More than 30 students from throughout Education City experienced a unique learning journey during the second edition of the Future Leaders Academy designed to help aspiring leaders unleash their potential and introduce them to essential leadership and management skills.
Organized by the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Texas A&M University at Qatar, a Qatar Foundation partner university, the Future Leaders Academy was presented in collaboration with academic and industry stakeholders and gave students from various Education City universities an opportunity to explore principles of core leadership elements, including strategic thinking, organizational entrepreneurship, financial management and project management.
The program included modules on Principles of Strategy, led by HEC Paris in Qatar, Managing Financial Resources by McKinsey & Company, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Ericsson and TASMU and Project Management, Tafawoq — Qatar Shell. Students also had an opportunity to network and interact with industry representatives.
Joshua Kobb, Executive Director of Partnerships and Growth at HEC Paris in Qatar, said, “We were pleased to deliver the ‘Principles of Strategy’ module for the Future Leaders Academy (FLA) program and show our support for Qatar Foundation’s multiversity project. At HEC Paris, we have outstanding expertise in developing strategic thinking among future public and private sector leaders. To think strategically is vitally important for today’s and tomorrow’s leaders as it assists them in navigating unknown situations and developing skills to continuously learn, evolve and make decisions that enable organizations to push forward even in the face of setbacks or intense competition.”
Elissa Meflih, a Senior at Northwestern University in Qatar who participated in the program, said, “Being a part of the Future Leaders Academy at Texas A&M University at Qatar this year has been a very enlightening experience. Over the course of a week, we were joined by several esteemed industry experts from organizations such as HEC Paris and McKinsey & Company, who shared a lot of key insights on project management, finance management, entrepreneurship, team work and leadership. I highly encourage individuals to take part in future editions of the program as the knowledge they will accumulate is immense and insightful.”
Fellow participant Mohammed Tahri-Sqalli from Hamad Bin Khalifa University, said, “It was honestly a very well put, intensive and compelling program. It was interesting to meet students from other QF universities, and to work alongside each other, while being mentored by industry experts. I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers and facilitators of this program.”
Lana El Ladki, CTL Program Manager, said that opportunities such as the Future Leaders Academy empower students to enhance their skills beyond the classroom.
She said, “Future Leaders Academy is an example of the unique learning experiences we aim to offer to our students through the CTL’s engineering enrichment program. Through such programs, we aim to support students explore engineering beyond academics, acquire and hone practical skills which will allow them in thrive in the workplace, and to build last connections with representatives from the industry.”
This year, the CTL launched digital credentials for the participants. At the end of the program, participants received a digital badge which validates that the student has successfully completed the Future Leadership Academy program, and expounds on the skills and knowledge acquired.
El Ladki said, “It is great to see students from QF’s community gathered at Texas A&M at Qatar to exchange experiences, enrich their knowledge, work collaboratively on real-world case studies, and discuss new trends in an evolving working environment.”
The Center for Teaching and Learning continuously engages industry and governmental entities to leverage their expertise for offering programs that enrich technical and leadership skills of our students and provide them high impact multidisciplinary learning opportunities beyond their core engineering curriculum.
Source: Texas A&M University at Qatar