Students at Texas A&M University at Qatar held a fundraiser on Wednesday, Sept. 20 for Hurricane Harvey relief.
The Qatari Student Association is one of the largest student groups on the Qatar campus with around 50 members. Their president is electrical engineering senior Mohammad Al Mansouri and their vice president is petroleum engineering senior Najla Badar. The organization encourages Qatari students to volunteer and aid their community whenever possible.
After the devastation caused in Texas by Hurricane Harvey in late August, Aggies in Qatar wanted to help.
“It is one of the simplest actions that the Aggies of TAMUQ can represent their gratitude and sense of belonging for their main campus,” Al Mansouri said.
At the request of Her Excellency Sheikha Hind Bint Hamad Al Thani, the Vice Chairperson and CEO of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development, the QSA immediately began work on a project to fund aid for Harvey relief efforts.
“The Qatari students of TAMUQ answered the call of their leader Sheikha Hind and the need of their main campus as Aggies immediately,” Al Mansouri said.
The fundraising event was coordinated by 45 QSA members with the assistance of petroleum engineering junior Maha Al Sulaiti and several faculty members.
“The event included other volunteering Qatari and non-Qatari Aggies,” Al Mansouri said. “Six members of Al Sanna organization which is a smaller special-interest organization created by Qatari women, two faculty from STEM, two faculty from the finance department of TAMUQ.”
According to Al Mansouri and Badar, the goal of the QSA is to create a support network for Qatari students by providing them with leadership roles and opportunities for campus and community engagement.
“They aim to represent the Qatari culture and to support the Qatari students of A&M and to provide them with representation, entertainment, events and knowledge,” Al Mansouri said. “This is all done through giving them the opportunities to practice leading roles by managing projects led by the organization that in a way acts as a simulation of the exterior career force.”
On Wednesday, Sept. 20 the QSA began their campus-wide fundraising efforts by selling food, as well as t-shirts and mugs with slogans like “Texas Tough Together” and “Texas Can’t Be Shaken By Wind.”
“Some games were also introduced in the event relating the incident such as throwing a ball and trying to hit the hurricane’s eyes to destroy it,” Al Mansouri said.
According to Al Mansouri, the QSA wanted to raise awareness of the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey and connect students in Qatar with students in College Station.
“The event was aiming to raise the awareness of the Aggies of Qatar’s campus of the disastrous outcome of the incident,” Al Mansouri said. “This was done to remind the Aggies of both this and the main campus that A&M’s campuses are not just extensions of buildings but an extension of one Aggie family.”
Opened in 2003, the Texas A&M System school in Doha, Qatar offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in various fields of engineering.