IGR would like to send a fond farewell to A7med (Ahmed) Alawami, a long-time IGR community member. A7med has had a tremendous impact on the program through his commitment in many different avenues of IGR involvement including teaching, research, alumni outreach, and dialogue participation/facilitation. Most recently, A7med served as an instructor for IGR's Practicum in Intergroup Dialogue Facilitation course. A7med is moving to California and will soon be joined by his family. We wish them the best of everything and will miss them a lot!
We would like to honor A7med by sharing his own words in the pieces below.
Ahmed Alawami - Instructor Reflections
The journey of a GSI throughout the semester with IGR is quite a trip. As a practicum coach, I was able to take that journey twice in a row, each being more enchanting and gratifying than the other, with sprinkles of whimsy scattered throughout. In this journey, I experienced as much growth as my students did, and for them and my co-instructors, I am thankful.
The moments I cherish the most are the ones where growth is so intense, it is palpable in the room, and all the facilitators and instructors are pushing their learning edges. I also cherish the laughs, the “OMG this happened in dialogue!!” F3s, Thursday instructor meetings, the “5-minute-crunch” coaching time when we don’t do coaching time in the beginning, the class hot seat, current conflict sessions, and co-’s working communication stuff out. What’s most rewarding though, is meeting 1st time facilitators during the retreat, and sensing how some are nervous about facilitating their 1st dialogue, only to see them realize how awesome they are once they have facilitated their 1st and 2nd and 4th and 9th sessions.
Thank you IGR for the opportunity to work with social justice educators, both facilitators and coaches, and be impacted by their teaching and learning. Thank you to the coaches that helped me become the facilitator that I am today, to my co-instructors who guided me through the instruction process and left their imprints on my facilitation style, and to my coachees who have been an inspiration and constantly rekindling my passion for social justice.