Supporting her alma mater – the window that led to opportunity, the passport to a better future
February 15, 2022
“My relationship to AUB is deeply personal,” explains alumna Rima Moussallem Otrakji. “AUB has always played a big role in my life – even before I was a student. I grew up hearing about AUB and always knew that it was the university I would attend.” She laughs thinking back to those days. “We had no choice really. For my parents, there was only AUB.”
Rima has no regrets about her parents’ insistence that she attend AUB – none. It was at AUB that, she says, “I bloomed and became the person that I am today.” AUB was also “the window that led to opportunity, the passport to a better future.” Although she graduated and moved to Miami in 1985, Rima says that she has never really left AUB. “I love the US and my home here, but AUB is the home that I carry with me wherever I go, whatever I do.”
Many of Rima’s memories of AUB revolve around music. “Music was my life and my escape in those days,” she remembers. “I was very involved with the Music Club. We performed often on campus, including at the president’s house (Marquand House), and on television.”
Rima has been an active alumna since she graduated – as a member, vice president, and president of the WAAAUB South Florida/Miami Chapter, and as a donor. She recently decided to rally her friends and family to help her establish the Rima Moussallem Otrakji Endowed Scholarship Fund at AUB. “I was told that you can take up to five years to establish an endowed fund, but I wanted to do it much more quickly than this because I understood that the faster that this fund is established, the sooner it will generate proceeds to support AUB students,” says Rima.
Anyone who knows Rima will not be surprised to learn that the $100,000 fundraising target was achieved in just a month-and-a-half. Rima smiles. “I am very proud and deeply touched that so many people honored me by supporting this initiative, but what matters most is that this endowed scholarship fund is already being used to support students.”
Rima is especially pleased that the Rima Moussallem Otrakji Endowed Scholarship Fund is part of the AUB4Women Campaign that AUB launched to celebrate AUB’s Coed Centennial. “I know as a woman what it means to have received a good education. It is my education at AUB that enabled me to, for example, open my own business – Rima’s Gifts,” she says. Rima is also the vice president of Miami Living Limited Partnership, a passionate French teacher, and a tireless fundraiser. “My education makes all of that possible,” she explains. “I want other women to have the same opportunities.” Another issue that Rima cares passionately about is animals. “I love the quote from Charlie Chaplin: ‘Who feeds a hungry animal, feeds his own soul.’ I believe that deeply and am proud that my alma mater is taking care of the cats on campus.”
Although Rima has met her original dollar target, she hasn’t stopped fundraising for her endowed scholarship fund. “Nope – I’m not done,” she explains. “It’s an emergency situation in Lebanon right now. Students need help. The larger the fund, the more students it can help.”
Rima thinks often about what we can all do, what we should do, when times are tough. “Everything we do in life is a part of who we are. If you can lend a helping hand, if you can ease the way of someone else – even just a little – you should do it. It’s a blessing.”