June 19 , 2009

You Succeed, and Then You Reach For More

Bethlehem University Graduates Fulfill Their Dreams

Marcelle Kuttab Khoury and Rawan Liddawi – both members of the 33rd and largest graduating class in Bethlehem University’s 35-year history – know the power of a dream, the value of commitment, and the importance of a community of support. 

They are among the 572 students joining Bethlehem University’s now 11,388-member alumni family. They are members who embody the spirit of hope and dedication that marks a Bethlehem University education. For Marcelle, graduation is the culmination of a nearly 20 year journey to pursue her bachelors degree.  For Rawan, it is a celebration of being the first in her family to earn a bachelors degree, and as the top academic student for the entire university. 

Education interrupted

Marcelle began classes at Bethlehem University in 1987.  Then the first Intifada began, and the Israeli military closed the University for three years.  She returned when the University reopened in 1990, but the continuing turmoil and life’s circumstances intervened. Marcelle withdrew almost two years into her four-year Business Administration program. 

“But finishing was always something inside me,” Marcelle says. “It was my dream.”

In the meantime, she worked in the Red Cross during the Intifada and later for World Vision. Already married, she also began raising four children.  Despite having a career and family, though, she felt that “It’s not enough to work; really, I wanted to complete my degree.” “

"When you lack education,” Marcelle explains, “you lack a lot of things in your character.” Plus, she believes that people pay more attention to your opinions when you have a degree to back them up.

As her children grew up and began school, Marcelle saw an opportunity to resume her own studies. “When my youngest child entered school,” she remembers, “I said, ‘I want to do something for myself.’” 

Marcelle doesn’t regret the path her life has taken. “Being a mother and staying at home for a period of time will strengthen your character,” she says. It prepared her to be patient, to survive without sleep and to make sacrifices for the things that matter.

She also believes her Bethlehem University education is important in her relationship with her children. Being a student herself, she feels a new sense of connection with her children. “I know what my daughter will experience in the University,” she says, “what problems she might face.”

Marcelle finds that she also talks more comfortably on her children’s level, sharing her own stories about school and classes as they tell theirs. Despite the time it’s taken from her family, she believes that her own studying has improved the level of family interaction. It is, she says, “the quality not the quantity of time” with them that’s important.

Supporting students of all ages

As a student who was past the “traditional” university age, Marcelle found the Bethlehem University environment incredibly supportive – an experience echoed by younger students as well.

Rawan Liddawi, a biology major and valedictorian of this year’s graduating class, was supported financially in her studies as a Brother Joseph Neary Scholar funded by the LINE District community of Christian Brothers. The first member of her family to graduate from university, she too says that the University students and faculty were a kind of family.

In some ways, Marcelle feels that her uniquely prolonged academic career and nontraditional age were an advantage. When you’ve passed your twenties, are married and have children, school takes on a different meaning. At “that age it’s not only studying,” she says, “you try to analyze what you read, to implement it in your life”.

For Rawan as well, it is the practical application of her studies that have been her favorite part of her Bethlehem University experience. As part of new course requirements for her minor in medical technology, Rawan completed a seventy-two hour practicum at Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem. “It was nice to see and be involved in the actual work,” she says of her training, which included blood and microbiology testing, “not just in regular class time inside the University.”

For Marcelle, being so much older than her classmates was sometimes strange, she admits. “Once,” she recalls, “I entered, and they thought that I was the teacher.”

Other differences were less amusing. Being a student mother meant that her academic career was not the only one in question. Sometimes she wouldn’t sleep in the days leading up to an exam because she had to help her kids with their schoolwork, in addition to her own studying.

In the end, though, “I learned something from these students. I learned to learn from the people around me. I learned from the youth …to be full of energy.” Marcelle also learned how to leave her other roles outside university gates. “When I entered the gate of Bethlehem University,” she remembers, “I learned to be a student.”

The degree is only the beginning

Rawan, who hopes to pursue a master’s degree in medical technology or genetic diagnosis, believes that “The most important thing is not just to reach…but to maintain a high level of education…and then when you get there, to reach some more.”

“I know that Bethlehem University is not the end of a road,” she continues, “but the beginning of a new road.”

Dr. Adnan Shqueir, Biology Department Chairperson, hopes Rawan’s road will eventually lead her back to the University. He would be happy, he said, for his student who “always looks for perfection” to be a member of the BU faculty.

A mission of change

Marcelle believes that her BU experience has already been life-changing. Being at home for years and then returning, she says, “I felt that I will only get my bachelor’s degree,” but instead the experience changed her entire outlook.

More than academic knowledge, Bethlehem University gave Marcelle a new-found confidence. A Jerusalemite, she had had her driver’s license for 9 years without really using it. With heavy traffic, sudden maneuvers and driver impatience the hallmarks of Middle Eastern driving culture, simple daily commutes can be frightening tasks. After beginning university, Marcelle would not only drive the nearly seven kilometers back and forth to Bethlehem but the nearly seventy kilometers to coastal Tel Aviv.

“Talking to Marcelle recently,” says Dr. Fadi Kattan, Dean of Business Administration, “after the academic journey was over, made me believe in our mission. At Bethlehem University, we create change. We do not only transfer knowledge, but we help people develop.”

“I want my daughters to see me in my graduation gown,” Marcelle says. She wants that image to stay in their heads and to inspire their own dreams.

In the end, she believes, her experience is about opening up the wealth of possibilities, not prescribing a particular one. “I’m not drawing their future,” she says. “I want them to draw it, but I can give them the tools.” Tools she learned at Bethlehem University.

Read more about Bethlehem University's 33rd graduation ceremony here:
http://www.bethlehem.edu/archives/2009/2009_037.shtml