Some final wonderful bios from my AUC students....

Responses to my first posting about my new experiences with AUC students were so overwhelmingly positive that I decided to post just a few more gems....This is a combo of amazing, sweet, and downright hilarious. In academics where obfuscation seems to be the cultural norm, their honesty was like an oasis in the desert....
again each paragraph is a new student...all from my Psych 101 class:
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My first name, (name withheld), has two meanings. The first being a loyal friend (the description sounds too similar to man’s best friend), which is the meaning my parents had told me. The other, meaning a drinking buddy, which I learnt from my French teacher in school and from a Facebook application. I like to think I live up to the first meaning.
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(Note from Ashley)-This student wrote several pages so I have excerpted below…
My full name is (name withheld to protect confidentiality). My parents are originally from Iraq (Kurds), I was, however, born in Sophia Bulgaria in the year 1985. My parents had escaped the horrors of war and tyranny in Iraq, in hope of a more prosperous life in Europe. However, when I was only five months old my family emigrated to Denmark. Thus I have lived in Denmark virtually all my life.
During my years in public school I grow up in a neighborhood, most people would classify lower social class. Crime and drug abuse were only among the few evils that lurked around the corner of the building blocks constituting our home. I was however among the few of my peers who actually made it to upper secondary school (equivalent to high school). I hope my engagement in the psychology department at AUC might help me to accomplish my goal to enter a Phd program in the US, after completing my undergraduate here. My aim is to return to my country one day, and be able to say I managed to escape the shackles of low social class, and thus being able to inspire other people to make the world we live in a better place.
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I'm in my third year, graduated school in 2006. I'm a sophomore and I'm majorless intended mechanical engineering but would seriously think of intending psychology major if promised an A in this class. I honestly signed up for this class because it's one of the electives i have to take and psychology sounded more exciting than sociology or other classes. I hoped to learn how to hypnotize people but was told by a friend we are not going to learn such skill. Moreover like to learn how the human mind works. My hobbies are mainly sports, I play soccer, tennis and swimming. There is nothing specific about the way I learn but I'm not a good learner under pressure, I love pictures they stick to my mind quickly.
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First of all, my name is (name withheld to protect confidentiality); I am Egyptian coming from a middle-upper class. My credits put me between freshman and sophomore; my intended major is Architectural Engineering. I signed up for this class because I heard that this type of courses is totally beneficial for one’s social life. A friend of mine took this class in the winter session and he was so amused with the enormous block of information he knew after he finished the course with a letter grade B (Ashley’s note: Joe taught this class. When the student says “amused” he really means “ticked off about his grade”). My first impression about this course was that it would be so boring because I thought that the content of the subject is limited. But, when I bought the selected book, I was overwhelmed by the real positive impact this class will provide me with at the end. My hobbies are somehow complicated; for instance, I play soccer for a club called shooting club since I was a kid. Moreover, this class will increase my passion in continuing playing soccer just because most of the elder people oblige me to focus on soccer besides college. By taking this course I hope I could be able to understand the others and know where I stand at this moment in which I could distinguish the fake facial expressions from the real ones. Last but not least, it is my great pleasure that I had an opportunity of taking this course and I hope I can learn every single word you say Dr. Ashley.
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Wow! I sure have my hands full preparing for these students.

Teaching Egyptians

Many of you have asked what it is like teaching at American University Cairo (AUC)and whether I have noted any cross-cultural differences between my NC State Students and my AUC students. I think I can best answer this by giving you a snapshot of my first assignment. My AUC students were asked to tell me their major/minor, what year they were in school (freshman, sophomore, etc), why they are taking Intro to Psychology, their hobbies/interests, and anything else about themselves that they though I should know. Here is what a few of them said...I think it gives a sense of who they are as people and what incredible personal histories must have led them to the honor of higher education. As you can tell, I am very fond of them already...they are strikingly honest, very personable, and occasionally totally hilarious! Please cut them some slack on the English. For many of them, English is a third or fourth language. Each paragraph is a different student:
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I, like most people have many obsessions and interests; for instance for leisure I enjoy traveling, camping in the desert, listening to music, dancing, beaches and islands, and watching TV shows especially the genre drama. I believe I have a short concentration span this is why I took the class Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday (as opposed to Monday/Wednesday) as the classes are shorter

My main hobbies are simply sport! I love playing and watching all sports, but my favourite sport is football (soccer to Americans!), and have been playing it all my life, as well as playing for a team for the past few years. I don’t have any particular hobbies that I continually do, other then sport and surfing the internet, as my hobbies change from time to time, but the one thing I always try to do is have a good time! So that usually involves going out with my friends on a regular basis doing anything we find fun! On the other hand I find reading boring, and only do it when I have to for college work.

I hope that I will learn to be able to know things that my enemies would hide of me. Also, I hope to learn when are people lying to me and when are they saying the truth.

I can’t say that I have any specific interests or hobbies, I’m not an artistic person, I pretty much chose a major just for a good career because I don’t really have a passion for a specific topic.

The only method that does not work with me when studying is memorization. I have experience with that, as studying for (name deleted to protect confidentiality) exams is based on memorizing and I always had a problem with that, so ultimately the subjects I did well in were those no memorization was needed, like maths and statistics

For a long period, one of my dreams was to become a psychiatrist and have my own clinic in the future and be able to delve in it. But I had never really been interested in medicine as a college. As a child and growing up, I didn’t know that I had to join medical school from the very beginning to be able to reach my former ultimate dream. Thus, I could say that joining this class is making up for my dream of learning what had intrigued me for so long…. Taking this course is really exciting for me and I just hope to be as good at it as I’ve always dreamt.
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I am very honored indeed to have been given this challenge.....It appears that expectations for Psychology 101 are quite high!

:)

-Ashley