We're not sure you know - and you should - much about our Buddy Program here at the International Exchange Office. The Buddy Program, or 'A-shab', comes from the Arabic meaning of “Friends.” ‘Ashab is a program that gives an opportunity for international connection between students who have come from abroad and those that are already a resident in the UAE. Through this program incoming international exchange students will be matched with a current AUS student. Students will be asked a set of questions to get a sense of their personality and will be matched with a student who has most compatible answers.
The founder of the Buddy Program at AUS is on of our own peer advisors Anwar Elsheikh. She provided the following testimonial on creating the Buddy Program:
"I came up with the idea because I had spoken to exchange students in the past about their experience and one of the main things they missed about their study abroad was not meeting and making friends with local or AUS students. I had heard about buddy programs in other universities and experienced it when I went abroad to LSU so I decided to do this here at AUS. To make the buddy program more and personal and different to other programs I decided to match people together by personality instead of just choosing people at random! I also decided to name the program A-shab to get a sense of the culture as well."
The Buddy Program had its first ever award to give last semester (Fall of 2018), which Rania AlMadi rightfully earned. We spoke to AlMadi about her experience with the buddy she was paired up with, and it was full of growth, acceptance and at one time, horror. She personally wrote up her testimonial and told her story below:
"My name is Rania Al-Madi, I’m Jordanian by nationality and Palestinian by origin. Icurrently study industrial engineering and I’m in my fourth (and NOT final) year. If I wereto describe my interests, the word SPORTS will probably come up 10000000 times. Ihave always loved sports. I’ve been on my school’s football, basketball, volleyball,badminton, and running teams. I’ve also ridden horses for much of my life, and continueto do all these things. I also love volunteering and helping others grow. I’m also a socialbutterfly, in a sense. I love to get to know other people and to hear their stories. What iseven better is when I start to connect with these people and form actual friendships.That is what led me to constantly meeting exchange students, ever since freshmanyear. In my first semester at AUS, I made good friends with Bradley, an exchangestudent from Chicago. In my second year, I made good friends with Liz, an exchangestudent from New York. In my third year, I made good friends with Zac, an exchangestudent from Arkansas. Beginning to notice a pattern?... That is what drove me to signup for the buddy program. Due to my history with exchange students, it only seemedright to intentionally befriend one of them, and not by coincidence, which was whathappened the first three times. I saw the e-mail about the buddy program in the summerjust before senior year started, and my friend shared it with me as well, so all the signsindicated that I should sign up for the buddy program, and I did.
I first contacted my buddy through e-mail so I could get her Whatsapp number. Afterthat, I texted her to start a conversation. My buddy’s name is Simah Al-Jabari. She’s Turkish-Iraqi and she comes from San Diego. I think part of what Simah was looking for in coming to AUS wasgood people that she can call family when the time came for her to leave. I believe she has found that family in coming to AUS, and I couldn’t be happier. It didn’t take much; we clicked from the beginning. We shared interests and we were both “not awkward”. In fact, I felt like she’d get along with my friends as well, so I invited her to come horse riding with us that same week I first spoke to her. I had not physically met her yet and the first time we met was at 5:30 AM on a Friday morning when we picked her up to go horse riding. Neither of us looked our best, but that didn’t matter much. We had a nice ride that day, and after we finished horse riding we decided to go have breakfast, after which we went to play some board games. After that, we wanted to go Karaoke (mind you, we were a group of 10+ people). We reached the Karaoke place and found it to be closed, so we decided that it was finally time to go home. As soon as we tried to start the car, we realized something was wrong with it and we went about trying to figure that situation out. Throughout thisexhausting day, Simah did not decide to run away. I was quite impressed that she stuckwith me through all that, considering it was the first day we met.
In the weeks following that day, I spent a lot of time with Simah, either having lunch,playing volleyball with my friends, or just hanging out and having coffee. Every time wehung out, we grew closer and closer. There was never a dull moment in conversationwith her. One weekend, I took Simah back to Abu Dhabi with me, where my family lives.She spent the weekend at my place and I showed her some spots in Abu Dhabi. It wasa relaxing two days full of good home-cooked food and it was the first time Simah eatsMansaf. Following this weekend, we spent almost every day together. Even when westudied, we would just meet up and each work on our own thing. I really enjoyedSimah’s company, and seeing her everyday was never too much. As the time of herdeparture from the UAE grew nearer, I started dreading her leaving. We have grown soattached! That is when I decided to create something that would hold all of our bestmemories and include a piece of every person Simah cherished. I decided to make ascrapbook and include pictures from Simah’s entire exchange semester. I also hadeveryone write in a farewell note. It was the best thing I could think to give her as afarewell gift. It’s safe to say that she loved it! Of course, I organized an entire dinner tobring together all of the friends Simah made to have one last happy gathering beforeshe left. Tears were shed, both happy and sad.
My buddy and I’s favorite past times include eating yoghurt at Yoghurt land. No joke, Iwas able to redeem a free cup in the time she was here! Also, we frequently went to thedesert. We both loved the calmness, peace and quiet that the desert offered, as well asthe warmth that came from a bonfire.
I think I taught Simah the importance of patience. That’s about as much as I taught her.She has taught me so much with her compassion, devotion towards her close friends,her caring nature and her consideration towards others. She also made me realize that Ineed to put myself first sometimes. I definitely grew as a person from spending so muchtime with Simah.
One day, Simah did not feel well and started to get dizzy, bordering on losingconsciousness. When she called me to tell me she wasn’t feeling well, she couldn’tcontinue the phone call and hung up. I had someone go check up on her in SBA while Iran as fast as I could from dorms. I was in a real panic. When I reached her, we got herhelp from the clinic then transferred her to the University Hospital Emergency Room,where they treated her. It was a scary experience, but she pulled through very well. Ihad never experienced something like this happening to a friend, and it’s amazing howassertive and rational one becomes when one’s looking after a friend in need.
My favorite part about the experience is growing so close to Simah in the span of only afew months to the point where I consider her a sister. Truly, I have grown so attachedand fond of Simah, and I feel very lucky to have gotten paired up with her. I had gaineda friend/sister for life, and that doesn’t come easy. Parting with Simah was difficult. It felt like she had taken a piece of my heart with her, not knowing when I was going to see her again. After all, San Diego is a long way away from UAE. It was difficult on my friends too, who had also grown quite attached to her. She definitely entered many people’s hearts, which is only to be expected of someoneas kind-hearted and pure as she is.
This experience gave me a new perspective on what friendship means. It also providedme with support and love that were much needed in a busy period of my semester.Most importantly, this experience taught me that there’s always good to be found inpeople, no matter how things may seem; it only takes a shift in perspective to notice it.I’m not sure whether it was the lucky pairing that made the Buddy program such asuccess in my case, but I’m very glad I did it and I would recommend it for everyone.You never know, you might just find yourself a friend for life!"
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