Undergraduate / "do it the Islamic way" ; What matters to you and why? [2]

Growing up I remember my family always telling me about Islam, "do it the Islamic way" my grandmother used to say, however, I never understood what she actually meant. I used to give her the fake nod and smile, thinking to myself "it is not possible to do everything the Islamic way, is there an Islamic way for walking?!" Being curious I kept thinking about this until I was 12 when I was in a lecture with one of the well-known Islamic scholars who said "Islam is the catalogue of life... everything is done by it" and there it was, the answer to my questions. I rushed after the lecture, shouted his name and asked him my childhood question. His reply was life changing, it added the meaning to my life; "Yes..., Islam is god's way of telling us how to live our life in the best way possible; god's way ... Islam demands that we follow what is beneficial to us and leave anything that is harmful... you sleep on your right side, like the prophet used to do, because it's the healthy way of sleeping... you urinate sitting down, again like the prophet used to do, because its more hygienic and healthier to you. This is god's life and you need to remember that god had a way for everything created, no matter how small it is, that is the creation of religions". From that day on I started looking at life from a different perspective, every action I take is done the Islamic way. Islam asks me to learn, work, enjoy, exercise, train, marry and get children as worship to god and not just things to do in life. The most thing that matters to me in this life is my religion, Islam, which by its turn made every little thing in life matter to me. Anything I do, pointless of influential, it is still my life and still my religion.

Undergraduate / New environment,culture, tradition, education & a lifestyle; Brown U/Cubism question) [4]

Sculptor Jacques Lipchitz once said, "Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different. It is a point of view." With this in mind, describe a moment when your perspective changed.

It was a new environment, new culture, new tradition, new education and a new lifestyle; my perception when I moved to Qatar from Jordan and especially to the first boarding school in my life (QLA). I moved to this new country as an ignorant; the Qatari community is very much different than that of Jordan. The Qatari community is a multinational community with people from different backgrounds that I wasn't familiar with; students from the GCC, teachers from all over the world and boarding supervisors from the west. This new environment was far off my comfort zone, I wasn't ready for this change yet and this led to many conflicts with almost every member of the school's community.

In my case the school's community represented cubism, and I was looking at it from a point where things looked different from what I wanted to see. I had this point of view that the Jordanian community was much better and the Qatari community, especially the school's community, was a hopeless one. I was so lost into this point of view that the 'hopeless community' was the blame for all my conflicts to half way through the first semester. I was introduced to an image in my humanities class of a man with blindfolds only seeing a part of the bigger image he was supposed to be seeing, and that moment my perspective changed. It hit me, what if I was that man, the man that is not able to see the bigger point of view from this cubism.

At this point I decided to change my perspective towards this community. I wanted to see something different, what I wanted to see is not what I was looking for this time. Therefore I kept going higher with things looking bad and lower with things looking worst, then higher and lower again and again until I adapted, until I changed my perspective towards this community. After all, I found out that the Qatari community still shares so many values with the Jordanian community despite all their differences and backgrounds.

Undergraduate / I was amazed of Northeastern's qualities ; Something you created [3]

What is something you created that makes you especially proud, and why?
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I am very proud of creating a charity organization (Help4). This charity organization makes me feel especially proud because it is such a magnificent organization that was initiated back when I only was in grade nine. This organization started as a local school project with a limited aim and goal. It then developed to become a well-known organization with the aim of reaching out to Asia, especially to third world countries with health, educational and social issues. Adding to that, I am very proud that a junior is going to take over the organization presidency when I graduate; the organization created a legacy in our school passing on from a school generation to another.

We all exist within communities or groups of various sizes, origins, and purposes; pick one and tell us why it is important to you, and how it has shaped you. Characters available 1000

My unique identity is without a doubt a combination between all my communities I lived in, however the community of my boarding school is defiantly by far the most important community that had the most influence on my character; I am not any ordinary member there but a leader leading the entire student body. Therefore, I spent most of my time during the week interacting with almost every school member from all age groups. My school's community is especially important to me not only because it influenced my thinking and values, but because it is the community I grew up in as a teenager; a community that taught me how to live independently and take care of myself. The school's community shaped me to become an open-minded leader ready for the standards of this century; not only in my region but, due to its multinational nature, with all different cultures and backgrounds. Needless to say, this community also made me realize and appreciate the importance of education and family.

- What are the unique qualities of Northwestern - and of the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying - that make you want to attend the University? In what ways do you hope to take advantage of the qualities you have identified?

It all started when I visited the Northeastern campus in January 2012 during a university tour around the state of Massachusetts with the Harvard Model United Nations trip. Northeastern was the first university to visit during the tour and I was amazed of Northeastern's qualities that opened my eyes to the option of studying at such a great, top-ranked university. During my visit the tour and the information session were extraordinary; it was in such a way where I explored the unique qualities of Northeastern without actually being directly told. First, the huge beautiful campus located in the heart of Boston itself is one of the qualities of Northeastern that makes the University unique from others, with the T running in the middle of the campus giving students the opportunity of not only living within the campus but exploring the beautiful city of Boston minutes from the University. Academically, Northeastern offers a variety of programs giving its students a wide range of options in which they are challenged enough yet without being intimated. The student body is a pretty diverse population, creating a cultural exchange environment both in and out of class with students who are welcoming, funny, energetic and smart. Needles to mention, the astonishing program for alumni students makes the university a place connecting world leaders worldwide. The entertainments and sports programs offered at Northeastern University and the student's imaginations with recreating the rules of games and sports is also an exclusive quality only found in Northeastern. Last but not least, Northeastern's administration and staff share a friendly however professional relationships with the students making the students feel more like home. During my visit, I was also introduced to the six schools of Northeastern University with each school not only having the exceptional qualities of Northeastern but unique qualities of its own. The most quality that attracted me from the School of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences was the very close relationship between advisors and students in the advisor program. The graduate school also offers small classes with a wide range of choices with author professors who wrote books on their subjects, making the learning experience in the school beyond the expected learning the theoretical then practical and moving back to the theoretical aspect of the topics. Finally, the university in general unlike other universities produces people who are not behind money and states but with one main goal in life to learn, educate and serve humanity. If I joined such a great inimitable university with endless qualities, I will make sure to use the qualities earned throughout my life and not only in the field I am working in. During my studying period these qualities will develop my character and prepare me to be a leader ready for the demands of the twenty first century.