Student Spotlight

As a student fighting for his education and bettering other people’s lives, Mohammad Jabur is in the spotlight for the Peacock’s winter 2018 issue. A junior at the American University of Paris (AUP), Jabur is currently the vice-president of Baytna à Vous (Our Home for You), a student-led initiative at AUP with a focus on the Syrian refugee crisis in France, and the founder of Pangea Tongue, a club that focuses on creating an environment to celebrate multiple languages and cultures. Jabur may be well-integrated into AUP, but his journey to arrive here was anything but easy.

Originally from Daraa insouthwestern Syria, Jabur was in his final year of a political science degree when the war started. He grew up in a nice house with a loving and educated family until one morning when they were suddenly forced to leave everything behind. When their house got bombed in 2013, his family left for Jordan. He decided to stay in Syria, hoping to finish his degree. Three weeks later, it had become unbearable for him to stay. His father came back for him, and together they started on the voyage. Normally, it takes an hour to travel by car to Jordan from Daraa, but it took them 12 hours, walking from one city to another and eventually across the border. The Zaatari refugee camp that Jabur arrived at that night contained around 25,000 people, housed in a field of white tents in the middle of the desert. The location of the camp led to extreme weather conditions during the summer and winter.

Today, Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp is a homeaway-from-home for around 80,000 people. This number is still growing: since 2012, 5,000 children have been born inside the camp. During his three years there, Jabur got involved with the organizations present in the camp, working with the UN, UNICEF and the Mercy Corps. He helped in aiding “children and people that arrived at the camp after they had accidents during the war.” Working with these organizations, Jabur helped to provide children with games, sports, music, educational activities and art therapy. He also those with war injuries by assisting them in getting medicine, wheelchairs and medical care. Jabur’s motivation was simple: “I’m a vicarious person: I feel happy when I see others happy. My missionis to help my people because I have the power to do so.”

In 2014, Jabur met the woman who changed his life, Gisel Kordstani. When she arrived at the camp, Jabur shared his story with her, explaining his wish to study and finish his education in order to build a better future for himself. He started taking English classes outside the camp and, in the fall of 2015, after a year of long-distance conversation, he arrived at the American University of Paris. Kevin Fore, the Dean of Student Development at AUP, met Jabur during his first year in Paris. “Mohammad was very much looking to be a part of the community early on, even after going through so much in his personal life and the language barriers,” Fore explained.

Once in France, Jabur started taking English classes at the British Council as well as at AUP. Through programs developed at AUP for learning English, Jabur quickly picked up the language. Fore related that “Mohammad is dedicated, loyal and isn’t afraid to take on a challenge. I’ve watched his English flourish.”

Since he arrived in Paris, Jabur chose to keep working for others. In fall of 2015, he joined Baytna à Vous and later became vice-president. Bringing the experience and skills he learned in the Zaatari camp, Jabur helps provide Syrian children with art therapy, language classes and other activities contributing to their integration here in France and their overall development. Jabur explains his reasons for joining: “It is hard being away fromhome. Those kids have seen a lot since the beginning of the war, and now they’re in a completely different environment and so are their parents. I wish to help Syrian refugees feel at home here, by creating a community where they know they’re not alone.”

In order to maximize their reach, Baytna à Vous organizes fundraisers each semester with other organizations including Souria Houria, an organization that works to support the Syrian people in their struggle for freedom, democracy and dignity, and the Collectif de Développement et Secours Syrien, an organization that collaborates with local organizations in order to allow the redeployment of aid in Syria and in countries where Syrians find refuge.

To Kevin Fore, Jabur has been a foundational member of Baytna à Vous, as “he’s constantly looking to bring solutions to the community and build bridges between people who are involved.” Fore also added that Jabur has attended more workshops with the children than anyone else. Fore says, “I think we should be proud as a community to have him among us.”

In fall 2018, Jabur started a new club at AUP called Pangea Tongue, a club where students can discover others cultures, learn a new language or teach their own to others. For him, it is crucial to learn about other cultures and languages in order to understand the world and be more forgiving towards each other. It is an opportunity to get experience and knowledge about different cultures and totake advantage of the fact that we are such a diverse community. Jabur believes that it is important to do anything that we can as individuals to try to understand each other’s perspectives and that finding ways to come together and work together across cultures is crucial to the world we live in today.

After losing everything to the atrocities of war, Jabur turned his life around by bettering the lives of others. Today, he is an integral part of the AUP student body, constantly looking for solutions to build bridges between communities in the hope of a more understanding civilization. Jabur truly gives back to his community and wishes to continue doing so. He knows that his diploma will award him more opportunities in the future to help others. “What we can do, as a university,” says Jabur “is take that first step into helping others. It may be a small one, but it is a valuable one.”

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY ALIZÉE CHAUDEY