Imagine having to build your own toys until the age of 12 and growing up in a city where war has been going on since the death of Christ. Many of us could not conceive having to ride a bike wherever we went and where our world is filled with images that the enemy is everywhere.
This life is not just one that Bakersfield College professor Adel Shafik lived through, but he conquered it. Born in Cairo, Egypt, to a Christian minority family, Shafik was taught by his father that violence was never an answer to anything. Watching soldiers march in the streets made it difficult to focus on something more positive than the dangerous atmosphere around them.
“I don’t believe in war. I don’t believe in fighting,” Shafik said. “I don’t believe in any of this violent behavior.”
Still using the British learning system, Shafik worked through primary School, prep school and high school while learning art at a local club. He won his first contest at age 11, illustrating the feeling of the war in Egypt. It was his heightened interest in art that gave Shafik a positive focus.
“I went to the College of Applied Arts in Cairo,” Shafik said. “My major was cinematography and telecommunications.”
Shafik graduated with a bachelor’s degree and got work as a cameraman for soccer games in Egyptian television. That was a sport familiar to him – he played for the Egyptian national soccer team until 1984.
In 1986, he migrated to Indiana, stayed with missionaries and started work in a factory. He lacked a background in American culture and didn’t speak English very well. Shafik saved money while attending Indiana University and backpacked through Europe with a couple of college friends.
“We biked all over Europe and took a lot of pictures because we were so interested in art,” Shafik said. “We went to Germany, France, the Vatican, Austria and saw some beautiful architecture.”
He returned and got into the master’s program where he graduated with an MFA in graphic design. Shafik began considering something else to do besides being a cameraman. Having designed banners, signs and book covers for local churches back home, art was a definitely a field that could occupy his unique imagination.
While playing soccer one day, Shafik met his future wife, Sara, and the two began dating. They fell in love, and the two went to visit her family in Bakersfield, where they got married in 1993.
“I never saw desert in the U.S. until I came here,” Shafik said. “That was a real shock to me.”
Shafik began doing freelance design work while managing the Bakersfield Soccer and Hockey Center. Later he started his own business doing artwork for The Bakersfield Californian and The Disney Corporation. After seven years of working with art in design, Shafik decided to do something he always wanted to do: become a teacher.
“I read a lot about BC and even took a class here,” Shafik said. “I fell in love with the campus. I was once a student who needed a lot of help and that was something I wanted to return to the students.”
Shafik found the BC faculty to have a welcoming atmosphere.
Having gone from an intense home life to a land where anything is possible, Shafik overcame tremendous odds and claims all of it was due to his positive attitude and his hard work.
“I encourage everyone to be positive and focus on your strengths,” Shafik said. “There is always a sun behind the clouds.”