Amman, Jordan -- we're not in Tokyo but ...
I love coming to Jordan. The people are very nice; the students are energetic, smart and reliable. Each time I visit Amman I learn something new about the city, I visit a new district. Admittedly, I have spent much of my time in the more affluent West Amman, home to my hotel and many of the private schools. Amman is deceptive and if you only arrive from the airport highway than you might think Amman is one long boulevard and five roundabouts. Instead it is a massive rolling mass of land home to millions, an mélange of Jordanians, Palestinians, Iraqis and yes, VCU alumni.
One of our alumni is now working as a Fulbright scholar for three years in Amman. Before entering our medical college for post-graduate studies, he studied as an undergraduate. While he was there he started VCU’s Muslim Student Association (MSA), a group that was later judged the number one student association of its kind in the United States. We are very proud to have him as an alumnus and I know he will serve the Jordanian people well through his research at a local hospital.
Recently I had sushi in Amman. Yes, sushi in a land locked Middle Eastern country. Why not, after all there is a Dairy Queen in the Omani airport. No, I have not had grits in Saigon. It gets better. The sushi restaurant is housed in a Howard Johnson’s Hotel. Do you remember those? They were such a vivid part of my childhood, traveling interstates in the last seat of a seven-passenger station wagon, facing the opposite direction of anyone else, staring directly at Dick and Jane as they drove to the beach. The Ho-Jos had the distinctive roof, the upside down roof at the main office. This one does not have it, and in fact the restaurant offers a panoramic view of Amman with a sixth floor view through glass no matter where you are seated.
Sushi is not what I had in mind when I wanted to meet with a prospective student and her parents. This student, from Amman Baccalaureate School, recently applied to Virginia Commonwealth University and has been accepted, as she was to an Ivy League, and Big Ten university. But, she loves the cultural diversity of VCU and the resources provided to students in the new building for the School of Business so we decided to talk more about VCU over dinner with her parents. I asked her what she wanted to eat and she said sushi. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I smiled and said, “Of course.�? Let me tell you, Amman sushi is not Tokyo sushi, but it worked. The whole night did and I was very impressed, with the meal, the view, and the student.
So on this trip I again made plans to visit with this student’s parents. And this time this student, who has yet to decide on her university of choice, decided to assist me at the education fair, and helped recruit students to VCU with me. I think, rather, I know, that I have never seen a student who has yet to commit to a school, recruit at a fair for a school. But she did. One of the reasons I want this student to come to VCU is her personality. She is a natural leader. Yes, she is near the top of a class that will see 95% of its students go to America for college, and yes, she is quite possibly a future Jordanian Olympian, but what she does, what she says, what she thinks matters to others. The day I met her at her school in January, 8 other students contacted me about applying. Last night at the fair, I spoke to other students who came to my table because they knew she was thinking of going.
I did not train her. She had researched VCU enough, had watched “VCU Key to the World�? (http://www.vcu.edu/itsvcu/, Episode 2) enough times, that I left her alone to answer questions and to make key points in Arabic when needed. How many 17 year olds do know are willing to stand in front of hundreds of prospective students, many of them years older than her, and present on behalf of a school she has yet to attend, while giving up a weekend evening of her last semester in high school? As I write this, I think about that and it impresses me even more.
A student who will be starting his PhD in Electrical Engineering at VCU in August came to say hello. He and his wife will arrive in the summer for a session at our English Language Program first. I think she will probably end up working on a Masters. This student is also an excellent student. He earned a 4.0 GPA during his graduate studies and has been given a full ride from a host university in Jordan. In working with him, I asked him to identify a member of the E&C faculty with home he might want to work. I then took his application to this professor and explained what I thought the qualities were in the applicant. I then presented this student’s research to the professor and explained that he wanted to do work with him. So, come the fall, this student will begin he work in one of 50 research labs offered to our students under the guidance of our 45 member international faculty at the School of Engineering.
I saw other familiar faces last night. It is funny sometimes to think that in a matter of four months I can meet a total stranger, in a foreign country, and 9 or 10 emails, 5 text messages, 6 phone calls, 4 faxes, and 2 personal visits later they show up to a fair to say they can’t wait to be in Richmond in August. I can’t wait either.
To the best of my knowledge we will be between plus six and plus ten on the Jordanian front come the beginning of the fall semester. These are great students. The sushi is not bad either.