Commencement 2024 (Archive)

Congratulations Class of 2024!

The VCUarts Qatar Commencement Ceremony is organized by the Strategic Engagement Department. For further questions and concerns, please reach out to [email protected].

Commencement Ceremony 2024

Commencement Speaker 2024

Sumayya Vally
Founder and Principal of Counterspace
Honorary Professor of Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture

Sumayya Vally is founder and Principal of Counterspace—an award-winning design, research and pedagogical practice searching for expression for hybrid identities and territory, particularly for African and Islamic conditions—both rooted and diasporic. Her design process is often forensic, and draws on the aural, performance and the overlooked as generative places of history and work.

In 2022, Vally was selected by the World Economic Forum to be one of its Young Global Leaders and as a TIME100 Next list honoree, has been identified as someone who will shape the future of architectural practice and canon. She has joined the World Monuments Fund Board of Directors, and serves on several boards through her interest in dynamic forms of archive, embodied heritage, and supporting new networks of knowledge in the arts. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada inducted Sumayya into its 2023 Honorary Fellowship, which recognises individuals that exemplify the tremendous impact that architects have—not only on the built environment, but also on public life and the world around them. She was named Emerging Architect of the Year at the 2023 Dezeen Awards, and one of Financial Times Readers’ Women of the Year 2023. 

In 2019, Counterspace was invited to design the 20th Serpentine Pavilion in London, making Vally the youngest architect ever to win this internationally renowned commission. With the Serpentine, she has initiated and developed a new fellowship programme, Support Structures for Support Structures, which assists artists and collectives working at the intersection of art, social justice, the archive, and ecology. Vally is the Artistic Director of the inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah (January – May 2023), which put forth an entirely new and decolonial definition of Islamic art that is resonant with the lived and embodied practices and experiences of the Islamic world.

Her practice operates adjacent to the academy. For six years (2015-2021), she led the masters’ studio, Unit 12, at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg—founded by Professor Lesley Lokko, with the intent to create a curriculum for the African continent. She has taught and lectured widely; as Pelli Distinguished Visiting

Professor at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; as lead of a new masters’ programme, Hijra, at the Royal College of Art; and as an Honorary Professor of Practice at The Bartlett School of Architecture.

Listen to the 2024 Commencement Address below.

Valedictorian and Salutatorian

The titles of Valedictorian and Salutatorian are bestowed on the students who hold the highest academic ranking among the graduation class. They have respectively earned the highest and second highest cumulative grade point average (CGPA) as assessed at the end of the Fall semester prior to the graduation term.

The Valedictorian is invited to deliver the Student Address during the Commencement Ceremony. In the case of two equally qualified students, two Co-Valedictorians are selected.

Kaltham Essa Al-Fakhroo (BFA in Graphic Design) and Selma Fejzullaj (BFA in Graphic Design) were the Co-Valedictorian of the Class of 2024.

Class Marshals

The Class Marshals are appointed by the Academic Program Department Chairs/Directors in recognition of their services to the academic departments. Class Marshals lead their classmates in the commencement procession and are distinguished by a special sash as part of their regalia.

Class Marshals are announced during the Commencement Fair and will receive their special sash during the official part of the fair.

Class Marshals for the Class of 2024 are:

Hind Ghanim Al Saad Al-Kuwari, MFA in Design 

Fatima Bader Al-Siddiqi, BFA in Fashion Design

Al-Anood Ali J. H. Al-Thani, BFA in Graphic Design

Maryam Yousef Al-Majid, BFA in Interior Design

Ghayda’ Azam Abduljalil, BFA in Painting + Printmaking

Noor Khalifa AlMannai, BA in Art History

Class Champion

The Class Champion is competitively selected by the senior academic leadership from the graduating class of undergraduate students who earned a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 360 or higher at the end of the term prior to graduation. The Dean and the Class Champion lead the graduating class into the Qatar Foundation Convocation Ceremony that is usually held soon after VCUarts Qatar’s Commencement Ceremony.

The Class Champion is announced during the Commencement Fair and will receive a special sash during the official part of the fair.

Class Champion for the Class of 2024 is Fatima Bader Al-Siddiqi, BFA in Fashion Design.