The efforts of a College of New Caldonia student who has helped convince others from his home country of Saudi Arabia to enrol at the school are about to be acknowledged.
Ayman Aldhabaan, 25, will be in Calgary later this week to accept an award for "student leadership in internationalization" from the Canadian Bureau for International Education.
When Aldhabaan first arrived in Prince George in May 2007, he was welcomed at the airport by CNC representatives to make him feel at home. By September, 2007 he was helping CNC's international education centre recruit other students from his home country.
"I told students CNC was a small school, it was a great place to study and you could easily interact with Canadian culture," said Aldhabaan, who hails from Riyadh, a city of four million. "Because of the low numbers of Saudi students, they had opportunities to speak more English.
"I told them there is a good transportation system, rent is affordable, home stays were easier to arrange, they could easily make friends and people would say hello to you."
His sales pitch worked. By the end of December, 2007, seven students from Saudi Arabia enroled at CNC. By the end of May 2008, 25 Saudi students called CNC home. Currently there are 125 Saudi students in Prince George.
Aldhabaan, who is the first-ever student from Saudi Arabia to attend CNC, stayed in residence for the first three months, then moved to a home stay and back to residence to serve as a residence advisor and finally into his own house.
Today, when new students arrive, if they don't have a home stay, he hosts them at his house. He helps them get cell phones, new bank accounts and groceries. He shows them around CNC and the city.
"It's often the first impression that counts," he said. "And 98 per cent of having success is showing up in class."
The CBIE is a national, bilingual, not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to the promotion of Canada's international relations through international education.
Aldhabaan, who is enroled in the business and management diploma program, was nominated for the award by Barb Old, CNC's dean of community and international education, CNC president John Bowman and Eric Griffith, Aldhabaan's management studies instructor.
"Mr. Aldhabaan is an exemplary student exhibiting behaviours normally only found in graduate level seminar discussion," Griffith stated in his nomination letter. "He always demonstrates a positive and inclusive approach in his behaviours and comments. These natural leadership tendencies have resulted in others looking towards Ayman for advice and advocacy in ongoing situations. Ayman accepts this role willingly and naturally."
Aldhabaan, who is now president of the Saudi Student Society of Prince George is using the CBIE award as a stepping stone for his education. With a current grade point average of 4.27, he plans on attending either Harvard or Stanford and earn a masters in business administration.
