VCUQatar Alumni Relations Hosts Empower Yourself Workshop

The first workshop to be hosted by VCUQatar’s Alumni Relations office this year, ‘Empower Yourself’ was a development workshop for professionals in marketing, advertising and communication design. Zelda Harrison, a consultant who designed and facilitated the workshop, set it up as a professional environment to help participants focus on where they want to go in their careers. The feedback from the workshop was immensely positive, notably underlined by the request for more workshops of its kind that treat, in more detail, issues of professional development

“The Workshop was literally empowering for all involved,” said Ms. Harrison. “I think I learnt as much from the participants as they did from me. The workshop provided a safe and inspiring place for participants to focus on their personal vision and aspirations for contributing to the Qatari economy. Participants were extremely motivated. We are encouraged to find that demand for these workshops is strong, and we will be working on developing more workshops that will address a variety issues on entrepreneurship in more detail next year.”

“We thank all the participants in the workshop for their enthusiasm and aspirations, and Zelda Harrison for putting together this empowering workshop, which was the first to be open to the community through the Alumni Relations office,” said Sana Al-Buainain, director of Alumni Relations at VCUQatar. “We are focusing next year on specialized workshops in entrepreneurship as well,” she added.

VCUQatar Alumni Relations Office focuses mainly on activities and career development for alumni starting from when they are in their senior year through their graduation year and post graduation. “We create activities that bring alumni together, so they are able to share their experiences at reunions and annual school events,” said Ms. Al-Buainain. We create channels between alumni and the market for job opportunities, and organize a series of workshops annually to support alumni and seniors in their career development.”

Zelda Harrison is a consultant with public organizations, businesses, and community groups. She is active in a global network of designers and communicators (AIGA, the International Council of Graphic Design Associations) and served as president of the AIGA Centre for Cross-Cultural Design. Ms. Harrison is dedicated to giving communications and marketing professionals skills in self-promotion and client management. Her greatest strengths are her ability to listen deeply, clarify issues and structure practical solutions. She holds degrees in International Marketing and Fine Art, and has worked in marketing and visual communications for 15 years.