American University in Baghdad

UNI – 101
Dr. Muslih Irwani
Dr. Charl Swart
Mohammed Nihad Nafea
My Journal 2
As I am about to finish my second semester here at AUIB, I have to say that there isn’t
much I’ve learned in this course regarding soft skills or such. I had a long journey before I came
to AUIB seeking my second bachelor’s degree, and this journey is where I have learned a lot of
the skills that I have today. UNI 101 has added very little to me, to be honest, the thing that I
personally had from it is a small test to my debating, and presentation skills, and the thing that I
have learned is that my fellow students need to improve their debating skills, presentation skills,
and communication skills. This feels very normal to me since our environment in Iraq has none
of these skills in its core foundation.

I felt some kind of dissatisfaction about the course because I felt it was dry to some
extent. As a personal opinion, critical thinking can not be taught this easily and it needs
continuous practice, self-awareness, and self-questioning, and judgment. On the other hand, I
really appreciated the part of the course where students need to be brave and make presentations
in front of a crowd to increase their self-confidence and the idea of the debate where students
learned that they must listen to other opinions, analyze them, and if they wanted to attack this
opinion, they must do so in a solid-proof argument and not enforcing their own opinion.

Regarding other courses, as I have mentioned in my first journal, the two courses that I
was hoping to get the most benefit from came out to be just what I expected. I have learned a lot
of useful things in MIS 101 where I learned about a system that I am using in my job, how it
works, and what it consists of. I have learned about how data is being transferred on the internet
and how we have almost no privacy in this online world that we are living in right now. In MGT
101 I have learned about how to manage people and how to create a company culture that is
healthy and promotes motivation to the people I manage.
 This semester made me feel more confident about myself and made me realize that I am
walking on the right path in my life because I figured out that the things that I have learned in the
past few years are still useful now and I am only honing my skills and adjusting them to adapt to
the environment, time, and people that I am dealing with.

I am currently working in the sales business, and what I have learned these past two
semesters had a great effect on me and it will help me a lot in my future career since I am now
managing a sales team covering the whole country and I need every skill I can learn. The two
most skills that I felt had the most improvement this course is my Debating skill and active
listening where I have to listen to clients and employees and then I have to deal with customer
objections and answer them in a professional way and I have to answer employees’ complaints
about their personal or professional life, and I have to give them motivation and recognition for
the amazing work that they are doing.

Regarding my colleagues, I felt that they are very smart, and they have huge potential and
the cool thing about it is that they are aware of their potential, and they already have a dream and
some of them have planned for their lives after graduating and they have set objectives for
themselves. I felt very good when I saw this young energy flowing from them.

I would like to take some advice to any person that decides to join AUIB which is that
just to be yourself, express your opinions freely and respectfully, accept other people for who
they are, and do not make stereotypes or prejudgments about people. Focus on your studies very
well since the most thing that you will get benefit out of is the knowledge and skills that you
acquired in your college studies. Always be forgiving and open-minded since grudges and bad
emotions will only harm you, not others.