About

Our emerging Arabic program helps Arabic learners at Loyola find connections between classroom learning experience and multiple investments of Arabic as applied to their own worlds. Students celebrate their ability to own their Arabic learning as it fits their needs and enjoy discovering opportunities in which Arabic helps them in diverse personal contexts.

Arabic and Community Work Investments

Posted on: December 18th, 2012 by sabbadi

My name is Heba Abuseini and as I’m writing this I will be an official Loyola winter graduate. It’s been blood, sweat, and tears to finally receive a degree in Psychology and International Studies. One of my favorite classes at Loyola has been with Ustaadha Sawsan in Arabic 102. I come from an Arabic speaking background. Hence, I can speak a dialect but had little acquaintance with the formal standard Arabic used for reading and writing. I took Arabic not only for cultural and religious investments but also because I knew how valuable the Arabic language would be in life and work. I use Arabic at my current job. I work in customer service at an office that services immigrants and residents of Arab heritage in diverse socioeconomic and cultural needs. Therefore, a lot of customers that come in are from the Middle East and I love being able to answer their questions and tend to their needs. Also Arabic is such a great tool to have when applying for jobs and internships. It is an advantage to put down that I speak Arabic because certain employers will definitely look for language skills and especially less commonly taught languages like Arabic. I feel privileged to be able to give back to the community through helping underrepresented groups and learning Arabic has helped me further in this goal. I plan on inshaa’allah getting a PhD in Social Work and Psychology and continue to be in service to the larger community in Chicago.