Meet Our Alumni: Randa Musharbash

My name is Randa Musharbash. I am from Jordan and one of the board members of Freedom Café- FNF, and an IAF Alumni of the 2015 visiting program. As a university instructor and a field researcher in the field of “Refugees and Forced Migration”, one of the main core values, is to lead by a model towards more liberal practices in my society, starting with the education system. I opt for academic freedom for all, that is inseparable from good governance to enhance the functionality of both, especially, in time of crisis, such as forced migration in our turbulent Middle East region. The absence or lack of basic needs for maintaining “education of vulnerable”, becomes immensely the concern of most host society. Through working directly with marginalized sects of community, I try to inspire and enforce the idea of “education right for all” and emphasize that securing proper education mechanisms via policy and decision makers, is the key toward generation’s prosperity.

My IAF experience in the 2015 visiting program was on “Functioning Democracy: Academic Freedom, Pluralism & Good Governance”. It opened my sphere toward more understanding of these concepts and its realistic implementation. Besides the theoretical sessions, meeting with liberal professors, vice president of Liberal Party Angel Freimouth then, young liberal activists, leaders and students, observing the functionality of the Bundestag session, and some EU personnel’s lectures, altogether illustrated the tremendous system of democratic feasibility, and explain its academic freedom through which its institutions operate. It was impressive to know that the outputs of the applied scientific universities, into current free market economy have advanced, not only the quality of their institutions popularity, but also accelerate their students’ productivity mindset toward solving market dilemma. I learned that youth political participation doesn’t come from a short term programs to enhance it, shortly just before election. Rather it is a long term plan that should plant its seeds at the very beginnings of schooling process. And educators should be held accountable for it. Accepting political and cultural diversity is an essential component of democracy, without it, pluralism fails and radicalism rises. In short, the program enriched and equipped me with terms, skills and exceptional networking, necessary to fill some of the gaps in our education system and for my personal progress.