This semester, AUC has witnessed students achieve feats in a variety of fields, succeeding in local and regional competitions that qualify them to move on to represent AUC, Egypt and the MENA region in competitions at the international level.

 The CFA Institute Research Challenge 

The AUC team, composed of students, Toka ElWazery, Nora Mashhour, Yara Hashem, and Farah Ibrahim, came in first against 12 other Egyptian universities competing in the local round of the CFA Institute Research Challenge this year. Their team was tasked with the analysis of the publicly traded company, Juhayna, and asked to submit a written report, concluding with a buy, sell or hold recommendation. The team then presented their findings in front of a panel of industry professionals. Students were met with immediate job offers from influential figures in the finance industry in Egypt, pointing to the prestige associated with the challenge.

In the last six years, AUC teams have advanced to regional competitions in London (2012), Milan (2014), Chicago (2016) and, finally, Prague this year.  “One reason for the success of AUC teams in winning the local competition for many years now is that we have a very unique way in identifying and selecting the strongest team to represent AUC in the local competition,” said Aliaa Bassiouny, faculty adviser to the team.

Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Media Festival of Arts Competition

Selected from a pool of over 1,450 entries from more than 175 colleges and universities, four AUC students have been awarded first place prizes at the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Media Festival of Arts competition. AUC’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JRMC) had five project submissions.

“This is the fourth consecutive year that JRMC has had award winners. Winning BEA awards puts AUC and JRMC on the international map,” said Kim Fox, associate professor of practice in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Abdallah Abdeldayem (‘17) won first place for Student Audio in the Educational Program category for his project, "More Than Just a Game: A Documentary About Professional Video Gaming in Egypt.”  “It felt great to be noticed for the work I put in this documentary,” said Abdeldayem. “Moreover, going through the JRMC curriculum helped me find my passion for creating content.”

Mariam Seif, Reem Mohamed and Hanien Gaballah also won first place in the Student Interactive Multimedia Competition for their project titled Second University Forum Leaves the American University in Cairo Administration Disappointed and Students Furious.

“The highlight of producing these pieces would be being thrown right in the midst of the forum and the strike and being expected to deliver a piece under a 24-hour deadline,” reflected Gaballah.

Copenhagen Business School Case Competition

AUC students, Yomna Gaafar, Yasmin AboGazia, Youssef Kassem and Pierre Sherif, was recognized as the runner-up team at this year’s Copenhagen Business School Case Competition. The event presents participants with a current real-life business problem a company is confronting.  Participants are given the opportunity to experience challenges they may face when entering the business world after graduating.

Bahrain Oil and Gas Conference

This year, Farah Fawzy of the Department of Petroleum and Energy Engineering is the first AUCian as well as the first Egyptian female to win first place at the Regional Student Paper Contest at the Bahrain Oil and Gas Conference. The competition featured research projects of students from top universities in the MENA region and Fawzy will now go on to compete in the international round in October at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in San Atonio, Texas.

Fawzy, and her teammates and fellow majors, Ola Hussein and Abdelaziz Mahmoud, also participated in the Petrobowl Championships at the same conference and have qualified for the semi-finals, marking them as the first Egyptian team to enter the international championship. They ranked among the top four university teams of the MENA region, and India, and will go on to compete in Texas as well. This feat was particularly impressive, as their team was made up of three undergraduate students, competing against larger teams of master's and PhD students.

The Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition

The AUC team, made up of Claire McNally, Rasheed Idou, Mohamed Kouta and Ahmed el-Shiekh, recently competed against other local universities at the national round of the Jessup Inernational Law Moot Court Competition. AUC came away with the Best Oralist Award, second-best Oralist Award and the Best Memorial Awards for written briefs. The team has now qualified to compete in the International Finals, to take place in April in Washington, D.C.

In the competition, teams must simulate court proceedings before the International Court of Justice. This year’s case has students attempting to weigh a state’s sovereign right to exploit its natural water resources against the rights of other states, in addition to issues of cultural property of indigenous peoples. Mohamed Kouta, AUC student double majoring in political science and English and comparative literature, appreciated the competition as “a refreshing break from the theory and study of law” and a memorable opportunity to explore practicing law in depth. “I was standing just a few feet away from the best lawyers in Egypt, arguing development and indigenous rights. It was very intimidating at first, but, that only made it all the more rewarding in the end,” he said.

Reflecting on his teammates’ individual concentrations and roles he noted, “We tried to help each other overcome our individual challenges, pushing the whole team forward.”

Manuela Badawy ’06 is an award-winning journalist with a 15-year career in business and financial journalism. Currently, Badawy is an editor for The Wall Street Journal in New York. She previously worked as a correspondent for Reuters and as a media, business and financial journalism instructor for the Thomas Reuters Foundation.

In 2010, she won the Newswomen’s Club of New York Front Page Awards for in-depth reporting for "Special Report: Planes, trains and fro­ntier markets". She was named the Thomas Reuters Journalist of the Year in 2010 and received the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) Award for Creative Use of Multimedia in 2011. Badawy has global media experience, working as a reporter for El Tiempo in Colombia and as an associate producer for the Associated Press and the BBC while in Egypt.

Badawy left her native Colombia to study at AUC, where she earned a BA in journalism and mass communication and worked at the Caravan. She went on to pursue a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York. Badawy is also president of the AUC alumni chapter for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

You chose to be a business and financial journalist. Were you always interested in finance?

Funny enough, growing up, I never had any interest in finance or economics. When I got into AUC, I made sure to choose a major that had nothing to do with numbers. But as it happens, no matter what we do in life, we do need to understand how the world works and what is behind every decision-making process –– and that is “profit.” So when I came to New York to pursue my master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University, I took the one course offered on business reporting, as I wanted to learn about this strange and obscure subject. It was the year 1998 – 1999, and we were being told that journalism jobs were easier to get if we were literate, or at least interested, in writing about companies and markets.

How did AUC help shape your career path?  

Studying in an international environment with students from all over the world gave me a completely different perspective about Egypt, the Middle East and my place in the world. I met my closest friends in Egypt, and they are Egyptians, Bolivians, Europeans and Middle Eastern. I can’t stress enough how important their perspectives and opinions helped me see the world differently and from all angles.

Studying in Cairo, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Middle East, was the perfect playground for a career in journalism and research  Most of my teachers were American, and thus the constant demand for high-standard journalism, no matter the subject or difficulty in getting the information, as well as good writing, fueled in me a desire to work for the best media outlets in the country. Also, it was one of my teachers at AUC who encouraged me to pursue my master’s degree. My professors’ experiences abroad, at a time when the world wasn’t as interconnected as it is now, excited me and pushed me to dream bigger and further.

I arrived from Colombia to AUC with broken spoken English and very little Arabic. I began in Spring 1992 with Intensive English 111 and continued for the consecutive two semesters with English 112 and 113. But while I was improving my English and Arabic, I was also learning about Sinai’s geology, Egyptology, Arab history and general anthropology. The liberal arts program ignited my curiosity and desire to learn more about the world around me.     

What do you enjoy about your job?

I am an editor at The Wall Street Journal and help lead a team of reporters in the coverage of commodities, currency and emerging markets. I enjoy helping reporters frame their stories, guiding them through the writing process and delivering a solid story that sets the benchmark in financial markets news coverage. I have also taught and trained reporters from the Middle East and Latin America in financial journalism, which has been extremely satisfying.

What are the biggest challenges in your field?

With the proliferation of social media and new sources of information, one of the biggest challenges for reporters is to validate whether the slew of information is legitimate and true. Reporters and editors alike need to quickly adapt to new ways of dissemination and packaging of information from newspapers to digital outlets in order to survive the rapid change in technology. In addition, journalists now need to be immersed in the subject that they cover in order to report it and write it well. With so much noise out there, great reporters know their beat inside out, have deep sources and are able to produce fast insight and analysis on the subject.

Why did you decide to become the New York City alumni chapter president? How do you benefit from connecting with other AUC alumni?

I was approached by Eric McCune, associate director of alumni engagement in North America, earlier this year to discuss the creation of the New York chapter, the bylaws and the different positions. I was interested from the start. Being so far away from AUC, it is important to create a sense of community, a “home away from home.” New York City alumni are diverse in age, country of origin, career and cultural background, and yet what unites us is our alma mater. Having an active chapter is as important for the University as is it is for us alumni. Activities held by the chapter can broaden our contacts, stimulate our cultural curiosity, and enable us to support and learn from each other.