Alaa

I always believed that extracurricular activities are as important as academic life in university, so the moment I enrolled in university I started looking for opportunities to help me improve my personality. That’s when I found a volunteer call to join the LRC, and as a language-holic person, I was thrilled by the call, so I applied immediately. This is how my journey with LRC began.

 

My first task as a volunteer at LRC was to design social media posts, reels, etc.

And it was really helpful, specifically because I learned how to design by myself and this opportunity gave me the chance to work on my skills and improve them. Besides designing, I also tutored Arabic for some of the amazing international volunteers that came to Palestine to teach their languages and explore the beauty of Palestine. Tutoring not only improved my English conversation skills but my social skills as well. We were always sharing our ideas and our culture, so I learned a lot about other fascinating cultures while sharing the reality of Palestinian culture and traditions.

 

What I love about LRC is the activities that we organize. One of our activities is the language café, which I think is so unique because only LRC provides it for students, and it feels so nice to gather with people that have the same language interests and talk about different topics and share ideas. It’s really a great way to meet new people and spend your time on campus. We also have a game day, which is so much fun to get out of the academic pressure, and our movie day is remarkable.

 

But my favorite activity has to be the Language Open Day, in which we introduce students to other cultures and languages, also to encourage them to explore the world and learn languages.

 

I can’t stress how much this experience helped me personally at many levels, and it helped me step out of my comfort zone and escape academic pressure. I’m really glad I seized it.

 

And, as a student in the faculty of medicine and health sciences, I strongly advise you all to seize opportunities that you’re interested in, even if they're not exactly related to your major.

 

Lastly, the best part of it all was the friendships that I made with the local and international volunteers, because at LRC we are not your usual volunteers; we are a big family of loving, hard-working, amazing people.

 

With love,

Alaa Amer <3