Bahrain Polytechnic hosted its first youth forum, called “Last Seen”, held at the campus on 11th April 2015 held under the patronage of His Excellency Sheikh Hisham Bin Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, Undersecretary of Education & Resources in the Ministry of Education and Chairman of the Polytechnic’s Board of Trustees. Also attended by the patron His Excellency Dr. Mohamed bin Ahmed Al Amer, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
The forum focused on the various forms of communication, where each guest speaker coming from various parts of the GCC delivered a presentation on the positive and negative aspects of social media.
The event included an interactive session between the speakers and the audience of 450 participants consisting of Polytechnic students, Alumni, staff, and students from various higher education institutions.
Each speaker spoke about a particular topic:
• Dr. Israa Slais spoke about the various threats that could harm your online experience using social media by using unsafe applications.
• Humood Jassim, a Polytechnic staff member spoke about this journey to recovery as a cancer survivor; explaining to the audience about his story in his novel: “My Return to life”.
• First Lieutenant Hayat Abdulmajeed explained about cyber-crimes and how to avoid them.
• Yousif Al Hajeri, a creative writer and author of the book “Life is Wonderful” spoke to the audience about how to change your life for the better by motivating them.
• Sami Albuarki discussed about the importance of time management and how to meet the requirements of life.
• Hamad Al Shamsi shared his immense knowledge of social media to the audience as well as the lessons he has learnt to achieve his goals.
• Dr. Salah Alnajem spoke about the hidden details that a normal social media user would not notice, and how it may harm the online experience.
Noora Yaseen Albalooshi, former president of the Bahrain Polytechnic Student Council (BPSC) said: “This was our first forum organized by BPSC, and our goal was to inspire our young group to perform volunteer work to display their talents as Polytechnic students. We hope that this [successful event] was the best to deliver that message.
“We hope that we motivated our participants to rethink the way they use social media in a way that will impact their lives.
As Ms. Noora Albalooshi has completed her year as the president of the student council, she added: “BPSC worked intensively to establish an effective student council which serves and speaks on behalf of the student body, and I hope that the upcoming members will work with the same momentum and enthusiasm.
“Of course, I’d like to add that we couldn’t have achieved this without the support of the executive management, especially Dr. Mohamed Al Aseeri (Acting CEO), and Sheikh Ali Bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa (Deputy CEO of Resources & Information).
“A special thanks also goes to the speakers for accepting our invitation to participate in this event, which will certainly benefit the youth of our Kingdom.” concluded Ms. Noora Albalooshi after the event.
Dr. Mohamed Al Aseeri, the Acting CEO of the Polytechnic, added: “Bahrain Polytechnic should be proud of the outstanding work done by BPSC to organize the first youth forum. This is a clear representation that they have established themselves among the best students in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
“This forum was organized completely by the Polytechnic students, both the student council and student volunteers, and have certainly achieved great success as we see today.
“They have brought renowned speakers who are experienced in social media, and we hope that this will prepare the future generation of our Kingdom.” concluded the Acting CEO.
The forum was sponsored by:
• GPIC (gold sponsor),
• Focus Media & IT Solutions (silver sponsor)
• Sofitel Hotel (silver sponsor)
• Byblos Restaurant (silver sponsor)
• Majestic Car Rental (bronze sponsor)
• Bahrain Development Bank (bronze sponsor)
• The Coca-cola company (bronze sponsor)
• Alzowarah Restaurant (bronze sponsor)
• Roya Café (bronze sponsor)
