Education Activities in 2018

Overview

Overview

The Qatar-America Institute (QAI) routinely hosts receptions for alumni of American universities to raise
awareness of the academic links between the U.S. and Qatar and celebrate the countries’ and universities’
valuable partnership. In 2018, these events have been a resounding success, bringing current and former
members of Congress and other senior leaders to speak and typically attracting crowds of over 100
guests. Organizing these events further helps QAI develop and strengthen relationships between QAI and
the universities’ administrations and alumni groups.

Reasoning

QAI’s alumni events leverage and grow the synergistic relationships between U.S. universities and Qatari
universities and branch campuses. Universities, especially in the U.S., devote significant resources to
keeping their alumni informed of the accomplishments of the school as well as its alumni, yet many alumni
from schools with branches in or ties to Qatar are not aware of those links. QAI’s events, thus, dovetail with
the missions of the universities’ alumni operations and simultaneously demystify Qatar, creating a more
supportive environment for further interpersonal ties between the countries in academia, business, culture,
or elsewhere.

Target Audience

The primary audience for these alumni events is the American alumni of the
U.S. universities with branches in Qatar: Georgetown University, Northwestern
University, Cornell University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas A&M
University, and Carnegie Mellon University. QAI is also considering expanding
this program to also include American schools with other ties to Qatar,
e.g., through the Qatar Katrina Fund (Xavier University of Louisiana, Tulane
University, Loyola University, and Louisiana State University).

Beyond the alumni bases of these respective schools, QAI and the alumni administrations also seek out
current and former senior leaders in Congress, the administration, academia, business, and elsewhere
to serve as speakers and guests of honor at the receptions. By reaching out to these VIPs, QAI creates
greater name recognition for itself and raises awareness of those universities’ branch campuses, even
when those VIPs are not available to join. This can lead to lasting relationships if and when the VIPs
express interest otherwise in Qatar or QAI’s events, outside of alumni receptions.

Follow-Up & Network Creation

QAI collects the email addresses of event attendees and adds them to its general newsletter list. QAI
thus keeps these guests abreast of news within Qatar and within the Qatari-American relationship, and
includes them in invitations for other QAI events. This is powerful for QAI, since the alumni attending
these events do not come from any single subject area of expertise. The broad spectrum of QAI’s events,
analysis, and factsheets – including business, fashion, sustainability, women’s empowerment, and sports
– practically guarantees that attendees will have some current or future QAI article, factsheet, or event that
interests them.

@QatarAmerica qataramerica.org
 Education Activities in 2018
Overview

Georgetown University Alumni Event

On March 16, 2018, QAI hosted Georgetown University alumni for a food
festival featuring Paul Horvath, CEO of Orchard Capital Group, and former
Congressman Patrick Murphy. Paul Horvath discussed the unique role
Georgetown University has played in supporting the diplomatic relationship
between the U.S. and Qatar, beyond simply training a new generation of
Qatari diplomats and political leaders. Congressman Murphy discussed
his recent trip to Doha and how the Qatari branch campus of Georgetown
held the same academic standards as the main campus.

Northwestern University Alumni Event

On April 18, 2018, QAI worked with the Northwestern University Club of
Washington, DC to host an alumni event for Northwestern graduates.
The gathering featured as speakers former Congressman Jim Kolbe
and University Club president Adrienne Lawrence. Congressman Kolbe
discussed the strategic importance of the U.S.-Qatari relationship and
his experience on a recent trip to Qatar, and Adrienne Lawrence covered
the history of the Northwestern branch in Qatar and some of its notable
achievements.

Cornell Club of Washington Alumni Event

On April 24, 2018, QAI hosted a particularly special alumni event with the
Cornell Club of Washington. Thanks to the Cornell Club’s uniquely strong
network, the reception featured current Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
of New York. Congresswoman Maloney discussed her trip to Qatar in
the 1990s and expressed admiration for Qatar allowing women to vote
beginning with its first local elections. The event also featured – for the
first time in QAI’s history – a young alum of the main campus who had
experience on the Qatari campus: Annalise Schoonmaker. Her discussion
of her work at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar uniquely personalized the relationship between the main and
branch campuses, and offered insight into Qatari culture from the perspective of an American.

Virginia Commonwealth University Alumni Event

On July 12, 2018, QAI and the alumni administration of Virginia

Commonwealth University hosted a reception for VCU alumni to celebrate
the Qatari branch campus. The event featured Josh Hiscock, the Associate
Vice President of Alumni Relations at VCU, who discussed VCU’s exchange
program between the branch and main VCU campuses. Thanks to that
exchange program, this reception, too, featured young speakers who
studied at the main campus and had spent time at the branch campus.
Thanks to QAI’s prior Ruwad events, the event personalized VCU-Q by
featuring some of the artistic work of its talented graduates.

New York City Alumni Event

In addition, QAI hosted a reception for graduates of Qatari universities in New York City during the UN
General Assembly week. This helped QAI expand its visibility among alumni of these universities, familiarize
them with its mission, and grow its network to include not only alumni of universities’ main branches, but
of Qatari schools as well.

@QatarAmerica qataramerica.org