It is a mentorship initiative that enriches the academic understanding of STEM topics to students. The program contains activities that go in parallel with the studies for four years, maximizing their values while maintaining the effort.
The name is inspired by the old education system having circles, like the Vienna Circle, where scholars gathered to share knowledge. The roots go back to the medieval schools where scholars offer to share their knowledge in their circles (حلقات العلم), like in Egypt and the MENA area. Back then, scholars taught the topics they prefered in their circles. As well, the students were able to study freely under as many scholars as they would like. I believe this freedom offers a different flavor from what the current system does. It is Nile Circle given the university name where I started this program, Nile University.
- human-centric initiative that helps leverage student expertise in technical domains
- any student can have free-access to high quality educational material and guidance
although more high quality material becomes available over the past decade, but the free guidance and mentoring is something something we lack. - have a sustainable community if possible by encouraging the students to share their expertise with other students
Initially, the students are required to adhere to some pillars. They shape the philosphy of the program:
Throughout the program, every student should keep high moral standards, even outside the circle. If not speaking from religious and moral perspectives, they should consider it as a future investment in their character. Trustworthy is a very reliable asset in economics as in any other field. I believe investing in building a student character as a trustworthy through adhering to high moral standards—like honesty, patience, and others—should be considered as crucial as the technical expertise. Hence, in the very worst case, students should consider it from this perspective.
Considering this, plagiarism is never allowed. It is prohibited not only within the activies of the program, but in any other course in general. Lying does compromise not only the learning integrity but also their freedom, in my opinion, and I would like the students to be free. Of course, the mentors should not be judgemental, so students should consider this themselves.
Students need to be free. They should be able to criticize. Anyone should be able to study any field, with high quality. They should be able to address the questions they want. They should be able to learn any topic from different sources. Therefore, we do our best in adhering to these standards.
Students should maintain high standards in perspective to the quality of their work to be delivered. They need to acquire the skill of doing as much as possible to yield high-quality results: let that be a deep understanding of some topic, efficiently-designed algorithm, clean design of software, or any other thing. Therefore, they should not only be committed but also exert all they can, regardless of outcomes.
We study science together. We should divert the student's focus from the exams and GPA towards pursuing knowledge. Besides, the students should know, if possible, the history of science as part of trying to have a deep understanding. They also need to know that scientific areas are interconnected rather than isolated islands.
Like the old school, students should as well seek wisdom. That is in our case to build students' intuition according to their knowledge to have correct judgment. Also, to seek wisdom in general, we encourage students to have good habbits like studying
- religion
- philosophy
- history
- literature
- natural languages like Spanish, German, French, ... etc.
- economics
- and many more
Of course, we do not follow up on these activities, but the students could organize groups with these objectives.
In brief, in accordance to the above pillars, students should be
- committed
- honest
- hard working
- patient
- willing to help
I would like to thank every teacher from which I have learned through my journey. I know the knowledge and expertise I have is due to enormous amount of researching by many scholars through the history of mankind. I really appreciate their effort. Besides, I would like to thank my direct teachers, during my studies, especially Dr. Ghozia and Abubakar who have helped me alot while studying. I believe all of them have influenced my decision in starting this program.
- GitHub: Nile Circle
- Email: ammarsherif90 [at] gmail [dot] com