Northwestern Qatar students travelled to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates to visit different regional and global media organizations. The initiative, Global Media Experience (GME) is part of the University’s focus on experiential learning.
This year, students visited news corporations, including Ashraq News, Bloomberg, and CNN Arabic, and strategic communication agencies Memac Ogilvy, Bukhas Brothers, and Teneo.
In underscoring the importance of such experiential learning programs in supporting the school’s academic mission, Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO said they allow students to better understand the dynamic nature of the media industry. “The Global Media Experience program empowers our students to become well-rounded media professionals and embodies Northwestern Qatar’s core academic structure of intersecting theory and practice to create opportunities for innovation and practical applications,” he said.
Rising journalism junior, Ishmael Bonsu Nyame, said the program helped nurture his passion for data journalism and business news. “Having the opportunity to visit Bloomberg’s studios and speak to journalists there about how business and financial news are produced was a very rewarding experience for me as someone interested in telling stories about numbers and businesses,” said Bonsu Nyame. “It allowed me to see how my passion for numbers and storytelling come together in the real world.”
A first-year international student from Brazil, Maria Clara dos Santos Lisboa, explained how the program helped expand her knowledge about the inner workings of the media scene in the Middle East and develop a comparative understanding of the global media industry. “Growing up between Brazil and the U.S., I was naturally exposed to media mainly from a Western perspective,” said Lisboa. “The program exposed me not only to new aspects of the global media industry but also to different pathways and career opportunities I could pursue as a media student.”
For Mariam Alqasem, who just concluded her first year at Northwestern Qatar, her participation in the program broadened her perspective about the potential career opportunities across the media industry. “I learned a lot from at the time I spent with GME,” said Alqasem. “I now have a better understanding of the soft and technical skills I need to develop in and outside the classroom to grow as a media student and then pursue a successful career in the industry.”
The Global Media Experience is one of many experiential learning programs designed to provide Northwestern Qatar students with the opportunity to connect their academic learning with the changing media industry and expand their learning beyond the classroom.
