Dr. David A. Schmidt, President of The American University in Dubai, congratulated all the students who participated in the short film competition. The competition, entitled, “Mental health of school students due to the spread of COVID- 19,” was organized by AUD’s Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Human Development Authority.

President Schmidt stressed that the aim of the competition is to discover talents among students, and to support and appreciate those talents.

The presentation of prizes to the winners, along with Dr. Sabrina Joseph, AUD Provost and Chief Academic Officer, took place on Sunday, April 18.

The student Sarah Al-Bashir from Al-Hikma Private School in Ajman received first place and was awarded a scholarship to study at The American University in Dubai for a period of four years.

Awards were also presented with certificates of appreciation to the winners of the following three students: Shahd Al-Jarman in second place, Maryam Al-Janahi in third place, and Shawq Al-Marzouki in fourth place. All of them are from Al Ittihad Private School - Jumeirah in Dubai.

Professor Hikmat Jabr, Director of Secondary Girls department at Al-Hikma Private School, expressed her appreciation for the efforts made by AUD’s Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication in preparing this competition. It had the greatest impact on motivating students to reflect upon their challenges with the Corona pandemic by creating a short film of no more than two minutes on the impact of the pandemic on their psyche during the current school year. She confirmed that this award is the most generous that is offered to students in the country.

Professor Iman Irsheidat, Head of the Arabic Language Department at Al Ittihad School, thanked AUD for launching its annual competition that inspires students towards creativity in sincerely expressing how they are dealing with everything that is happening nowadays.

Watch the first-place winner of the short film competition.