The American University in Dubai honored the winners of the short story competition that was launched in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Cultural and Scientific Association. The competition was open to all high school students in public and private schools across the UAE.

President Dr. David A. Schmidt along with Provost and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Sabrina Joseph, presented the first place award to Abdullah Daoud Ali Ahmed, from Al-Ahlia Charitable School in Dubai, who was awarded a full scholarship and will study engineering at AUD beginning Fall 2021.

In addition to first place, appreciation runner-up awards were also presented to the following four:

• Maitha Al-Marri - Al Ittihad Private School – Jumeirah
• Ali Muhammad Darwish Ali - Dubai National School - Al Twar Branch
• Reem Mahmoud Saad Salim - National Charity - Al Qadisiyah Sharjah
• Maryam Ali - Dubai National School

Professor Hassan Sawalmeh, Director of Al-Ahlia Charitable School in Dubai, was also honored in recognition of his efforts to motivate the school's students to participate in the competition.

The competitions’ objective was to write a fiction short story entitled, Life in the UAE after 50 years, in Arabic or English.

Dr. Schmidt congratulated the winners, wishing them a bright future at AUD. He advised them to also participate in the short film competition presented by the AUD Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication that touches on the mental health of school students during to the Covid-19 pandemic. The deadline for submitting entries for this competition is March 28^th, 2021.