Georgetown University in Qatar Prepares to Welcome New Students

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) staff, faculty, and students are spending their summer getting ready for the arrival of the University’s latest class, who will start their Georgetown journey with a new student orientation (NSO) in early August. With the University receiving the largest number of applications in its history this year, the Class of 2021 comprises students who successfully navigated the competitive admissions process.

GU-Q’s week-long orientation serves to introduce the students to the campus, their new classmates, faculty and staff members, and university life. They will meet on-on-one with their academic deans, learn more about the support services available to enhance their Georgetown experience, and have an opportunity to get to know the peers they will be studying alongside for the next four years.   

The NSO team is focused on ensuring new students have a fun and seamless transition into their first week of classes. “It’s really scary coming into a new university,” explained NSO coordinator Nayab Rana (SFS ’18). “Everybody is always very welcoming, but it’s still that transition period that everybody struggles with.”

Rana explained that they hope to create an orientation experience that will encourage new students to become involved in university life through the extracurricular activities and clubs on offer. “As you go on through university, you realize how much of an impact that first week had on you, and how the people you interacted with then or the activities you took part in that first week shaped what your experiences were moving on,” she said. “I want to be a part of helping the younger class get more involved.”

While there are a number of academic requirements and assessments to complete over the course of the week, the team hopes to create a warm atmosphere with a fun theme, bonding activities, and customized decorations.

“We have a bunch of activities and sessions planned,” said NSO coordinator Omar Al Khateeb (SFS ’18). “The sessions are geared towards student life and academia… but at the same time we want it to be fun, so we’ve added activities to supplement what we teach them in their academic sessions.”

The Class of 2021 will be the 13^th cohort to begin their studies at GU-Q since the University first opened its doors in Qatar in 2005. They will be joining the highly ranked GU-Q Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree program, a unique interdisciplinary curriculum that prepares students to tackle the most important and pressing global issues by helping them develop critical thinking, analytic, and communication skills within an international context.