Published: August 15, 2008 10:56 pm      

Jordan beckons Fulbright Scholar

EDMOND — Edmond resident Dennis Ardis, a Fulbright Scholar, will travel to Jordan in the fall to pursue his interests in issues relating to the Middle East, specifically the equality of opportunity for children.

His grant will take him to Jordan on Sept. 4 ,where he will begin language studies, and he will return in December 2009.

Ardis graduated with degrees in business finance and accounting and international area studies from the University of Oklahoma this December, and shortly after left to study French in Clermont-Ferrand, France, returning home to Edmond a little more than a month ago.

This will be his second trip to Jordan. Last summer he spent nine weeks and this time he will spend 15 months.

“Last summer provided me with an important exposure to Jordanian society and a deeper understanding of the country’s government,” Ardis said.

While in Jordan he will examine the entrance of Iraqi children into the Jordanian public school system.

Because of a recent change in Jordanian government policy that is allowing the Iraqi children into the schools, the country’s school system and its education officials will be tested during the next few years.

“I plan to work with several researchers at Jordan’s Center for Strategic Studies to address this issue though a two-tiered approach: An investigation of structural circumstances that impact schools throughout the country and an investigation of the perspectives held by a subset of local administrators,” Ardis said.

He plans to work with several researchers at CSS to investigate the wide-ranging concerns that exist as the consequence of the influx of Iraqi students, including an expansion of the Jordanian infrastructure.

While many countries, including the United States, struggle to meet the financial challenges posed by increasing numbers of legal and illegal immigrants, Jordan recently opened its public school system to hundreds of thousands of displaced Iraqi school children.

“I was in Jordan during the summer of 2007 when the Jordanian government lifted a residency requirement that previously barred recent Iraqi immigrants from attending public schools,” Ardis said. “That experience sparked my concern that the needs of these new entrants would outpace the ability of Jordan’s education system to adapt.

“Through a relationship with the researchers of CSS, I aspire to apply my unique skills and interests to a research project that will gauge the probability of such an occurrence.”

Ardis plans to fully explore this issue during the second academic year under the new policy following six months of intense study of the Arabic language.

“This project will further my personal and academic development, serving as a basis for my future involvement in issues relating to Jordan and the broader Middle East,” Ardis said.

Ardis describes himself as a middle child sandwiched between two older, half-Egyptian siblings — a stepbrother and a stepsister — and two younger sisters.

He said he was forced to identify common ground and to see the inherent value of diversity.

A limited world view shaped his early perspective, Ardis said, and he initially perceived success as something simply attainable through status and a sizable salary. He saw academics solely as a means to a financial end and set his goals accordingly, but along the way his perspective changed.

“I realize the necessity of mutual understanding and respect,” he said. “As I set out into the world, I now see achievement through a different lens.

“Success exists outside myself,” Ardis said.

He now believes all people deserve the same opportunities in life; all people should benefit from a clear sense of the world in which they live.

“Whether I pursue a career in international law, government or the nonprofit sector, the Fulbright program will serve as an important foundation for my future endeavors,” Ardis said.

“I have the unique opportunity to develop personally though an experience that will serve as an important forum for cultural exchange and a project that has the potential to impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, Jordanian and Iraqi alike.”