Poll: Study from home vs from campus

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, business and schools have had to change the way they operate. However, the learning hasn’t stopped! Nearly, all undergraduate and postgraduate students across the country are enrolled in virtual and online classes. Students are still being assigned coursework from home to date. 

Now, we want to hear from you. Do you prefer attending classes from home or being present on campus?

Spotlight: Ibtihal Al Zadjali

Ibtihal Al Zadjali is an  MU Alumni,  currently a media broadcaster in Al Wisal FM. Featured in Forbes ME Oman Top influencers list and the founder of ibtihalmedia. We caught up with her recently with some interesting discussion about life and career.

Growing up, what did you want to be?

I’ve always had a passion for media and knew I wanted to pursue a career in this field.

What are your hobbies/interests? Things you like to do in your free time?

I rarely have the luxury of free time but when I do I spend it exploring the world and my beloved Oman with my family.

While studying at MU, what was your favorite thing about it?

The courses offered at MU were exactly what I needed to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. The management and faculty were a great support in addition to the modern building with all the latest technologies available at campus to support students and ease their learning experience.

What was your university experience like in general?

Studying at MU was one of the best decisions in my life. My experience was amazing, I gained the education I needed to grow my business from leading professors in such a short period of time while maintaining a balance between my work, my family, and my studies.

Who has influenced you the most in life and why?

My family. They have always been a great support and pushed me to reach my goals.

Don’t wait for opportunities, create them

Often, it is not a matter of creating opportunities, but rather becoming aware of them. They are there all the time, in front of us, but we do not recognise them. Seeing them and recognising them requires a change of your mindset. Therefore, keep your eyes, mind and heart open to the opportunities that cross our paths on a daily basis.

Simply by putting yourself out there, making mistakes, but going for it, it’s the actions and effort that bring opportunities forward. Sometimes, we might not be ready for an opportunity but we must plant the seeds before the crops can grow. Continue to go for it, believe it and work towards it, keep an open mind and magical things will happen!

Remember, obstacles are opportunities, they present the growth that you may need to experience, the contrast to help weave through what’s right. The right opportunity will present itself because you will create it.

Naheed Al Quraishi

Digital Content & Design Specialist 

Photography & Designing: Two Sides of The Same Coin

How did you start as a designer and photographer?

From a young age, my parents bought me a toy camera that helped me capture things around me and find the beauty of photography and the visuals industry and I can say that they are the ones who’ve nurtured these talents in me.

How do you define designing & photography from your perspective?

As a definition, I can say that visuals are the mirror reflection of emotion that a human feels and tries to express it by taking a shot or designing an image or filming a scene or by any other visual representation method and mixing several methods is the best way in my opinion.

What types of difficulties did you face and still you are facing?

Getting the best idea to illustrate the subject was and it is still the hardest thing. In other words, you know what you want to do but you don’t know how to do it. Usually looking at other creative people’s works and browsing through several social media platforms helps to reduce that difficulty of this point and sometimes it helps me to get the inspiration for a new idea.

How do you balance between your passion for designing, photography and your studies at MU?

Taking this from a hobby to a business created more pressure and managing my time was the best way to balance both of them. unless I am free, I usually plan and schedule the times I can go for a shoot or use my laptop to design something new.

Learning and ability; nature or nurture?     

The great ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’ debate, has been ongoing for centuries. The notion that individuals’ abilities are influenced predominantly by either nature (genes) or nurture (upbringing) has still yet to be concluded. Personally, I subscribe to the concept of ‘nurture’ via ‘nature’ based on my own research in the field of genetics that implies that one’s genes ultimately drive one’s experience.  In a nutshell, this means that individuals determine and shape the environments to which they are exposed, based on what they perceive are best suited to them. In ecology, this is known as a  niche, the environment best suited to an organism’s adaptive requirements. This also means that a genetic predisposition is at the most a potential, only to be triggered should the environment be conducive enough to allow it. It must then be a case that “nature can only act via nurture” by ‘nudging people to seek out the environmental influences that will fulfil their appetites’, and hence it acts as a ‘multiplier of small genetic differences, pushing sporty children towards the sports that reward them and, pushing bright children towards the books that reward them’ (Ridley, 2003).