USD Magazine, Summer 2004

ffiA "'The 'lraqis have 6een deyrivedoffairness. '1 neededto make the ('Fu(6r{9htJ Scho(arshijJs avai(a6(e to ever}} sini/e 'lraqi, a(( over the country, reaarcUess o/ his or her oriain, ethnicity or reUaion."

Kurdistan," says reporter Christina Asquith, who covers the United States' post-war efforts in Iraq for The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times and other publications. 'This is a real feat. While others were making plans to get out of Baghdad, Joe had his knuckles to the ground creating a real program that would give real training to the people in the classroom - and done in an affordable way that could be a model for the future." THE PATH TO DIPLOMACY Ghougassian seemed destined for his role on the international stage. Born in Cairo, Egypt, he was an early bloomer in academ– ics, receiving his first two degrees (a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy) from the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, in 1964 and 1965. He garnered a doctorate in philosophy from Louvain University in Belgium by the age of 22, and was brought to the United States by a job offer: teaching philosophy and psychol– ogy at USD. He subsequently received a bachelor of science degree in family studies from Louvain University in 1974. Obviously, we're talking about a multi-tasking dynamo: As he taught, wrote and raised a family, he earned both a master's degree in international

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Ghougassian found equally useful. "I wanted to have it in the Kurdish area so Iraqi Arabs would get involved with the Kurds, their brothers, and start the reconciliation process," he says. "Under Saddam Hussein the Kurds were oppressed, were gassed. And I thought, ifI could, I would use (the location) as another avenue of reconciliation." Iraqi Ministry of Education leaders enthu– siastically supported the idea. By the time the next academic year begins in September 2004, the Iraqi professors should be up to speed with 21st century scientific informa– tion, and able to transmit this new knowledge to their students. The way Ghougassian sees it, it's all about bringing people together. His ability to see how small gestures add up to great good will

The resultant curriculum is custom-made to best serve the Iraqi attendees. "In agriculture, the course that was requested was agribusiness," explains Ghougassian. "In biology, the course that was requested was molecular biology. In nursing, it was the study of clinical teaching of nursing. In archaeology, it was forensic archaeology." Ghougassian had to remain sensitive to cultural issues when selecting teachers, and he insisted on finding qualified Iraqi– American university professors to run the seminars. His reasoning was simple. "I wanted to use this project not only for educational purposes, but for political and public diplomacy. I wanted those Iraqis - 90 percent of whom haven't traveled for the last 15 to 20 years - to see how their brothers, sisters and cousins were making it big in the United States, and how they were now com– ing back, bringing both cultures with them." The courses will take place at the Kurdish

is one of those indefinable qualities that makes him so successful as a diplomat and education advocate. "The last time I talked to him, he had a teacher training program organized in Malcing the

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