Noor Salama
According to Noor Salama no event occurs out of vacuum or without a purpose. For her, the world is spinning not to make us dizzy, but to show us our path. “Everything happens for a reason,” she said.
Salama best verbalizes her philosophy using words from the Quran. “Whatever is meant to reach you will reach you even between two mountains, and what is not meant to reach won’t reach you even between your two lips,” she said. When life happens to her, Salama makes sure she is not merely a witness to the unfolding events, but is the person moving and adapting to them.
At the age of 22, apart from her academic pursuits in the American University in Cairo, Salama shares that sports are integral to her life. She speaks with assertiveness and has an edge to her personality. “I really like bumping into people and tackling them,” Salama said. Be it rugby or kickboxing, both sports are vital part of Salama’s routine as she uses them as a medium for channeling her aggression and relieving her stress.
With aggression comes ambition, and for Salama this mean graduating university and going after her passion in psychology. “I want to pursue Neuro Marketing. It’s a combination degree of Marketing and Psychology. Essentially you study consumer behavior, study the ways people respond to advertising. It’s about how people respond to marketing techniques and strategies,” she said. Her determinism and desire for development is greatly influenced by her two big brother. “I do see them as my role models because they went through so much and achieved so much so I only hope to achieve as much as they did,” Salama said.
Born in Saudi Arabia and living most of her life in Qatar, Salama choses to go back in Cairo and study there in order to rediscover her home country and get a sense of the social climate. “I want to build foundation, a social network in there so I can solidify myself in my home town before traveling anywhere else,” she said. “Because if I do travel abroad and study abroad I wouldn’t know how things work here in Egypt.”
Her choice of returning home is driven by nostalgia and duty. “I have a sense of loyalty toward my country,” Salama said. She shows an awake spirit of patriotism and civic awareness. “Why would I help grow another country’s economy when I can do that with my own country,” she said.
This, of course, does not mean Salama wants to shut herself from the rest of the world. In the contrary, she is more than ready to travel and explore. “I want to travel to Europe because Europe is where I want to pursuit my post gradual studies,” she said. “Mainly in the Netherlands because it is known to have the best psychology programs, master’s degree.” A testimony for her adventurous spirit is her participation in a community project in Kenya where she taught to children from impoverish schools. “The school I used to go to was situated in Kibera. Kibera was the biggest slum in Kenya, Nairobi. The school I used to teach had 300 to 400 orphaned children,” Salama said.
Her travel and interaction with the students in Kenya had a long lasting impact on Salama. “It was one of the best experiences of my life,” she said. Salama’s affinity towards children and passion for psychology seemed to finally meet and spark new plans for the future. “I really like to work with children I really know how to work my way around kids,” she said. “So working in child psychology is really something I would love to do.”
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Yoan Bondakov is an AUBG student Majoring in Journalism and Mass Communication. He loves writing and animals.
