CSW’s Ola Morsy is bid a Fond Farewell

• By: Shahd Atef – Senior Features Editor

A symphony of tears and laughter echoed through the Moataz Al Alfi hall on September 30 as the once-spacious room teemed with a diverse crowd made up of faculty from various disciplines, staff across the university board, alumni, students, friends, and family, making a large area feel intimate.

At the center of the commotion is Ola Morsy who, after 23 years of servicing the AUC community under the Center for Student Well-Being (CSW) as a licensed consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, is bidding the center a tearful goodbye.

Her decision to leave was not an easy one but ultimately, in an attempt to avoid stagnance and to keep growing in her field, she made the decision topart ways with the center.

At her farewell reception, several of Morsy’s coworkers, friends, and students shared embraces with her as they recounted memories spent together both in and outside of the center.

The reception itinerary included a photo booth session, a showcasing of a video documenting Morsy’s journey and moments at AUC, and a mixture of spontaneous and planned speeches, including remarks by AUC President Ahmed Dallal and Dean of Students Yorgun Marcel.

Morsy also took to the podium, her beige and white patterned cotton kimono trailing behind her as she walked purposefully toward the stage. She paused momentarily and smiled, her gaze sweeping over the crowd as their applause died out.

After sharing personal anecdotes and reflections of her time at the CSW, Morsy used the remaining half of her 20-minute speech to express gratitude and thank people individually, her eyes frantically scanning the crowd in an attempt to not leave anyone out, shout- ing out colleague names in enthusiasm as they popped in her head.

The series of speeches that followed, made by colleagues and loved ones, left Morsy choked up yet smiling from ear to ear.

“I’ve been to so many of these fare- wells and there’s one thing that’s very different about this one…it’s that the people that are coming up here to talk…you can see how how much she (Morsy) has affected their lives,” said Mona Amer, Psychology professor, during her speech.

One of Morsy’s former students, Hania Seif, an Integrated Marketing Communication alumna, also made it to the podium.

“You care about us as students. Not just as students but on a very human level, this is exactly who you are,” she said, teary-eyed.

This was the common sentiment and at this reception, it seemed as though the words ‘Ola Morsy,’ ‘empathetic,’ and ‘passionate’ were tightly bound together.

In fact, this is the way Morsy identifies herself: “I live my life with passion and like to scatter my love to the people around me. I think I am a very loving, empathetic person; an empathetic mother and an empathetic therapist.”

These are the traits that drew her to psychiatry when she was in her second year of Medicine at Ain Shams University and since then, she has never doubted her decision.

“I remember the first lecture in psychology and I suddenly felt a wave of passion that connected me to the subject – I thought, this is my track,” said Morsy.

After graduating, Morsy immediately pursued psychiatry, starting at the Okasha Hospital for Psychological Medicine in 1995 where she dealt with clinical cases.

Morsy began in tandem working part-time as a counselor for what was then called the Office of Student Support situated in Youssef El Gendy, a street behind the AUC Tahrir campus in 2001.

Even then, the AUC community was not one she was unfamiliar with because Morsy had been roaming the gardens of the Tahrir campus since she was as young as 4 years old, accompanying her mother, who was an AUC professor.

Morsy’s time at AUC, deepened her passion for working with students.

“Despite being more subtle than cases I was used to, it was still an extremely beneficial role to help young people find themselves,” she said.

Morsy believed in the mission of a university counseling center as a place that exists not simply to solve a single problem, but somewhere to figure out their traits, including problematic ones, early on in life so as to act proactively to manage future problems that may arise as a result.

This was different to working with older clients at the hospital who had gone through a series of difficult circumstances and problematic patterns all their lives, discovering later on that they could have been prevented had they been addressed earlier.

Working with students gave Morsy this chance to address issues in earlier stages and by the time AUC began operating at the New Cairo campus in 2008, she had been appointed as a full time Senior Counselor.

Over the years, she received various promotions which moved her up the ranks of the CSW from being the Assistant Director in 2014 to the Chief Clinical Counselor in 2019. She also joined the Psychology department faculty team as an adjunct faculty in 2013 teaching Biopsychology and Psychopathology classes.

However, even as her position became more managerial, she still chose to maintain her counseling duties and would see around 300 students every year.

“I was really driven by an urge to have every single person at university benefit from this kind of service. It would really break my heart to see a graduating senior visiting the center for the first time finding out that they’ve been dealing with something that counseling could have helped with,” she said.

Morsy acknowledged the stigma associated with mental health and psychiatry in Egyptian society as a possible reason that stops students from seeking help.

She shook her head in disbelief as she described instances of families discouraging students from attending counseling sessions in fear that it will show up in their university transcripts.

“I believe very much in fighting this stigma and building a community that is extremely mental-health aware, with an understanding that therapy is a healthy habit which can actually transform your life,” she added, with her fists clenched, moving up and down following the ebb and flow of her voice.

This belief was translated in her counseling work and an anonymous alum who had received counseling from Morsy for approximately three semesters endorsed this fact.

“The impact she had is tremendous… she helped me manage my symptoms, gain skills, and leave rock bottom,” he said.

Another anonymous alumna who received counseling from Morsy for four years explained that she was able to succeed in her professional life and relationships with help from Morsy.

“Students are going to lose a great figure at AUC…she truly loved the students and would go the extra mile to ensure their safety and well-being,” she added.

Morsy truly did love her students and when she tried to choose her favorite memories at AUC, she could only recall her connections with them.

“I have a young spirit, even if I’m 55. I still always feel 18, so working with young people is very rejuvenating,” she said, letting out a boisterous laugh.

The laughter turned into a bittersweet moment of reminiscing and Morsy smiled softly as she expressed that her achievements are most solidified when she sees any of the students she treated in the cap and gown at graduation.

But having these responsibilities often meant that Morsy had little time for herself.

Morsy considered her office at the CSW as her home away from home as a testament to the number of hours she would spend there and her overall attachment to the place.

However, her duties and concerns about students did not stop when the work day ended and she left the office.

“Because of the very busy days on campus, lots of the managerial work that needed documentation would have to be done at home at night,” she said.

Morsy also found herself consistently ruminating over students’ troubles and safety even when she was at home.

“Ola always wanted to guarantee the safety of her students…she would do everything she could, she would stay for long hours, she would take all possible interventions to make sure that students’ lives are not at risk,” said Amal Badeeb, Senior Counselor at the CSW.

Zeina Ramy, Morsy’s daughter, recalls several instances where her mother had to attend to her responsibilities off-campus.

“She’s very selfless and generous with her time…she would sometimes get calls as late as 3 a.m.,” said Ramy.

Still, Ramy reaffirmed that Morsy always made time for her and her siblings.

“Empathy and kindness were pretty much the foundation of our upbringing,” she said.

Ramy added that Morsy’s generosity with her time did not mean with just her students and family, but also with the large community of friends that she surrounds herself with.

“The CSW community is a tight-knit one, they’re like a family and I’m sure she’s going to miss them a lot…there’s also a lot of staff outside of the CSW that she is close to,” said Ramy.

Morsy’s next step is to expand her reach to a wider range of clientele as she plans to open a clinic of her own where she can utilize more of her medical specializations.

Her excitement for the next chapter is met with mourning for her old one.

“I’ve left part of my heart at AUC.” she stated.