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The Biology and Chemistry Departments in the College of Science at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) organized a training workshop entitled ‘How to be Different’ recently. It was facilitated by Dr. Ahmed Amro, from Qassim University, Chairman and CEO of Lighting Systems from Saudi Arabia. The workshop was held in the theater in the College of Information Technology on the main UAEU campus.

Dr. Ahmed Amro presented a summary of the importance of this workshop, which targets college students, and helps them to overcome stress. His workshop dealt with stress regardless of whether these pressures were academic or personal and considered the student’s relationships with themself, their family and social environment.

He asked two basic questions: “How can thinking differently cause us to develop?” And, “How does questioning determining our goals and change our daily life?”

These questions depend on the angle they are considered from. He stated the difference between an optimist and pessimist: the optimistic is full of positive energy and considers every setback in life as a lesson and a new start for future success; while the pessimist is someone imprisoned by negativity, short sightedness and who loses sight of their goals.

He stressed the need to deal properly with social media, which takes up a lot of people’s time. He called on students to distinguish between what is useful and can help in self-development and what is only a waste of time.