Students from the Florida International University (FIU) recently visited the American University in Dubai (AUD) part of the ongoing Study Abroad and Exchange Programs agreement between the two institutions.

28 undergraduate students from FIU’s College of Business along with their professor Dr. Doreen Gooden, Instructor in the Department of Management and International Business, and Mrs. Liza Carbajo, Director of the Office of Education Abroad at FIU, were welcomed by Ms. Peggy Awad, AUD’s External Relations Manager who gave them a grand tour of the campus after they attended two lectures by professors at AUD.

According to FIU’s Dr. Doreen Gooden, the College of Business is very committed to exposing its students to different cultures and to creating opportunities for them to gain firsthand knowledge on how business is conducted in other countries.

“We, therefore, have Short-Term Study Abroad Programs where we take students to different countries” comments Dr. Gooden; “These […] programs are of great value to our students, as they seek to become more knowledgeable in international business”.

As part of the curriculum, the FIU Short-Term Study Abroad Program includes lectures, company visits to both domestic and international companies, and cultural visits. As such, while at AUD, the FIU students were introduced to the UAE Economy by Dr. Mohammed Abu Ali, AUD’s Chair of the Department of Accounting and Finance at the School of Business Administration, and had the opportunity to learn about the Images of America through Arab Literature from Dr. Kamal AbdelMalek, Associate Professor of Arabic Literature in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at AUD. Both lectures were followed by Q&A sessions.

Ms. Awad also had the opportunity to discuss ways to encourage similar visits between the two partner schools with Dr. Gooden and Mrs. Carbajo. Ms. Peggy Awad, External Relations Manager at AUD comments on the FIU Students’ visit to AUD:

“The presence of our partner school on our campus today is another step closer to realizing our mutual goals as we further develop and strengthen our academic and cultural interchange. It is with such joint effort that we can give our student’s a unique chance to learn and experience different cultures and to engage in an open exchange of opinions and ideas. We hope to expand our short term study abroad program even further and welcome more visits from educational institutions that will help contribute towards influencing and expanding our students’ worldviews”.

The agreement between AUD and FIU stipulates among other issues that students from AUD and FIU can enroll at either institution to study courses in AUD’s Middle Eastern Studies Program and FIU’s Certificate Program in Middle East and Central Asian Studies in order to broaden their perspectives. Students are eligible to receive both the AUD and FIU certificates.