“In the Middle East, there are many cultures, I consider myself Muslim, Egyptian, Arabic, Middle Eastern and African,” said Mohamed Abdalla, graduate student in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and the only Egyptian student at Emporia State.

Abdalla is from Giza, Egypt, and there his full name is Mohamed Aly Abdellatif Abdalla Ghoneim. Arabic is Abdalla’s first language.

“Carrying these rich cultures and history with my two cases and my dream, it was hard for me in the beginning to get inside the melting pot, so I remained observing and looking up at the new culture and keeping my roots,” Abdalla said.

When talking about the culture difference, Abdalla believes people all over the world share the same desire for peace, the same quest for justice.

“I believe the core of life is the same everywhere, but the styles are different,” Abdalla said. “I think the life style in U.S. is more depth, but it’s more breadth in my culture.”

Other students could see Abdalla’s culture resonating from him.

“I can see how proud he is for his home culture,” said Linxiang Guo, graduate student of TESOL and psychology. “Abdalla is enthusiastic in spreading his culture, whether it is through the lecture series about Arabic culture as a speaker or in a casual chat in which he explained the complicated things about religions to me.”

This is Abdalla’s second year studying TESOL.

“Last year, I was a Fulbright Scholar at ESU, where I taught Arabic Language and other culture courses in English under the Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant program,” Abdalla said.

The Fulbright scholarship goal is to build mutual understanding between people all over the world.

Abdalla said the best thing about teaching at ESU is that it also involves learning from the diversity of students here.

“My goal of teaching is to give students the box which would help them to think out of and this box frames the essential information they need,” Abdalla said.

With broad interests in reading, especially about cultures, history and politics, Abdalla also likes to write poetry, coach wresting and volunteering.

Besides Abdalla’s educational and teaching commitments at ESU, he remains involved in various on-campus activities. He mobilized the Arabic Club, and served as adviser of grappling club and volunteering as a wrestling coach for the same club.

“Abdalla is a helpful person who dedicates himself to what he believes in,” said Abdelmonem Shebani, Arabic language instructor.

According to Shebani, Abdalla is doing a great effort to help out at the Arabic Language and Studies Club.

“He is a knowledgeable person with a fighting spirit,” Shebani said.

The motto of Abdalla is “regard every defeat as an opportunity.”

“I believe if each person has discipline, synthesizing, creating, respectful and ethical way of thinking and behaving covered with his or her religious beliefs, then this would result in the kind of people able to change, heal and repair the world through education, sacrifice and patience,” Abdalla said.

Abdalla will graduate in May and plans to start studying for his PhD.

“I think the person who will leave in May 2010 is different than the one who came in September 2008,” Abdalla said.

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McRell

For Mike McRell, manager for the Memorial Union bookstore, finding one’s true calling is a matter of taking chances.

McRell, who earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1991, said he initially came to Emporia State with dreams of becoming a teacher.

“I came to Emporia State to be an educator,” McRell said. “But after doing observations, I found out that teaching was not where I was really going to land. I decided to look into the business program and I really liked what they had to offer. I enjoyed the classes, I enjoyed the instructors and I liked the fact that, after half a semester, the faculty knew who I was… I wasn’t just another number.”

McRell said he is particularly appreciative of the one-on-one instruction he received at ESU.

“I actually started school at Wichita State,” McRell said. “I had one professor for three semesters in a row, and that professor did not know me by the end of the third semester because the classes there are so large. I wanted a smaller, more intimate learning environment, and that’s what I found at Emporia State.”

An employee of the Barnes & Noble corporation, McRell said that many people are unaware that the campus bookstore is run by the retail book giant.

“Barnes & Noble contracts with the university to run the bookstore,” McRell said. “With that comes a lot of extras for the university that people don’t necessarily know about. For example, we give $25,000 to student scholarships every year, which goes directly to the students. That does not include the amount of items we donate to student organizations to help support their programming… we’re willing to do just about anything to help a student organization if they come and ask us.”

McRell said that he enjoys working in the college atmosphere.

“Working in a college bookstore keeps you young to some degree,” McRell said. “Being in the college environment allows you to interact with younger people and understand that there’s a different viewpoint from a younger perspective, as opposed to my perspective.”

Jamie Risley, freshman undeclared major, said that her ¬¬¬¬experiences with McRell have all been positive.

“He’s a nice guy, he’s very friendly,” Risley said. “He asks me if I need anything every time I go into the bookstore.”

McRell, who worked as a student employee at the bookstore in years past, said he is a believer in the value of student work experiences.

“I think that getting work experience while you’re going to school is invaluable,” McRell said. “Employers are looking for someone that has the fortitude and the gumption to go out there, hold down a job, get good grades… it shows a lot when students can pull off both.”

McRell regularly employs student workers to assist in the day-to-day operations of the bookstore.

“There’s only seven of us who work there regularly, and two of those positions are filled by students,” McRell said. “During our buyback period and during the beginning of the school year, we hire extra students. We usually end up with between five and seven student employees, so they’re a pretty good percentage of the students that make up our employee roster.”

Gracy Baker, junior elementary education major and student employee at the book store, said that she enjoys working for McRell.

“I’ve worked for Mike for about three years now,” Baker said. “I think he’s great. He handles his job very well. He’s very easy to work with and very understanding and very caring… and we all like his little dances that he does. Halloween is always a fun time around the bookstore. He was Slash from Guns N’ Roses last year.”

McRell was born in upstate New York and has lived in a variety of places throughout his life, including Canada and Germany. However, he said that he considers the Midwest his home.

“The place I call home more than anywhere is the Nebraska-Kansas area,” McRell said. “My father retired in Nebraska, so that’s where I spent the majority of my middle school to high school years, but my family was all from southeast Kansas. My mom and dad were both from Chanute.”

McRell said that he believes his international experiences have helped him appreciate the diversity to be found at ESU.

McRell said he encourages students to venture out of their comfort zones during their time in college.

“In this day and age, you need to get out there and try a little bit of everything,” McRell said. “You never know what you’re going to find that you might end up liking… Don’t turn your nose up at something just because you don’t think it’s where you belong. You may try something and find a career path that you never knew was out there for you.”

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