Scholarship Alumna Returns to AUC to Build Architecture Career

Grateful for her experience as an AUC undergraduate, Rania Busada, a former Shell Endowed scholar, returned to AUC to pursue a master’s degree in construction management. Busada is balancing a career as a design team leader at QDesign, a Saudi based architecture and interior design firm, and the demands of being a student as she works on her degree.

Busada credits AUC’s architecture curriculum for providing her an education that emphasized practical application, an element of her undergraduate experience that she believes primed her for a career in architecture. She asserts that AUC’s emphasis on a liberal arts education and a well-balanced, community-oriented student body “gave me an edge over my competitors.” AUC’s inclusive environment, she says, “forces us to respect each other and accept diversity. AUC made me a person who can accept others regardless of their differences, and this is something that shaped my principles in life. Acceptance is one of the main lessons I learned at AUC.”

In addition to her formative academic experience, Busada participated in various extracurricular activities, exemplifying a balanced student life that prepared her for her current position as a working graduate student. As an undergraduate, she participated in a number of clubs, co-founded the Architecture Association, and worked at the International Student Affairs Office, a year-long work-study job that she describes as “one of the best things I ever did in my life.”

Busada’s decision to return to AUC for graduate school is unsurprising, as she overflows with pride and excitement for the institution. She states unequivocally, “AUC shaped who I am, and I couldn't be more proud to belong to this amazing institution.”