VCU Qatar student compares campuses after visit to Richmond

Alix Hines
Contributing Writer

After seeing VCU’s Monroe Park Campus, VCU Qatar student Marianne Bermejo noted that there are vast differences between VCU’s Richmond campuses and her home campus at VCU Qatar.

VCU Qatar is made up of around 250 students, she said. This is a far cry from the Richmond campuses that enroll over 31,000 students. Bermejo explained that all majors are housed in a single building at the VCU Qatar campus, which is located in an area known as Education City in the country’s capital of Doha. Education City houses satellite campuses from a number of American universities, including Georgetown, Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon.

Another major difference between the campuses that Bormejo noticed was the attitude toward crime.

Crime has become a concern for students on the Richmond campuses recently with a string of high-profile armed robberies occurring near VCU. Bermejo said that crime practically doesn’t exist on VCU Qatar’s campus and explained that Qatar is almost a crime-free country. She said she feels safe walking around campus at almost any hour.

“I personally go to my studio at late hours because I am a night person and I don’t for a second hesitate to walk on my own to the VCU Qatar building,” Bermejo said.

According to the VCU Police’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Reports, only two crimes have been reported on the Qatar campus since 2004: an aggravated assault in 2007 and a burglary in 2008.

VCU Qatar is an art school that offers majors in design studies, fashion design, graphic design, interior design and painting and printmaking. Bermejo said her ultimate goal is to have her fashion line recognized throughout the world.

Bermejo has studied abroad her entire life. The 21-year-old junior studying fashion design at VCU Qatar is originally from the Philippines and has lived in Qatar for 13 years.

She and 10 other students were chosen by the university to come to the U.S. for a design leadership conference and to host VCU’s Qatar Day in Richmond.

“I ended up here for Qatar Day because the branch of VCU in Qatar flew us here to be able to experience what it is like on the main campus in Richmond, Va. and to also share the country’s culture,” Bermejo said.

Bermejo explained that for most of the students hosting Qatar Day, it is their first time travelling to the U.S. and they were eager to visit Washington, D.C. After visiting the capital, they traveled to Richmond to participate in a design conference to prepare for an international design conference held in Doha, Qatar in March called Tasmeem Doha.