Dr. Jane Merritt El-Yacoubi of Fairfax Station earned the Faculty Award of Excellence during Strayer University’s Aug. 23 commencement ceremony in Baltimore.
A member of the Biddle family from Philadelphia, Merritt El-Yacoubi said “I’m delighted to know that my students appreciate my methods and techniques and my style.”
Having converted to Islam in 1973, Merritt El-Yacoubi is fasting this week for Ramadan. She speaks, writes and reads Arabic fluently and still has the same blue-blooded cultural values of her upbringing. But at the same time, she lives as a Muslim. “I have no conflict in the two worlds I live in. It’s all one world.”
At Strayer, where she’s taught for eight years, Merritt El-Yacoubi teaches Middle Eastern studies, Western Civilization, humanities, logic and political science, including one online class. She has 80 students this semester and has been a part-time and full-time university professor since 1984. She earned a master’s and doctor’s degree in political science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Merritt El-Yacoubi has a close-knit family with eight children — five boys and three girls, all practicing Muslims. “And a family that prays together stays together. It goes a long way to create a bond,” she said. Her husband is deceased.
She likes to bring a light-heartedness to her classroom. “I like to present the information in a way that they can appreciate it and it will enrich their lives,” said Merritt El-Yacoubi. “I love to interact with people and engage in lively conversation. I try to bring in a lot of my own insights and teach them to appreciate the diversity of the human endeavor.”
FORMER STUDENT Julie Cox, 42, of Warrenton nominated Merritt El-Yacoubi for the award. “She sees things from a different angle. I would say, since 9-11, which happens to be my birthday, it was very refreshing to have someone with that background — where you could ask questions and become more knowledgeable.”
An example is how the professor brings things into the classroom from her own personal life — like having her Middle Eastern Studies students break the Ramadan fast with her.
Cox said that Merritt El-Yacoubi taught her “not to accept things at face value, but to examine them and draw my own conclusions.” Cox graduated in March with a degree in International Business. She’s a stay-at-home mom working on her teaching certificate.
“I believe Dr. Jane is a pillar of motivation that helps fuel that internal fire that students have,” said Sky Ashley, 38, the campus director at Strayer’s Manassas campus. “She’s not judgmental at all. She doesn’t compromise academically. She doesn’t dummy it down. “
Ashley attributes Merritt El-Yacoubi’s popularity to having an appreciation for other cultures and belief systems, which adds to “more lively discussions because diversity brings certain types of questions, curiosities for students, helping them to understand the different cultures,” she said.
Merritt El-Yacoubi requires students in her Western Civilization class to go out and attend a cultural event. “I always try to bring in that local effect and let them know what’s going on in their local community,” she said.
At Strayer, Merritt El-Yacoubi encourages students to bring real live experience into the classroom, which is good for the adult learners. “Many of the students have been to the countries or have traveled. We draw on their experience and the scholastic material that they have to learn. … It’s not just rote memorization of facts.”
“I know the students really like her,” said colleague Dr. Bryant Payden of Manassas, who’s taught business and information systems at Strayer for 17 years. He says Merritt El-Yacoubi’s classes are always full because of the way she connects with the students.
Strayer University had more than 7,000 adult students graduate on Aug. 23 at the Baltimore Convention Center. The school has 60 campuses in 12 states in the eastern U.S., as well as worldwide via the Internet.
