AUS launches CAUSE mentorship program

A mentorship initiative aimed at motivating students, especially seniors, of American University of Sharjah (AUS), was successfully launched today, September 24, at the university's campus. Entitled CAUSE (Coaching AUS Executives), the initiative is designed to encourage students through the shared knowledge and experience of leading industry experts and community mentors who have made positive contributions to UAE society.

The main objective of the program is to enhance future leaders experience by providing hands-on learning and professional development opportunities with AUS alumni executives. This innovative training opportunity will also enhance the skills of AUS's graduating students and improve students' understanding of their majors, job markets, entrepreneurship and other fields of interest.

Dr. Thomas Hochstettler, AUS Acting Chancellor, welcomed company executives, AUS students and alumni to the event. "CAUSE is another example of how AUS is continuously supporting its community through initiatives that add value and help improve the industry," he said.

"The initiative has been designed to help unify and build successful mentoring programs through proven standards, cutting-edge research and state-of-the-art tools to face the challenging job market encountered by our graduating seniors," Dr. Hochstettler added.

Dr. Nada Mourtada-Sabbah, Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Affairs also welcomed the participants. "CAUSE is a mentorship program specifically designed to use the strengths of the AUS Alumni Association-notably the alumni already firmly situated within the private sector-and our rich network of partners who are not AUS graduates, but who are equally dedicated to partnering with this great university," said Dr. Mourtada-Sabbah. "Our goal is to help pave the way into the private sector for each cohort of graduating seniors. This is a daunting task and it requires equally resourceful solutions," she said.

"The CAUSE initiative goes hand-in-hand with AUS's interest in empowering students and graduating seniors by matching them with mentors based on a variety of characteristics including field of study, graduate programs, career interests and previous outreach experience," Dr Mourtada-Sabbah added.

The program featured three panels followed by trial-run interviews with the students, facilitated by company executives. It teamed mentors from industry-alumni and AUS non-alumni partners-with aspiring seniors to create a proactive platform of mentors and mentees working together to carry out these interviews with industry veterans, offering an opportunity for skill-building, personal networking and a powerful mutual experience.

Osman Sultan, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (du), gave an intriguing perspective on the changing nature of the world and informed attending students and alumni of the importance of understanding these changes. He also pointed to the positive and negative results of these changes and advised the students and alumni to adapt to them in the job market.

Ali Jaber, General Director, MBC Group TV expressed great concern for the current state of journalism in the Arab world directing the audience's attention to the need of ethical journalism in the region. He also emphasized that with all the changes currently taking place in the Arab world, it is important for educational institutions to focus more on ethics in the different topics of education.

Panelists and speakers at the event included Osman Sultan, Chief Executive Officer, Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company, du; Philippe Dessoy, General Manager, Six Construct; Umran Beba, Senior Vice President and Chief HR Officer and Acting Sector Head, PepsiCo AME; Ali Jaber, General Director, MBC Group TV; Ziad Makhzoumi, Chief Executive Officer, Fakih IVF Group; Mishal Kanoo, Deputy Chairman, The Kanoo Group; Lloyd Budd, Director and Head of Sales and Customer Relations, Majid Al Futtaim; Ergham Al Bachir, Director - Human Resources and Administration, Waha Capital, Abu Dhabi; Dr. Mohamed Salem, HR - Deputy Vice President, Emal; Dr. Azza El-Shinnawi, Education and Citizenship Lead, Microsoft Gulf; Sana Al Rifai, Founder and Creative Director, Tintbox - Advertising Gifts; and AUS Alumni Hisham Dirbas, Karim Abu-Ajram, Ali Al Suwaidi and Aisha Miran.