In the fall of 2008, anthropology major Robert Donahue attended a George Mason University career fair, hoping to become more marketable to potential employers seeking students majoring in anthropology. Considering he was interested in working for the government, he stopped by a government agency table and asked how he could boost his credentials and upgrade his resume.
“Can you learn Arabic?” the representative asked. “Sure,” Donahue replied, not fully understanding the implications of his response. “Can you study abroad?” was the representative’s next question. “We have scholarships.”
A year later, Donahue was learning Arabic from experts and absorbing Middle Eastern culture in his day-to-day life. In Kuwait.
Donahue spent two semesters working toward earning a Certificate in Gulf Studies from American University of Kuwait. He attended classes at the university with students from many Middle Eastern countries, as well as with American students. The experience taking classes there, with professors and students from the region, was invaluable, he said.
“I wanted to learn about the region,” Donahue said in an on-campus interview. “There’s a big difference between listening to lectures and reading books about the Middle East and actually being there, immersed in the culture.”
Traveling using funds he earned while winning Boren and Gilman international study scholarships, he eventually obtained the certificate in May 2010. According to a press release, Donahue was the first student to attend the university through AMIDEAST, an American non-profit organization that sends students to the Middle East to study history and culture.
“I don’t know if I could have actually prepared myself for what to expect,” Donahue said. “I had never crossed the ocean before. I hadn’t really been anywhere. But [Kuwait] was exciting and exhilarating.”
In all, Donahue stayed overseas for 11 months (coming come for Christmas), and while based primarily in Kuwait City, Kuwait, visited seven other countries – Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman. He regularly documented his travels on his blog, “Study Abroad at AUK,” and he took pictures of everything from tourist attractions and scenic escapes to the market and other frequent destinations.
During his stay, Donahue also learned Arabic from Ibrahim Nasser, the head of the Arabic as a Second Language program at Kuwait University. Nasser tutored Donahue in his spare time, going through a book that Nasser co-authored. The two went out into the streets to practice, ordering coffee, visiting shops and interacting with native speakers.
Donahue says his Arabic is at an “intermediate level,” while his knowledge of the Kuwaiti dialect “has progressed leaps and bounds.”
Back in Fairfax, Donahue’s course load is tailored to his interests. Still majoring in anthropology, he now minors in both Middle East studies and conflict analysis and resolution, and he is working on a certificate in Islamic studies. He would like to apply for the State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship Program, which offers intense language courses overseas during the summer.
Two years ago, none of this was even on the radar.
“It’s weird to be back in the United States again after being gone for so long,” Donahue said. “It’s also still hard to wrap my head around the fact that only two years ago, the whole idea of even being gone for a year came about. It all just happened so quickly.”
Image: Donahue (left) with his parents at a Kuwaiti market. Photo and thumbnail image courtesy of Donahue.