaders at Homecoming, and crowded dorm parties. While Georgetown Qatar might not have those things, what we do have is something far more unique: a customized experience of an American education in Qatar.

  • Desert Hoya

    Belonging in More Than One City as a GU-Q Student

    February 12, 2026 · By Aras Karlidag (GU-Q’26)

    When I first applied to university, I didn’t imagine myself ending up on a Middle East campus. Like many students my age, graduating from an American school in Turkey, my idea of “college life” was shaped by American cities, American campuses, and the kind of cultural familiarity that comes from growing up under the influence of U.S. soft power. In my final year of high school, I didn’t even know international branch campuses were really a thing, even for the most impressive schools in the U.S. that my friends and I dreamed about.

  • Desert Hoya

    The Middle East: “Middle of What? East of What?” What One History Course Taught Me About How We See the World

    February 5, 2026 · By Aisha Al-Emadi (GU-Q'28)

    During my second semester of university, I was faced with the very important decision of picking which first history class I would take. Reading that sentence probably makes it sound like I’m being dramatic, but let me explain. 

  • Desert Hoya

    From Doha to Buenos Aires: How Global Education Shaped Me

    December 17, 2025 · By Jay Pacer (GU-Q '26)

    “How should we reinvent the city?” This is the type of question that Georgetown students like me are being trained to answer on the daily. We talk about a plethora of things–from the stock market to the politics of conserving energy. Here, discourse that questions, provokes, and stretches you is normal. So when I landed in Buenos Aires in Argentina for the Doha Debates Town Hall, it felt like the most natural extension of what we already do in the classroom.

  • Desert Hoya

    The Class That Changed How I See Food

    December 15, 2025 · By Dania Muhsen (GU-Q '28)

    I used to think food was simple. You grow it, you buy it, you eat it. But enrolling in the class Seeds of Science taught by Professor Rowan Ellis back in Spring 2025 changed my views in a way I didn’t expect.

  • Desert Hoya

    Snowstorms, Falafel, and Finding Home in D.C.

    December 15, 2025 · By Zarrish Ahmed (GU-Q'26)

    In Spring 2025, I boarded my first-ever flight to the “West,” bound for Washington, D.C. I was one of only a few students from GU-Q studying abroad that semester. Most of my classmates had already gone in the fall, and I had initially planned the same. But when I sat down to map out my independent Certificate in South Asian Studies, everything shifted.

  • Desert Hoya

    Where will I be next December? I graduate in Less than Six Months

    December 9, 2025 · By Zarrish Ahmed (GU-Q'26)

    The realization that I’ll be graduating in less than six months brought tears I couldn’t control. Today, I have the privilege to call GU-Q my second home. I can go to campus in the middle of the night to play table tennis, walk into the Wellness Center during a crisis and find warmth and care, or step into any department and see familiar faces who greet me with genuine connection. There’s a strange kind of comfort in the small routines here, the elevator that has no close button but somehow I don’t mind. Having karak in the atrium almost every lunch hour. And knowing that Frances and Gladys, security guards in our building, will worry if they don’t see me on campus for two or three days. Joebee from the O’Street Café knows my exact order without me saying a word. It’s in these simple, ordinary moments that I’ve found belonging, in shared laughter, inside jokes, and the quiet joy of being known.

  • Desert Hoya

    These Three Classes Shaped My Fall 2025 Semester

    December 9, 2025 · By Dania Muhsen (GU-Q '28)

    Every semester at GU-Q feels like opening a new chapter, but Fall 2025 feels especially meaningful to me. The first thing I thought when I stepped onto campus on the first day of class was “Oh my god, I am actually not a freshman anymore.” As scary as that is, it’s also extremely exciting. I’m taking a few classes that have really scratched my brain in all the right ways, let me tell you all about them!

  • 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.