Dar Al-Hekma University carried out "Celebrating Heritage and Culture of Saudi Arabia" event in the university campus recently. The event was a collaboration of the general education faculty members who worked together with their students to organize for this event. Not only did the student's corners represent different aspects of the Saudi culture and heritage but they also created products to sell during the event as their way to contribute toward the student's scholarship fund. "In the globalizing world, it is important to know our own heritage. In Dar Al-Hekma University we build our global identity on the sound foundation of the national culture and identity. Knowledge and pride of our own culture allows us to respect ourselves and respect others. The event ‘Celebrating Heritage and Culture of Saudi Arabia' gives the students and visitors an opportunity to learn about the Saudi culture, to feel belonging and to cherish their heritage," said Dr. Raija Pini Kemppainen, the director of the General Education Department in Dar Al-Hekma University. The event arranged a number of centers. One of the corners displayed UNESCO Heritage Sites in Saudi Arabia in a museum style; the exhibits were for Madain Saleh, Rock Art of Hail and Al Diriyah. Each class was assigned one heritage site in the Kingdom and they were asked to research it and recreate artifacts and museum style displays, the students distributed the work based on their own skill sets. The students who created this corner are studying "Introduction to Anthropology". Sarah Swick, a lecturer in the General Education Department of Dar Al-Hekma University, asked her 75 students from three different sections to create museum quality exhibits on three of the four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kingdom. "My students worked for five weeks. Their biggest challenges were gathering information on the archaeological heritage and pictures of the sites. For information, we primarily used information from the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage while for pictures, we end up using my personal collection as I have personally visited every site," said Swick. "Learning about our heritage made me appreciate our rich culture more. It opened my eyes to new ideas and taught me more about my own history. I believe this is important for everyone especially to the new generation to learn and preserve," said Amal Khatim one of Swick's students. In another corner the students displayed the work of local artist Salwa Zahid. "Though the time was limited, my students met the challenges and helped me create a great visual poster with relevant information to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Islamic Art and Architecture," said Muzna Al-Quaiti, the arts lecturer in Dar Al-Hekma University. Al-Quaiti asked her students in her Art course to create a poster that represented the artist. "The poster project was a better way to link the course ideas together, not only to our current studies about the history of Islamic art and architecture, but to our modern country of which we live in," said Tala Abdulmajeed on of the students who work on this project. "I learned that we are inspired and influenced by our past, which makes me think what I will be leaving in this world because people from the future will look back to our time to learn and be inspired by us," said Rahaf AlHarbi. One of the exciting corners was that of Dr. Chaman Rahim's students, who created a cultural cookbook by collecting old traditional recipes from their family members and shared them in one book. The book design and feel reflected the theme the students were trying to portray. Moreover, the book was sold during the event to contribute to the students' scholarship fund. Whereas, the 35 students of Dr. Caroline Attie, the assistant professor in the General Education Department, in the history courses worked on projects in teams of four, in both the Contemporary World History and Modern Middle Eastern History courses. The project topics of Dr. Attie's students ranged from the architecture of the old city of Jeddah, the history of Diriyyah and Asir, the Ottoman Hejaz railway, to the discovery of oil in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the development of the industry as well the fluctuating oil prices over the past decades. "The history courses exposed my students to their own history as well as that of other regions of the world," said Dr. Attie. — SG
