Ammar Alhajmee ’26 to Receive the Global Learning Leadership Award The accounting and German double major from Iraq will be presented with the award at the Center for International Education awards ceremony on May 26.

By Brian Laubscher
May 5, 2026

Washington and Lee University student Ammar Alhajmee ’26 has been selected by the Center for International Education (CIE) to receive the 2026 Global Learning Leadership Award. He will be presented with the award and accompanying $500 prize at the CIE annual awards ceremony held at 5:30 p.m. on May 26 in the Center for Global Learning Atrium.

The Global Learning Leadership Award is presented annually to a student in the undergraduate senior class who has contributed the most to the cultivation of global learning on the W&L campus and who best exemplifies the university’s commitment to preparing graduates for lifelong learning, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society. Alhajmee joins Sambridhi Tuladhar ’25, Diwesh Kumar ’24 and Allie Stankewich ’23 as recent recipients of the award.

A native of Diwaniyah, Iraq, Alhajmee has been an active member of the university and its international community throughout his four years at W&L. He served as president of the Student Association for International Learning (SAIL), where he organized cultural programming and campus initiatives to promote international engagement. He was also a CIE Global Peer Adviser, mentoring incoming international students through their academic and cultural transition. As an accounting and German double major with a minor in data science, Alhajmee also helped fellow international students navigate U.S. tax filing through Sprintax.

“Receiving this award means a lot because it recognizes the kind of work that often happens quietly,” said Alhajmee. “A lot of the moments I care about most were not big events but smaller conversations with students who were trying to understand a new place, a new system, or even something as specific as filing taxes in the U.S. I know how confusing those things can feel at the beginning, so being able to help others through them has meant a lot to me.”

In addition to his work with CIE and the university’s international student community, Alhajmee works as a help desk technician for Information Technology Services and is a member of the W&L Student Consulting Group. He was also a Summer Research Scholar and was recently inducted into Delta Phi Alpha, the German National Honor Society.

“Ammar has been a fixture of the international community at W&L over the past four years. He has contributed to the campus in ways both seen and unseen with a consistency and a calm confidence that demonstrates his excellent character and judgment,” said Hunter Swanson, associate director of international education. “During his time working in the CIE office, he took on progressive levels of responsibility, including becoming one of our very first Global Peer Advisers — a position that he excelled at by mentoring first-year international students and especially by using his skills as an accounting major to assist students with navigating the tax process for U.S. non-residents. He will be dearly missed!”

During his time at W&L, Alhajmee studied abroad in Italy and Germany, and in 2024, he completed an internship at B.A.M. Ticketing in Vienna. After graduation, he plans to pursue a graduate degree in finance or accounting in Germany.

“W&L gave me room to become a more complete version of myself,” said Alhajmee. “I came in with certain plans, but I ended up learning from people, classes, languages, jobs and communities that I did not expect. What I will remember most is not one specific role or activity, but the people who trusted me, challenged me and gave me the chance to contribute.”