Community Impact
AUIB is an academic community, but it is also part of the larger community. We are part of Baghdad and part of Iraq, and we want to contribute to both. Our AUIB community is composed partly of Iraqi and international staff, but the most important part is our students and their families. An American-style education values real-world experience that a student gains during their university years via internships and volunteer work. These activities are time consuming, but usually offer little or no academic credit or count toward the degree. However, these opportunities can be the most vital aspect of one’s education.
Internships with private companies, government agencies and enterprises, and non-governmental organizations are vital to a student’s academic experience. Through internships, the student can apply their knowledge from classes and readings to real world situations and see what works and what doesn’t. They also get to experience the challenges of working on teams, while gaining a mentor and beginning to build their personal network that will help them for years to come. If they are especially lucky, the internship may pay a salary and even lead to a full-time job after graduation, but many are also unpaid. AUIB is already developing some internships for students with Iraqi and international companies and will continue to develop more of these as a top priority for student success. Whether paid or unpaid, an internship can be one of the most rewarding aspects of the AUIB experience.
For most students, though, this vital experience will also be gained through volunteer work in the larger community. Whether working with international or Iraqi non-governmental organizations, working in faith-based organizations, volunteering to help students in schools, engaging in important environmental and sustainability projects and programs to tackle climate change issues or promote a healthier environment, we encourage every student to find ways to give of their time, their passion, and their energy to causes that are important to them and to help people in any way they can. By giving, we usually receive much more in return; satisfaction, experience, awareness, and personal growth, all of which adds to our education to make us better people, better citizens, and better equipped to face a changing future.
But it’s not just students who get involved in the community. Our faculty also target their research to address issues in Iraq, both nationally and locally, to identify problems and develop solutions to those problems. These may be in health-related fields, in environmental topics, or education and public opinion. Our researchers work with researchers in other universities across Iraq with a common goal – to make life better for all the people of Iraq in all its provinces, in communities large and small across the land.
