From fixed to flourishing: a discussion with 25-year old Amala student, Mustafa
Mustafa spoke with Amala volunteer Sophia about hope, acceptance, and how studying at Amala changed both his mindset and his perception of education.
Mustafa singing in the Amman choir, where he first heard about Amala.
Speaking to Mustafa was like a breath of fresh air; as we spoke, I found his goodwill and positivity to be infectious. Throughout our conversation, he gradually revealed himself to be a globally-minded individual, intent on deconstructing systemic prejudices and uniting people, in spite of their differences, through understanding and acceptance.
“Amala instils hope in people who are about to lose it.”
Prior to finding Amala, Mustafa confesses that he rebelled against academics, finding the Jordanian educational system to be “very old-school” and designed to pigeon-hole him into socially-coveted careers, like medicine or engineering. Not wanting to pursue a profession that he had no interest in, meant that Mustafa had to find his own way towards carving a path that suited him.“I always wanted to do something that I liked… something I believe in.”
Through the Amaan Choir he met Lamis, Amala’s wonderful Jordan Programme Manager, who encouraged him to apply for the Amala High School Diploma. When he started the programme Mustafa felt that he’d finally found a space and a community that supported him in his growth. He explains how he was used to a “dog-eat-dog” environment, but “when I came to Amala I saw so many pure hearts with no ill will. They were all there to learn, they loved life, they had goals and dreams they wanted to achieve...”
He found Amala’s approach extremely rewarding, as the courses not only presented him with skills and knowledge “which should be taught in every school,” but allowed him to put them into practice.
“It’s not a school of copy-paste. In Amala you will prove that you learned something through your projects and presentations; and that’s what I liked about it, seeing how it’s actually improving me.”
Amala changed Mustafa’s perception of what education could be. He was inspired to go back and finish his Jordanian High School Diploma, and has focused his studies at Amala to help pursue higher education, specifically “Business Management in (hopefully) Germany.” Since joining he describes feeling more empowered to take the lead with challenges in his personal life, “before I used to ignore the problems, now I go through things and I know can solve them.” With this new mindset, Mustafa explains that he had struggled to come up with a Personal Interest Project, as he felt he had “to do something big [and community oriented] because it's the final project,” but that he changed his mind last minute, deciding instead to focus on cultivating his language skills.
“I realised that if you want to make change you should start with yourself.”
Our conversation then turned to music and the arts, where Mustafa explains that although he’s temporarily put his choir-singing on hold to focus on his studies, he will forever “love how I can communicate with the audience with my voice,” and is certain he will be back. Being a choir-singer has shown him that there is true power in art, that “you don’t have to talk to people to deliver your message, you can use your skills to deliver it, maybe even more efficiently than through talking, because now you’ve touched their emotions, their hearts.” He goes on to say that “this is one of the reasons I wish the Jordanian public schools included more art and more sports,” as it would give people new avenues through which to express, and as such get to know and accept, themselves, as well as allow them to connect with others.
“Through Amala I’ve begun reshuffling my time to focus on my priorities, my education… if you stay in your comfort zone, you’re not improving.”
Mustafa frequently brought up the idea of acceptance, stating “as you can see, I’m different, I dye my hair, I wear earrings; it's not accepted as much here.” When he was given the opportunity to perform in different countries through his choir, Mustafa experienced what it was like to not draw negative attention for his looks or his smiling demeanour and “I realised it was ok, and I can be myself.” These experiences made him very aware of the importance of social acceptance for an individual's self-acceptance, and for this reason aspires to help spread acceptance throughout the world.
“It was freeing to be able to smile and be myself.”
When I asked him how he might go about developing a more widespread culture of acceptance across communities, he responded that “it’s all about the education system, and what parents pass down to their children,” going on to say that those are levels which need action, something very evident in how common bullying is in schools. Mustafa told me that this is a significant part of what makes Amala so special; explaining that cultural exchange and acceptance being a key part of the learning environment is exactly the kind of subtle action needed across the educational system globally.
He tells me that “what I love about Amala is the diversity,” speaking about how beautiful it is to see people slowly change their mentality about others’ differences. Amused, he describes how in the first month of class “you see everyone in their own groups: the Yemenis here, Iraqis there, Muslims here, Christians there,” but that “after like three months they become like family, they changed their mindsets, they became friends, and now everyone sits everywhere. Such a change made me so happy to see, because sometimes it takes ages to change such a mentality.”
“Amala is like an art piece.”
“Also community-wise, Amala is so supportive and people are always kind. You see it in class too. At first people are scared of the English language, it’s a new language… but we repeat things over and over for those who don’t understand, helping instead of judging.” Mustafa explained how amazing it was to see the impact that a forgiving learning environment has on its students, and that the progress of himself and his peers at Amala spoke for itself. “Seeing the change in peoples’ confidence, from their first presentation where everyone is nervous and stuttering, to giving a presentation in five minutes, no problem… it’s a big change.”
Mustafa explains that between the change that Amala has had on his relationship to education, the interpersonal and practical skills he’s gained from the Amala courses, and the exposure he’s had to different cultural experiences through the Amala community, that “Amala has been a big point of transition for me. There were points where I used to think I’d be stuck here forever, but when I talked to Lamis, she instilled hope in me and showed me there was another way.” This moment was pivotal in Mustafa’s journey, as he went from feeling stuck, to finding, not only a sense of responsibility to himself and his own life, but aspirations to change the global mentality in regards to embracing others, regardless of differences.
Towards the end of our conversation I asked Mustafa to share a message from Amala to the world, and he responded very simply with “Amala showed me that there is always hope, that no one should give up.” When I asked him to explain why this message, he shared that “initially, my family was against me studying abroad, but when Amala gave me hope, I was able to confess to my family that I am going to study abroad. They changed their minds because of the hope Amala gave me.”
Mustafa implores everyone to never “give up, and to fight for your dreams and always look forward to change. And as I always say, to make change you should start with yourself.”