Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Early in 2010, Laith Al-Majali received a call from Leo Lambert, the president of Elon University, offering him the chance to give the Class of 2010 commencement address — five years after he graduated from Elon,

"It was quite humbling and an honor to me," Al-Majali said. "It will be cool, you know, five years after graduating and giving the speech."

As a 2005 alumnus, Al-Majali received Elon's Young Alumni of the Year award in fall 2008 after producing and editing the Jordanian film "Captain Abu Raed," which went on to win an audience award for dramatic world cinema at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.

Growing up in Jordan, he was the first recipient of a scholarship from Queen Noor of Jordan to come to Elon in 2000. He said he abandoned plans to go to a military institute when he got the scholarship.

"It was kind of like the natural thing to do, to join a military academy or something like that," Al-Majali said. "To leave Jordan and study in the U.S., I really needed the scholarship to do that."

He came as a broadcast major to Elon, trying to eventually get to the film industry. He went to Los Angeles through Elon programs and spent much of his time in the School of Communications editting bays, but he still involved himself in clubs.

Al-Majali was a Leadership Fellow on top of being involved in an international relations club and Model United Nations. On top of everything, he had a theatre minor.

He said it was during his time in the Elon in Los Angeles program that he met the producer and writer of "Captain Abu Raed" and was offered a chance to work on the project. A year after that, he said, he moved to Los Angeles.

Al-Majali said he helped develop the story of the movie with the writer, Amin Matalqa, and had different roles throughout filming. He helped coordinate shooting in Jordan and edited the movie in post-production.

Then, in 2008, the film won its audience award at Sundance.

"It was crazy," Al-Majali said. "Having made a film in Jordan, people were already doubting us."

He said despite the fact people had been doubting the project because of its origin, Sundance led to larger distribution for the film. The hesitation people had before about the film went away when it won the audience award.

Being from Jordan gave him a unique perspective at Elon, Al-Majali said. In a school that was beginning to develop a focus on global awareness, he had a heritage that set him apart from many students.

"I came with a whole different set of values and different cultural ideas," he said. "I was the only Jordanian guy on campus."

Al-Majali was at Elon during September 11, 2001. It was during his first two weeks as a freshman, and he was the only Arab student.

He said there were stereotypes and the threat of hate crimes during the time, but it also afforded an opportunity for him to talk about the Middle East with people on campus.

"That kind of helped me to get people to know me at school," he said.

For him, the move for Elon to become more globally focused was an important one. He said as the world becomes increasingly connected through tools like the Internet, universities need to recognize that and adapt to it. He said it's about understanding the world.

"You've got the Elon bubble, and sometimes you're stuck there," he said. "You don't know what's going on. I'm all about bursting that bubble."

* by Jack Dodson/ THE PENDULUM