Meet the Coolest Person at AUC

By: Dalia Abdelwahab

@Lia_A0617

From the numerous comments of appreciation published on social media to the messages of gratitude hanging on his office walls, senior instructor at the Department of Rhetoric and Composition Fikry Boutros takes all the praise in stride.

“It’s the students that make me love what I do and make me look forward to spending my time with them. I believe that happiness and passion are contagious,” Boutros says.

Boutros has been a senior instructor at the Department of Rhetoric and Composition since Fall 2011, with some of his courses including Research Writing, Business Communications and Public Speaking.

Additionally, he teaches Introduction to Linguistics and has offered public speaking workshops to several entities, student-run and otherwise.

A sizable amount of his students are not just fans of his teaching methods but also enjoy spending time with him.

“[Boutros] is the coolest person on the AUC campus and yes, by ‘on campus,’ I am referring to both students and professors alike,” said Amr Abdelazeem, a computer science junior, who studied Research Writing with Boutros.

Abdelazeem added that he enjoyed the way in which Boutros engaged with his students in class, maintaining a balance between academics and recreation.

This is an approach Boutros makes a point of implementing in all the classes he teaches.

“The one thing I hate is to see a bored audience or a bored student. Whenever I notice that one of my students is bored, or is not enjoying the material taught, I try to reach out to them … to become friends with them,” Boutros says.

He believes that having students open up to him about their problems, whether academic, personal or social, is something that has a significantly positive impact on their college experiences.

It’s no coincidence, then, that he participates in AUC’s Life Mentorship Program (LMP), which is dedicated to aiding students in carving out more stable academic pathways for themselves under the supervision of faculty and/or alumni mentors.

“I saw that I already do this a lot in my classrooms and outside of them, so, I thought, ‘why not join this?’ It’s something that I love doing,” he explained.

“I can personally guarantee you that anyone would have a unique experience with him, both academically and personally,” said Adham Shabana, a student in Boutros’s Leadership course.

“I already have Facebook groups for the classes I currently teach and I post course content on them. But I have another larger group that I like to call The Family Group,” Boutros added.

The Boutros’ ‘Family Group’ is primarily dedicated for catching up with his former students, some of whom are currently working on their doctoral degrees. The posts on the group range from motivational content and articles to job postings.

However, Meriam El Tahawy, an undeclared sophomore who studied Research Writing with Boutros, sees him as more than just a professor.

“He is a role model and an inspiration. I love him so much and I’m truly grateful and lucky for getting the chance to take a course with him. Seriously, you cannot graduate before taking a course with him. I would like to thank him a lot for making my semester better,” she told The Caravan.

El Tahawy echoes what many students have said about Boutros’s Research Writing class, a course many may feel could have been daunting; he made it one of her favorite AUC courses of all time.

But integrated marketing communications junior Sandra Atef’s journey with Boutros as a mentor did not stop at research writing.

“He has a connection with the students, so, I built a friendship since this time before being his [teaching assistant] this semester,” she explained.

Atef learned multiple professional skills from her work with Boutros, which include, but are not limited to, leadership and organization.

“And on a personal level, I learned to do everything with passion as he is doing in teaching,” Atef explained.

Such appreciation fills Boutros with happiness.

He also believes that his students should follow their passion no matter what stands in their way.

“That’s what I do. Follow your passion, whatever it is, no matter how crooked the path may seem, even if it does not conform to society’s standards.”