Welcome Home: Move-in Week Kicks Off at AUC

A Syrian, an Algerian and an Egyptian sit together on a sofa. This isn’t the opener to a joke—this is move-in week at AUC’s Student Residences, during which just under 700 AUC students from 38 countries will settle into their apartments and start the next chapter of their lives.

Mohamed Abd Alhaseb, Hadj Chikh Dahmane and Andrew Aziz are three friends who, after getting to know each other last year while living at the dorms, are catching up after spending the summer apart.

“My favorite thing about the dorms is the time we get to chill,” Abd Alhaseb said. The computer science freshman from Syria spent the majority of his summer living at the dorms alone. “I was the only one in the entire unit,” he recalled.

The units may have been relatively quiet in terms of students, but they were indeed buzzing all summer with the sound of renovation. The Office of Residential Life upgraded all apartments and common spaces ahead of the semester in order to stay current with student needs.

"This is only the first step in a major renovation that we have been planning for a few years now," said Mohamed Al Alem, associate director of residential life planning and operations. "The needs of our current students are definitely different from the needs of the students living here back in 2009 when the dorms first opened.”

The dorms now boast updated study spaces, better lighting in units and common areas, and well-equipped kitchens that enable students to seamlessly cook meals in their apartments.

‘Lasting memories’

The trio is looking forward to getting back to spending quality time with friends at the dorms and joining more activities on campus.

“Last year, we often gathered together in the lounge to watch football matches,” said Chikh Dahmane.

Abdelaaty Rehab, a computer engineering and mathematics junior who has lived at the dorms since his freshman year, also touched on bonding with fellow students through sports.

“I’ve made a lot of new friends throughout the years by playing football at the AUC Sports Center each week,” he said.

Wanting to experience life at AUC from all angles, he and his roommate Ahmed Badr, a philosophy and computer science junior, are moving across the street this year to the off-campus dorms.

“The thing that amazed me the most when I first moved to the dorms was the diversity—I found no two people alike,” Badr said. “Having that experience has changed me permanently.”

Badr’s favorite memory, so far, has been a Christmas party held last year in his unit. “The atmosphere was so cozy, and we wrote down and shared our visions for the new year,” he said. “I’m looking forward to making more lasting memories like that.”

A fresh start

Having arrived in Egypt just over the weekend, Sophie Horvath, a transfer student from Belgium majoring in Egyptology, appeared somewhere between excitement and overwhelm. 

“I’ve always wanted to come to the Middle East since I was a child,” she said. So, her decision to join AUC was a no-brainer. 

She is among 730 other undergraduate students who are joining AUC for the first time, under a third of which will be living at the University Residences.

Already having a strong command of Turkish and Persian, Horvath is looking forward to learning Arabic and exploring Egypt. Like all other students on move-in day reported, she is also excited to meet the diverse group of students at the dorms and beyond.

She should have no problem there. 

"The University Residences is the center of diversity at AUC,” Al Alem said. “During any given semester, we have students from at least 25 different nationalities living together. This fall, we have 38."

With diversity abound, next fall, this story could very well open with ‘A Lebanese, an American and a Belgian sit together on a sofa.’