November 2018 Humphrey Secretariat Post
Hello! I am Aljawharah Alfuhayd, from Saudi Arabia. I am Hubert H. Humphrey secretariat for November 2018. I work in Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. PNU is the largest women’s university in the world. It is unique of its sort and ambitious in its vision and mission. It has been named differently and its history goes back to more than 40 years. I studied there as undergraduate and started my job also right after graduation.
I got my BA, MA, PHD from Princess Nourah University. My field in teaching is English literature and poetry is my major. I am most interested in reading English and American literature, modern African American and anglophone African poetry. Furthermore, I work as a local auditor for quality assurance in PNU. I had many hats in leading administrative positions such as, the chairman of the English Language and Literature Dept., the vice-dean of Development and Skills Enhancement, the assistant of the dean of quality assurance and academic accreditation. I, also, was the leader of Excellence and Quality Ambassadors and the chief director of Media for the first International Conference of Development and Innovation in PNU.
I love reading and discussing issues about leadership in general and in higher education in specific. I started to know about the significance and role of leadership in change making few years ago when I got the ten-month INSEAD training by multiple trainers from different INSEAD locations.
That experience was the ground stone as well as the motivation for an increased exploration of the leadership value, theories and practice in the building of successful organizations locally and internationally. That is the secret behind joining H. H. Humphrey program; to dig in the knowledge of leadership models, get in contact with leading professors and last, but not least, participate in leadership conferences and workshops that would be complementary to a previous knowledge.
What do you know about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia is the largest sovereign state in the Middle East, geographically the fifth-largest in Asia, second-largest in the Arab world after Algeria and 12th-largest in the world.
Saudi Arabia has had five-year “Development Plans” since 1970. Among its plans were to launch “economic cities” (e.g. King Abdullah Economic City) to be completed by 2020, in an effort to diversify the economy and provide jobs.
In the field of higher education, there are 62 public and private universities and colleges around the kingdom. Saudi universities are almost the top five or three in the Arab Universities QS Ranking, and in the range between 150-200 in the World Universities QS Ranking. Public universities are 100% free, funded by the government. Though this system will be changed in the future. The education in universities is co-education except in PNU.
Our culture is distinctive by being so related to Islam, the religion of the land. The constitution of K.S.A is built on Islam and its laws. Some traditions are similar with other Arab countries such as having Arabic coffee as the most popular drink, but it is called Saudi coffee.
Henna is a traditional hand decoration that is so popular in special occasions. Its color is red and it beautifies the hands and feet or any part of the body. It has a good smell, too.
One more tradition is the Bakhour, a perfumed wooden part of a special tree named (Oud). It is expensive, and it has its special and overwhelming smell that lasts for days. It produces this good smell when burned. It is used in special occasions to welcome guests.