Georgetown concludes its inaugural community classes with a ceremony

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), launched and successfully completed its inaugural community education program which included a wide range of non-credit classes for the wider community in Qatar. The new program commemorated Georgetown’s 10th anniversary of academic excellence in Qatar and was the first of its kind at the Qatar campus. Each class ran for six consecutive weeks and all classes were open to male and female participants over the age of 18.

With a goal of providing continuing learning opportunities for  Qatari citizens and residents GU-Q community education initiative presented a unique opportunity residents of Qatar to take part in courses on topics such as comparative religious perspectives; contemporary issues in Gulf studies; Arab politics; innovations in digital learning, using online learning; how to appreciate Arabic poetry; great philosophers and contemporary world events; Islam and contemporary issues; the history of the Middle East; and sports education and exercise science: contemporary issues & relevance to Qatar.

At the closing ceremony, Dr. Gerd Nonneman, dean of Georgetown in Qatar, extended his congratulations and offered a special acknowledgement to the very first community education class participants and to the inaugural faculty who taught the classes. During his remarks, Dean Nonneman commented on the value of community education to the public.

Addressing the first cohort of community education participants, guests and faculty, Dr. Nonneman said, “We always felt -- particularly our faculty felt -- that we wanted to do more to engage with the people in Qatar through a form of education beyond what we normally do here at GU-Q, and these community classes were always at the forefront of our intentions. I'm delighted we have now been able to make this a reality." Dean Nonneman further noted that GU-Q's community education initiative is a key component of the University's outreach efforts to the broader society in Qatar. 

Commenting on the tremendous success of the program, Jonathan Cartmell, GU-Q Executive Director of Outreach and Business Development, noted that this is just the beginning. “We are hoping to respond to the very positive reception our inaugural courses received by launching a wider range of new courses in October. We hope to be able to repeat this offering for our Qatari community several times every year. I am pleased to have been able to support the opportunity to better connect our world-class faculty with members of the professional community and the wider public who appear to have a strong appetite for advancing their skills and knowledge in the wide subject areas.” 

The closing ceremony concluded with presentation of Letters of Completion to all community education class participants which was followed by a networking reception.