Recap
Over the last couple of weeks, all of you have had your facebook, twitter and email spammed by messages from me. My apologies for having to do so. I just felt that it was a necessary ‘spam-session’ for the greater good of how the coming year will be shaped in NU-Q.
Dear friends, over the last couple of weeks, a lot has been said, and I have received feedback from many of you. Thank you for all those have supported The Revival Campaign, and for those who don’t, I still hope you like the ideas I have proposed. This will be my last blog for the campaign. I want to recap on all the ideas I have proposed in this campaign and give you a brief synopsis of what they are and how it will help the NU-Q community. Many of you have questions on how they will be implemented and what position I am in to make these promises – for those of you who have approached me about these issues, you may have noticed, that I am fairly detailed in my explanation about how I plan to undertake my projects and the resources I have already gathered and the research I have already carried out for these projects. So, for now, here are all the ideas The Revival Campaign is proposing:
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1. Northwestern Traditions:
Many of you have asked me several times how I plan to bring the NU-Q community together. And I have proposed several initiatives and programs that support this concept of building a vibrant NU-Q community. I have thought very hard about how this should be undertaken. NU-Q is very diverse places and we all have our differences. Over the years, I have noticed our NU-Q spirit is at its peak when we unite and cheer in the name of Northwestern – at our basketball games, at YaHala and at EC wide events that NU-Q is represented at. Having learned from these experiences, I believe thatdespite all our differences, we have one thing in common – the feeling of being a part of Northwestern – being a Wildcat! And I want to work towards using this commonality to bring us together, increase participation and Purple Pride. I have already proposed initiatives like NU-E performances in NU-Q, The Rock and things of such sort, which fall in line with this concept. In addition, I want to organize the Primal Scream each semester during finals week too. It is the little traditions of Northwestern that I want us at NU-Q to experience so that we can all be reminded that we are all in this together – we are all Wildcats – no matter who we are, what our major we study is or what our gender is.
2. Wildcat Welcome:
Every Wildcat knows that Wildcat Welcome is one of the most memorable week’s of any Northwestern student’s life. Building up Northwestern spirit starts here, so it’s only right that NU-Q SG to be a part of Wildcat Welcome. Of course, not at the academic discussions, but at the discussions about Northwestern, leadership, student organizations, college pride and things of such sort. I want to get Wildcats pumped about being a Wildcat from the moment they step foot in NU-Q. I think it be the right point in time to showcase our college pride and unity and get people involved and participating in NU-Q activities. At the same time, we as upper class-persons have the Wildcat-obligation to make the coming year’s Wildcat Welcomes more memorable and epic than ours.
3. Convocation In Evanston:
As the first class of NU-Q, I think that it would be an amazing opportunity to walk at graduation in Evanston. We graduate in Doha in May, and folks in Evanston graduate in June – which gives us ample time to plan for convocation in Evanston. This idea, I have heard, has been in talks with the Deans and the administration. If so, well-and-good! I vehemently believe that to be the first class of NU-Q, it will be great honor and pride to walk in Evanston with our Wildcat peers.
4. Restructuring:
This is a very tricky one. Many of you have supported my ideas for restructuring NU-Q SG openly. And many of you do not like them at all. And thus, this is something I will have continued discussions with students in NU-Q about. There are some hard questions that need to be figured out such as – (i) how do we build good, positive and effective relationships with NU-Q organizations and departments, (ii) how do we further well-define and recruit members to NU-Q SG, (iii) how should we setup goals, aims, principles and missions for NU-Q SG each year etc. I am sure, each NU-Q student has something to contribute to this issue. I too, feel like this is very important and needs to be addressed and we promise, to help facilitate this discussion as President and Vice President.
5. Media And Academic Initiatives:
These are two fields I want to put a special focus on. When I say ‘media’ I am talking about how I want to work with the Media Coordinator and other members of the NU-Q community to (i) build our website, (ii) set up a more vibrant social media presence, (iii) document our events and initiatives on our website and videos etc, (iv) step up quality of productions such as sound, lighting and ambiance at our events and things of such sort. And when I talk about ‘academics’ – the note-sharing and book-swap of course come under the same discussion – but I want to work towards academic initiatives like tutoring services, study groups, review sessions etc led by students for students under the leadership of NU-Q SG.
6. NU-E Performances in NU-Q:
I am already in talks with Purple Haze, BoomShaka, NUDrumline, Undertones and NUBlast – some of Northwestern’s most popular and world-renowned acts, to come to Qatar for a show. I have already written multiple grants for this and talked to several people. I have talked to many of you in NU-Q as well. For many of you who have seen these acts, you will know that these are definitely mind-blowing to see live. This is a brand new idea – but trust me – it will be amazing!
7. Continuing Our Traditions:
I want to assure all NU-Q students that I want to work extra hard on our past events. I promise to bring back Go Wild Week, The Media Awards, BOO, Dare Night and all the other iniatives NU-Q SG has worked on in the past with the amazing leadership of Sara Al Saadi, Hattan Al Thani, Yara Darwish and Dana Atrach. These events and initiatives are NU-Q SG’s own – and I will put my heart and soul into making them successes just like they were in the past.
Now, here are the ideas we’ve come up with for the coming year. These will give our students the chance to get involved in the community, and give them further motivation.
8. Rockstar Awards Show:
Last year, NU-Q Student Affairs organized the NU-Q Rockstars Award Show. The event was organized to honor those students in the NU-Q community that have made a positive impact in the community. Some of the recipients of these awards were Sara Al Saadi, Omer Mohammad, Muneera Al Buainain and many others who have worked tirelessly to build our NU-Q community. The Rockstar Awards Show honored student initiatives, student events and student groups as well. My good friends Omer Mohammad and Ismaeel Naar worked day and night along with Becca, to make this event happen. And if any of you remember, Ola and I emceed the show that night [:)]. I feel that this was an amazing opportunity for us students to honor those who have built our community. This is a great way to encourage participation and community engagement and most definitely an initiative that will bring our community together. Many of you have asked me how I plan to increase participation and build community in NU-Q. This is one of my many ideas.
9. Media Awards Show:
Last year, under the leadership of Sara Al Saadi, NU-Q SG and SPJ had organized the first NU-Q Media Awards Show. This was a great way to encourage students in their academics. The Media Awards Show brought together all NU-Q students together to cheer and support their peers. This is one of my personal favorites of NU-Q SG of all time. A big shout out to Sara Al Saadi and the NUS-SG team and the SPJ members, for that amazing event. I want to promise the NU-Q community that this event will most definitely happen in 2011-2012 if I get elected to office. And I promise, with the gracious help of Sara Al Saadi, to make it grander – as one of my highest priorities if elected into office.
10. March Madness:
March is time of many festivities in Education City. Over the last few years, NU-Q SG has been organizing one of the coolest events of the year – Go Wild Week. In the month of March, I want to work on several initiatives that are purely for entertainment value – in turn, they are also meant to build community in NU-Q. I want to start off March with the NU-Q contingent traveling to NU-E for the Dance Marathon. I want to end March Madness with NU-Q SG’s tradition – Go Wild Week – with a photo exhibition, a movie screening, faculty and staff versus students football and basketball games, a big picnic and the gala dinner. In mid-March, I want introduce two events – (i) painting the rock – yes! – how about we get a big rock and guard it over night for a week and paint it everyday on different themes – sounds familiar? I feel that this will definitely bring us closer not just as a community but as a ‘Northwestern’ community. And (ii) I want to work on one of two programs – a performance of NU-E acts such as Purple Haze, BoomShaka, Undertones, NUDrumline and NUBlast (in collaboration with – Northwestern ASG, Inspire Media, A&O Productions on the NU-E campus) OR organize an Arab Media Conference. And of course, in March, we have our NU-E visitors. And thus, it is just coincidental that I chose March. But, that is March Madness! – more programming, more collaboration, more entertainment – all based on that one commonality we have – being Northwestern Wildcats.
11. Dance Marathon:
Many of you already know that Dance Marathon is one of the biggest and greatest traditions in Northwestern. This year, I had the opportunity to dance with over a thousand other Wildcats, for 30 hours to help raise over a million dollars for charity along with my friend, Nayaab Shaikh. It truly was one of the most amazing things I have experienced in my life. And I want my peers in NU-Q to experience it too. Many of you have expressed support for this initiative. My idea is to make a team of NU-Q students to organize charitable activities throughout the year to raise money of the marathon. In March, with the money that we raised, we could travel to Evanston during the weekend of Dance Marathon and join our NU-E peers for pretty much the best 30 hours of our lives. Again, this has already been well-thought of. The Chair of the DM 2011 is a very close friend of my and is vehemently supporting this initiative. Informal talks with many students, staff and faculty at NU-Q have also supported this initiative. But, many of you may have questions – and I am always here to answer them. I am just an email away.
12. Study Abroad Orientation:
Many of your peers are currently in the United States and elsewhere on their study abroad or residency. They will vouch for the fact that studying or working abroad for the first time is an emotional, spiritual and academic journey. I believe that it is very important to know yourself, your leadership style, values, goals and aims before traveling abroad and even while abroad. Just like Wildcat Welcome was your orientation to a entirely new period of your life, I believe that studying abroad will be very similar. And thus, Omer and I want to work with the Office Of Student Affairs and Marie Newkirk to create a curriculum that orients us for our time abroad – which should include in addition to academic information, cultural orientation and leadership training.
13. Semester-End Leadership Workshop:
A couple of years ago, NU-Q Student Government used to have an ‘end-0f-semester leadership retreat’ where the members of NU-Q SG would spend a weekend in leadership training and ’360 feedback’. They would learn new skills about how to engage the community and reflect on the semester gone by. In the past, this was led by Rebecca Donaldson and Jill Duffy – from whom I have learned innumerable leaderships skills. I feel that this is a good way to engage the students to participate actively and effectively in the community. I propose that, we need to bring these leadership retreats back. And this time, we need to make them open to every NU-Q student. I feel that this is a very subtle yet powerful program that will increase participation and create new leaders in our community. Many of you have seen the fruits of leadership training retreats such as the NU-Q Leadership Retreat in Tunisia and LeaderShape. Imagine an opportunity like that open to all NU-Q students every semester.
14. Note Sharing:
The note-sharing idea is basically a program setup my NUQ-SG for NU-Q students to upload and download notes. This could be class notes, reading notes, exam notes, cheat sheets, assignments, solutions etc. This is a very simply yet tricky idea which I will have to build very carefully in accordance with Northwestern’s Academic Integrity Policy. This might entail the signing of a few agreements upon granting membership to the program. Essentially, this idea is to increase collaboration and ‘group-study’ within the academic sphere of a NU-Q student. We want to build and environment where we can share our knowledge and experience, with our peers and vice versa. This idea was originally proposed by The B&B Syndicate (a shout out to them!). I have a detailed idea on how to tackle issues such as social loafing, the interface, managing contributors, managing lurkers etc. If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to email me and I would be happy to give you a more detailed explanation.
15. Book-Swap/Book-Resell:
NU-Q students pay $500 each semester on textbooks. This is a privilege offered by NU-Q so that the hassle of ordering books from the US may be eliminated. Over the past few months, I have talked to several students and staff at NU-E, to figure out a cheaper and more efficient way for students in NU-Q to get their books. And these ideas are – (i) buying used books from the United States, (ii) buying used books from your NU-Q peers, (iii) swapping books with your NU-Q peers, (iv) swapping books from your NU-E peers. All four of these options have been well thought of. I have talked to several students and staff in NU-E to look into the possibilities of making any four of these happen. Again, this requires some planning and initiative – which I promise to undertake. For more questions, you can always email me – florentdsouza2012@u.northwestern.edu.
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At this point in time in NU-Q, after several conversations with many of you, I have inferred that what we need now is (i) more collaboration – with individuals, organizations, groups, departments and entities – in NU-Q, in Education City and in NU-E, (ii) we need to bring about more inclusiveness – each and every student should feels like they are part of one big NU-Q family – and in turn, contribute and participate in the NU-Q community, (iii) integrative solutions – we need to put our minds together to find out not just what the problems are, but how we can solve those problems – we need to work together and through symbiosis, resolve our problems and create lasting, sustainable initiatives for us and future Wildcats. (iv) leadership – we need to build leaders in our community who will learn more about themselves and how in turn, they can serve the community better – more participation and a greater understanding about the community comes from a better understanding of one’s own leadership style and how she or he can apply that to the community. And (v) we need to build a unified Northwestern spirit – that is free from our differences and focuses on our commonality of being a Wildcat!
This is what I have to offer. These are my goals all drawn from your feedback. I spent the last month or so, talking to several of you, and all these things that I propose are from weeks of translating your thoughts and feedback into tangible programs and initiatives that we can work on together.
If you like what you see and if you want 2011 and 2012 to look like the above please vote Florent D’Souza for President of NU-Q Student Government by emailing sgelections@qatar.northwestern.edu with your Student ID and your vote!
Go Northwestern!
Go Cats!
The Ideology
Wildcats.
Over the last couple of weeks, you have seen many blogs and vlogs posted on Facebook and on this page. This is one of the last two posts on The Revival Campaign. Soon, all of you will be voting for your NUQ-SG 2011-2012 leaders. If you do not know how to – just send an email to sgelections@qatar.northwestern.edu with your Student ID and who you are voting for.
Over the last couple of weeks, many people have given me positive feedback about The Revival Campaign. Some people haven’t understood it in entirety. And thus, this last post attempts to pull it all together and describe what The Revival Campaign stands for.
Over the past few months, I have been in talks with several students in NU-Q and asked them what they wanted to see in NUQ and what they felt were the issues that NU-Q is facing (for students). And many students told me that the issues were – (i) relationships within the NU-Q community, (ii) a lack of participation among the student body and (iii) a lack of unified Northwestern spirit. These were the most common of the many things I heard from the students. In an effort to resolve these issues, we came up with The Revival Campaign. And after much thought, Omer and I proposed programs and initiatives that would increase participation, increase quality of programming, increase Northwestern spirit, and mend relationships. In the next blog, I will talk more about how these initiatives actually contribute to this NUQ we all want.
All this requires a lot of thought and lot of planning. And Omer and I are committed and passionate about undertaking that strenuous planning process. But for this, we need your help. We need to work together to make these initiatives possible. We need for you to vote for us because, there is a lot to be done and a lot to be changed. We want to unite the NU-Q community in the spirit of Northwestern. We may come from different backgrounds and have different opinions about several things, but we all have ONE thing in common – we are all Wildcats. So, please put your differences aside and let us think about the community as one united entity now. We may be Journalism or Communication students, males or females, Seniors, Juniors, Sophomore or Freshman, etc. but we need to look at the bigger picture here. We need to build new, innovative and sustainable ideas, programs, initiatives and solutions that will help NU-Q students no matter what major they are, where they come from and whether they are male or female. This is all about the greater good of NU-Q. And we need to put our minds together and think hard about this greater good. I hope we put our differences aside and concentrate on what binds us together – Northwestern!
If you check out my previous blogs, you will notice that all the ideas that I propose are primarily focused on the individual and only secondarily, I concentrate on how it will influence the larger NU-Q community. The focus of The Revival Campaign is how the individual Wildcat can aid the entire NU-Q community. We want each and every project that we work on to be useful for each and every individual in NU-Q. All these ideas came from months of talks and focus meetings with several NU-Q Wildcats and these ideas are conceptualized from several brainstorming sessions not just between Omer and I, but many of you at NU-Q and EC.
In conclusion, The Revival Campaign is all about impacting the NU-Q community as a whole – unifying us based on our ONE similarity: Northwestern!
Vote Florent D’Souza for NUQ-Student Government President and Omer Mohammad for Vice President by emailing sgelections@qatar.northwestern.edu and VOTE FLORENT and OMER don’t forget to mention your Student ID number.
Convocation in Evanston
As the first class of Northwestern University in Qatar, Omer and Florent want to work with the administration in NU-Q, QF and NU-E to have the class of 2012 take part in the Evanston graduation ceremony. We need your support to make this happen. There is a lot to plan and a lot of people to talk to, but Omer and Florent are committed to following through on this idea. #voteflomer on Monday for NUQ-SG. Florent for President and Omer for Vice President.
The Revival Campaign aims to bring NU-Q together as a family
It is our beleif that a mission, once started, cannot be left idle. Our past SG presidents have done so much to make NU-Q what it is, and they’ve done so much for us. We owe them so much. It’s only right that we keep going in the same path that they marked for us.
NU-Q is home to many of us, and hopefully it will stay that way. We need to do our part, as a community, to make sure it stays that way.
Omer speaks about opportunities for collaboration
In the recent week or so, we’ve heard a lot of talk about plans, ideas and thoughts about what the coming year will bring. Here, we see Omer add to this conversation with his thoughts on how organizations on campus should work together and help make initiatives and events successful through collective effort.
David Dejong Supports The Revival Campaign
David Dejong was one of the NU-E students who visited the NU-Q campus in March 2011. Many of you have gotten to know him personally and maybe even professionally. Here he is support Florent and Omer’s Revival Campaign for NUQ-SG. #voteflomer . More collaboration. More integrative solutions. More unified Northwestern spirit!
Vote:
Florent for President
Omer for Vice President
Making Life Easier At NU-Q
We want to work on two innovative ideas where we could save tons of money, time and effort at NU-Q.
1. A note-sharing program.
2. A book-swap/book-resell program.
Vote:
Florent D’Souza for President
Omer Mohammad for Vice President
Collaboration, Inclusiveness & Integrative Solutions
We can achieve great things through collaboration. So, lets put our minds together and share our resources for greater success.
#voteflomer
Florent D’Souza for President
Omer Mohammad for Vice President
Leadership Initiatives In NU-Q
I want to work on five leadership initiatives in NU-Q. Please check out the video and give me your feedback. #voteflomer
1. More participation of NUQ-SG in Wildcat Welcome.
2. A study-abroad orientation program created and led by students for students.
3. Encourage more participation in annual Media Awards show and invest more time and effort into making it making it a large-scale event.
4. End of semester leadership retreat for all NU-Q students.
5. Organize the NU-Q Rockstar Awards show under NUQ-SG.
#voteflomer
The Basics
With ideas coming in left, right and center, there is a need for our campaign to explain some fundamental principles we abide by. Our campaign hopes to revive NU-Q and change the current state of affairs at the university. We see the culture, the people, and the academics ailing. This is not the same institution we knew two years ago. It hurts to see such little being done to fix things.
We aim to garner more student involvement and action. That is our vision. There is no point in an electoral process if students don’t take part. There is no point to events if students aren’t going to attend. But, what is the issue at hand? Are the events mediocre? No. Are the speakers not interesting? No. The students themselves have become disheartened. There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from issues regarding the university to their personal lives, but the point is that we need to get this motivation back. There has to be something to bring that spark back. It may seem idealistic, but the point of going to university is not to study. Of course, you’re here to study, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s a culture, it’s life, it’s something that becomes engrained in you.
If we don’t have students who are willing to get up and sing the Fight Song at basketball games, something is wrong. If we don’t have people willing to do their best “rawr” in the middle of the hallway, there is something wrong. If we don’t have that school spirit, there is something wrong. We want to bring that back.
Our plans to revive NU-Q come in so many forms because we believe that change is multifaceted. Sure, some of them are a stretch. Sure, some of them might not come to fruition. But so what? Are they good ideas? Does it excite you when someone mentions them? If yes, then we’re doing our jobs. We want to get you excited, get you excited enough to want to help us achieve our goals. We want you to get up and stand beside us to see our dreams, our hopes, our aspirations become real. After all, they are your dreams, hopes and aspirations too.
We’re realists with a passion. You have to structure yourself, you have to take things in steps before you can really take leaps and bounds towards your goals. With your support, we might be able to take leaps and bounds right away.
Vote:
Florent D’Souza for President
Omer Mohammad for Vice President
