December is always one of the busiest months of the year. With festivities, trips, workshops, and the end of the semester all happening at once, there’s a lot to cover this month!

Our Workshops This Month

Our first workshop was Identity Wellness, given by our Student Wellness Specialist, Habiba Yousry. This workshop brought our students together to discuss what identity is, what factors contribute to building it, and how it is shaped throughout one’s experiences in life.

We followed with another interesting wellness workshop by UofCanada’s very own Entrepreneurship student, Mahmoud Mashhour. It was the second time we took on the topic of addiction. While it may be a topic that is typically avoided and dismissed, the use of substances among youth is prevalent enough to provoke such a conversation. Having Mahmoud Mashhour give this talk from the perspective of his personal experiences was insightful for us all.

This Month’s Talks

It is important to have a strong sense of self-awareness and because we are aware of just how crucial of a characteristic this is, we invited RankUp to give our students some one-on-one career counseling sessions. Choosing a career tailored to your strengths is an entirely subjective thought process. Taking into consideration the nature of such a decision, we believe that having a bit of individualized advice regarding career paths is much more effective.

Equivalently, it is always important to understand how to show your talents in the most impressive ways. We invited Schindler for a talk about the perception of talents in multinational corporations, which was an eye-opening experience for our students that helped them gain perspective of the workforce dynamics.

Lastly, we are so excited to announce the return of our long-awaited Cultural Salons! Ally Salama, EMPWR’s CEO and Mental Health Ambassador took the lead. We got to learn all about what being a Third Culture Kid means. In an international community, many of us have lived in and been raised with different, and often times conflicting, cultures. The experiences that come from living with multiple cultures can cause a lot of conflict, but also grant a lot of experiences for self-awareness. We were all happy to feel included through learning the opportunities and challenges of being a TCK.

A Month Full of Smiles

December is a month recognized for its holiday spirit, and as joyful as it always gets, our Student Union hosted our full-blown annual Christmas Party! This year we went all out with a light and sound system, multiple DJs, a holiday-themed movie, catering, and a bazaar. But this was not the only cause for celebration this month. We were able to properly celebrate our Peer Leaders too. For all the effort that they put into welcoming this year’s freshmen, we took the Class of 2026’s peer leaders to the Wadi Degla Protectorate. They got to enjoy some time together over a day of food, music, and activities. Considering this month is also a time to give back, our club, Tides of Hope, hosted a football festival. We had multiple different times all lined up head-to-head with a bazaar serving food and multiple types of goods and accessories! With prizes awarded to first, second, and third places, we were thrilled to have had such an event. We know we brought the competition to the field.

Moreover, we had both our staff and students go on a lively one-day trip to Port-Said, where we spent time getting to bond further over ferry boat rides and sightseeing. On the other hand, we took our students on an extensively adventurous trip to the beautiful city of Alexandria. We went to multiple different historic sites, ate at multiple key restaurants, and had the time of our lives!

As we all know, the World Cup this year was more thrilling to watch than ever before. With the time and effort put in by our Student Union, we got to bring our community together in both anticipation and cheer to watch the FIFA World Cup final match between Argentina and France. We were all on the edge of our seats during such a suspenseful match, but it brought us such a sense of community to watch history unfold before us.