“Reflection” Posts

Showing 25 “Reflection” posts

  • 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.

  • Desert Hoya

    What I Learned About Growth (and Myself) as a Georgetown Pre-College Program Peer Tutor

    September 30, 2025 · By Alex Bonjoc (GU-Q'27)

    Within my academic career at Georgetown, I have been fortunate. I have had multiple opportunities to grow, learn, fail, and succeed. However, so far, the most transformative experience I’ve had took place this summer as a Georgetown Pre-college Summer Program (GPS) Peer Tutor.

  • Desert Hoya

    What I’ll Miss about Doha, What I Can’t Wait For as I Study Abroad at Georgetown’s Villa Le Balze in Florence, Italy

    September 30, 2025 · By Sama Alissa (GU-Q'27)

    Ever since my first semester at GU-Q, I’ve been looking forward to going abroad. Not because I couldn’t wait to get away from GU-Q, but because I heard from upperclassmen how their study abroad experiences changed them, and I’ve always felt a longing for that feeling that they described. As my junior year was approaching, it started becoming a reality. I filled out the applications, packed my room, and left Doha knowing that I would not return for another 8 months.

  • Desert Hoya

    My Spring 2025 Semester in Review

    May 12, 2025 · By Janna Alsulaiti (GU-Q'27)

    After 14 weeks of classes, midterms, and assignments, we are beginning to wind down the Spring 2025 semester. I started this semester with unbridled enthusiasm, especially in choosing classes aligned with my major. Now, 14 weeks later, I am left with a sense of accomplishment and perhaps some subdued excitement.

  • Desert Hoya

    How I Fell in Love with My Native Tongue at GU-Q

    April 14, 2025 · By Sama Alissa (GU-Q'27)

    When I first arrived at GU-Q, there was one academic requirement I was secretly dreading: Language Proficiency. Having grown up a native speaker of Arabic and having studied it for 12 years, it was the natural choice for me to pursue my proficiency in Arabic. Up until that point, Arabic classes had always felt like a mere checkbox on my educational to-do list. The thought of enduring this once more in university was less than appealing.

  • Desert Hoya

    How I Embraced Uncertainty at Georgetown – Then Found My Path through Research in Greece and Indonesia

    March 16, 2025 · By Lo'ay Ramadan (GU-Q '27)

    When I was a first year student, I used to worry that my academic interests were too scattered to fit neatly into the structured world of university research. It wasn’t about the variety of academic opportunities offered at Georgetown, rather the uncertainty of how to navigate them from an interdisciplinary point of view. Even so, I wasn’t sure whether these interests would translate into tangible opportunities. 

  • Desert Hoya

    How GU-Q’s Travel Programs Turn Studying Into an Adventure

    February 26, 2025 · By Lawrence Maracac (GU-Q’26)

    Travel has always been one of the most powerful ways to learn about history, about the world, and about ourselves. There’s something deeply transformative about stepping into a place shaped by a history different from our own, immersing ourselves in its culture, and seeing firsthand the realities we’ve only encountered in books or lectures. That is why I have come to love traveling, not just as a hobby, but as a way to grow.

  • Desert Hoya

    70 Days Until Graduation: How Choosing Georgetown Changed Everything For Me

    February 26, 2025 · By Michelle Hadebe (GU-Q '25)

    Four years ago, I made a decision that changed my life. Leaving my high school in South Africa, I took a leap of faith to pursue a degree in International Politics at Georgetown University in Qatar. Today, as I count down the final 100 days to graduation, I find myself reflecting on how this journey has reshaped my worldview, career aspirations, and sense of purpose.