From the classroom to conferences to driving real-world change

“Content warning: This article includes discussions on violence, war, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The content may be triggering for some. For support, please see the university’s resource page. Abdullah Al Azzawi was a just baby in the backseat of the family car when it was sprayed with bullets on a Baghdad street. His father, who’d already been targeted in two assassination attempts, was at the wheel. A pick-up truck with a machine gun mounted in the cab pulled up alongside their car and gunmen opened fire. Al Azzawi’s father drove his car into a pole to make it seem like he’d been fatally wounded. His attackers sped off. Father and son miraculously escaped unscathed. The family spent the next 10 years in Jordan. Al Azzawi, who spoke Arabic, went to an English-language school and became bilingual. They spent a year in Sweden before coming to Canada, first to Montreal where Al Azzawi learned French and then to Milton. Al Azzawi started in the Honours Life Sciences program at McMaster in 2022. He’s maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA and graduates in June. The program is demanding, yet he made time to help causes both close to home and around the world. Last year, the Canadian Arab Institute named Al Azzawi one of their Top 30 Under 30 in recognition of his international humanitarian work and the tutoring program he co-founded at his local mosque for children from low-income families. With that award comes a responsibility and a reminder, says Al Azaawi. “Every step forward is not just for myself but for my community. I need to be a stellar example of what Arabs are capable of achieving in Canada.” He took another step forward when he joined SHAMS – Supporting Health & Advocacy for Middle Eastern Societies. It’s a newly established youth-led Canadian nonprofit organization that provides health education, mentorship and research opportunities. He was already supporting mentorship through the tutoring program so he started looking for a way to help advance SHAMS’ research mission. He found that opportunity in the data literacy course taught by Heather O’Reilly, an associate director in the Life Sciences program and assistant professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Science. At the start of the course, O’Reilly shows students published studies that use the Canadian Community Health Survey data set. She then challenges them to sort through the data and come up with their own research question. “Unlike standard lectures, most of my classes make students do things.” Al Azzawi thought back to the harrowing stories his parents told about living through the Iraq War and then zeroed in on the 10,000 immigrants who completed the survey and the 117 respondents who answered ‘yes’ when asked if they had post-traumatic stress disorder. He set out to explore how PTSD affects the ways that immigrants perceive their mental health. It’s an important issue because undiagnosed and untreated PTSD can lead to chronic, severe and debilitating physical and mental health issues, social withdrawal and isolation. According to the World Health Organization , an estimated 3.9 per cent of the world population has experienced PTSD, with rates three times higher among people exposed to violent conflict or war. Al Azzawi suspects the new Canadians who completed the Canadian Community Health Survey were underreporting their mental health issues. He’d visited family and friends in Iraq two years ago – deep psychological wounds left over from the war were impossible to ignore. Mental health treatment in the Middle East is evolving yet still faces challenges and stigma, says Al Azzawi. “I come from a culture where mental health isn’t openly talked about and going to therapy is seen as an act of cowardice rather than one of courage.” He saw his project in O’Reilly’s course as a way to draw attention to the issue and start conversations among both new Canadians and health care providers. “I’ve had the privilege of working with Abdullah in two of my Life Sciences courses and his interest and ability to draw personal connections to the topics really stands out,” says O’Reilly. “He takes what we worked on in class and applies those skills in a thoughtful, meaningful way.” One of those ways was by delivering his first ever poster presentations at back-to-back conferences one week apart. Through SHAMS, Al Azzawi was invited to present his work at the 28 th Metropolis Canada Conference in Halifax. The Mind Matters conference at the University of Toronto followed the next weekend. Al Azzawi arrived at that conference not knowing that it included a poster presentation competition. With no preparation, he entered the competition and talked off-the-cuff for 15 minutes with the judging panel. He then left before the conference ended to join a friend’s engagement party. After recharging his phone, Azzawi read the email letting him know he’d finished second in the competition. “Seeing students take the tools and skills learned in my courses to do something meaningful is incredibly rewarding,” says O’Reilly. “You really see the value of what students are learning click into place when a student comes back and says ‘hey, this class really helped with my thesis’ or, in Abdullah’s case ‘look at this poster I presented at a conference and oh, by the way, I won second place.’ It’s because of students like Abdullah that I love my job.” Al Azzawi graduates in June with plans to pursue medical or law school. “Arabs in the diaspora are fortunate to have the chance to thrive in the West,” says Al Azzawi. “With that opportunity comes a duty to lift, to support and to give back to the people and places we come from. “I want to help build a more equitable healthcare system, one that better supports immigrants and helps both patients and providers understand what happens when wars end and psychological wounds need healing.” The post From the classroom to conferences to driving real-world change appeared first on McMaster News .

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