1) Firstly, the game Spent taught me the difficulties people can undergo. Spent allowed me to embody someone completely different from me and allowed me to understand the types of difficult decisions they have to make to survive and the importance of decision-making to select what to compromise on and what to prioritize.

Secondly, the activity where we had to interview a professor on the uses of AI in academic and professional use taught me just how powerful AI is and some creative uses for how AI can improve workflows for coding. In addition, this activity showcased the importance of learning how to use AI effectively to be able to keep up with the industry to not get left behind.

Thirdly, the Mays Imad video taught me to realize the amount of distress one could go through which is why it is always important to treat everyone with respect because you may never know what they could be going through; why bruise their armor when we can allow it to shimmer? In addition, the video taught me the importance of reaching out when you feel vulnerable because there are always a range of people who are available to help and that tackling things on your own may create more problems than solutions.

Fourthly, the Ted Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” taught me to realize how natural is is for one to immediately assume many incorrect things about people based on stereotypes and brief information we have of them. Therefore, this video made me realize that I have to silence stereotypes because you may assume that someone from a different country is completely different than you but you may end up in the same class learning the same material and listening to the same music realizing that you may not be that different after all. What I found very crucial to understand is that the human mind is very powerful, and if you frame a certain picture of someone it may be very hard to think of them as different from what you already settled them to be. However, despite the challenge we must allow people to showcase themselves for who they really are not who we think they are based on the little knowledge we have of them.

After thorough analysis, my questions were answered in detail during class as I asked any relevant questions that I had which clarified any confusion. Next, I will use my Soliya experience to enrich my knowledge of people and different cultures. I am hoping to get to know a range of people who are completely different than me and I am looking forward to getting to know how they perceive the world and their opinions on important matters to better allow me to understand different perspectives.

2) Something particularly interesting that I learned about myself is the biases that I have. I have always known that I have a bias but after taking the IAT I was able to reveal to myself exactly what my biases are and towards what type of people. Some of the biases were expected but some were a bit more surprising and altered the way I view the world. As a result, now that I know what biases I have I can work to suppress them and make sure they do not get in the way of anything meaningful. In addition, a question that I have concerning myself and how I present myself to the world is why I feel like I am a closed-off person who struggles to reveal details about myself?

Furthermore, I believe my identity will play a big part in my Soliya experience because I lived and traveled abroad; as a result, I believe my time traveling the world helped me understand cultures different than my own which will help me understand and communicate better with different backgrounds during my Soliya experience. Additionally, I will use the knowledge that I acquire from meeting new people in Soliya to further gain a better perspective on how non-Egyptians view the world because ever since I have been back in Egypt, I have mostly only been communicating with Egyptians.

3)In terms of interactions with people who are different than me, I learned that I have completely opposite perspectives to people and still get along with them. Through disagreement I was able to gather a lot of knowledge on what people believe and in some cases, I ended up thinking in the same way they did because their reasoning made a lot of sense to me. As a result, after considering so many different perspectives I found myself to become a mix of many different cultures that help me tackle everything that comes at me because I am able to view things from different angles to allow me to see the problem with clarity. However, a question that I have about becoming a better “global citizen” is how to stay strong to your beliefs despite people’s attempts to manipulate your beliefs?

Moreover, I would like my Soliya experience to help me learn to be a good “global digital citizen” through learning to discuss various topics where we agree and disagree on certain issues. These activities it will help me become a better citizen by learning to communicate my ideas effectively, learning to listen to other’s proposals, and finally agreeing to disagree. This will allow me to become a more controlled speaker who can effectively communicate and listen while also remaining respectful of other’s beliefs as a reputable “global digital citizen”.

Therefore, I believe my Soliya experience will greatly advance the way I interact with culturally different people because I will be meeting for two hours a week for a month straight learning to cooperate with people who are unlike me in hopes of constraining myself into thinking from a different lens than I am usually accustomed to. I am usually used to communicating with Egyptians like me who think like me but through meeting new culturally diverse people I will be able to break the barrier and expand my horizons. At the end of my Soliya experience, I hope to be better off as someone who can communicate with anyone from any country and instantly be able to strike up a conversation and communicate effectively while also respecting their own beliefs as a mutual respect for each other.

4) If the issue of Palestine came up in Soliya I imagine there to be a lot of sadness on the violence that is happening and I am sure people will wish to get their point across on how unjustified the violence is. Personally, if the discussion were to come up I would try to direct it somewhere else because it is a very controversial topic with many mixed feelings about it so I would like to keep the Soliya experience as an engaging atmosphere where we can talk about anything without being judged or fearing that you may misspeak. As a result, the support I will need to do this will be from the coordinator and other members of the group to keep the discussion in an open atmosphere where everyone can speak on whatever they want without getting too upset or rattled especially considering how angry people can get when the issue of Palestine is brought up.