I am a twenty-eight-year-old Jordanian who has dedicated and invested the last 10 years of my life to become a successful licensed Tour and Adventure Guide in Jordan. It all started when I was inspired to better my circumstances by a stranger who befriended me when I was working in a restaurant in Amman. It was Mike Niconchuk, your former student, something we learned in casual conversation. Sherman, you described this as Serendipity.
I decided to study Tourism Management at The Hashemite University and graduated with a 3.33 GPA, placing me among the top 10 highest GPAs that year.
To date, my academic background has concentrated on history, geology, politics, tourism development, sustainable tourism, and the natural world. A little bit about everything! But I’m very proud to say that I am the person today that I am because of all the self-education I’ve done to gain the proper knowledge and skills so I can prosper in my career, especially when it comes to my English language. It’s all self-taught.
My passion for the natural world and the outdoors pushed me to take the extra mile, So I started to deepen my knowledge about the environment and geology, which led me eventually to have the urge and the motivation to join the forces mobilized against the negative impact of climate change.
I am particularly very concerned about the critical water crisis in my country, Jordan. We have to be part of regional and global sustainability.
I might not yet be a formally educated environmentalist, but I have the will and the motivation to commit to taking that curve in my career.
I’ve begun by doing research about the academic organizations and experts in Jordan who are trying to make a change related to hydrology, sustainable development or climate change.
Dr. Hussam Hussein is” Executive Director of partnerships for development at the Royal Scientific Society; a researcher and lecturer in water diplomacy, hydroponics, and management of water resources. The Royal Scientific Society works on many projects that are associated with renewable energy, climate change, and water sustainability in Jordan.
WANA Institute is one of RSS's partners, they do excellent workshops and training in social justice, sustainable development, and human security.
Safa’ Al Jayoussi: She is a climate change expert, campaign adviser and Environmental Advocate, she also does some workshops and training for the public about climate change in the Arab World.
I met Mahmood in Jordan. He was my assigned guide to explore Petra and Wadi Rum. He impressed me with his thorough knowledge of the region and the politics and society of Jordan. I had just crossed over from Israel, and it occasioned a number of candid conversations with him about the region and existing conflicts. When serendipity works, it really works. In one of my dinner conversations with him, I learned that he had been inspired, as he has written, by one of my wonderful former students to enroll in university as he did. That student was Mike Nikonchuk. Both of us in different periods of Mahmoods life were impressed by this young man, and what I learned of his real passion was to help his country solve its critical water dilemma, in pursuit of a sustainable future for his country, I checked with Peter Droege to confirm my desire to have him enter as a LEAP fellow to begin to pursue his investigations and further education on the matter.
He is a thoughtful, non-polemical thinker whoI have agreed to directly mentor and will be introducing him to other members of Convisero’s network, including Boaz Wachtel, they both have common passions and interests about the future of the dead sea and regional water collaboration. I informed him of the work we have done previously with LISD and the Arava institute on alternative energy.