Newsletter Spring Summer 2020

Empty fields and empty halls Scribbles fading on its walls The applause comes no more The books sit lonely and sore Classes beckon, I hear but ignore Not my call. A necessity I abhor.

Hear my oath, my dear IC I shall return. Please wait for me.

IC Newsletter

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SPRING/SUMMER 2020 INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE Board of Trustees Donald J. Selinger, Chairman Imad Taher ‘58, Vice Chairman William H. Turner, Treasurer Anthony Jones, Assistant Treasurer Richard S. Ward, Secretary Gerrit Keator, Assistant Secretary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Adelman Karim I. Ba’albaki ‘94 (Ex-Officio) Salim A. Bassoul Mona Bawarshi ‘67 Wael O. Bayazid ‘70 Jonathan (Jon) A. Conner Frederik O. Crawford Walid Daouk ‘76 T.M. (Mac) Deford Bayard Dodge Amal A. Ghandour Yusuf A. Kan’an ‘71 Charles Neal Maglaque Marwan A. Marshi ‘79 Safwan Masri Theodore May John G. McCarthy, Jr. Maher Mikati ’98 Anwar Al Mulla ‘63 Mirna B. Noujaim Ian Reed Matthew A. Reynolds Mu’taz Sawwaf ’69 Talal K. Shair ‘83 Issam Shammas ‘63 Rabih Shibli Ahmed Tayeb Maya Tohme (Nassar)

IC is going Green!

In an effort to curb our use of paper, the IC Newsletter will now be distributed via email for the graduates of 1990 and above.

If you wish to continue receiving the printed newsletter, please send an email to: alumni@ic.edu.lb IC alumni who graduated in those years are kindly asked to update their email contacts here: https://www.ic.edu.lb/alumni/ stay-connected

Thank you for helping us go green!

The IC Communications Team

Trustees Emeriti Makram N. Alamuddin ‘61 Raymond W. Audi Said S. Darwazah ‘76 Peter H. Gerard Thomas W. Hill Fouad Malouf ‘56 Aida Reed (Luce) Mohamad S. H. Al Soleiman ‘59 Khalid Al-Turki ‘61

Administration Joel Peinado – President Paula Mufarrij - Vice President for Academic Affairs Moufid Beydoun – Vice President for Alumni & Major Gifts Talal Jundi - Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Katherine Murphy McClintic - Vice President of Advancement (North America) Zeina Abou Khalil – Director, Preschool Tania Hayek – Director, Human Resources Wadad Hoss - Director, Middle School Kim Issa - Director, Alumni & Advancement Kathy Khayatt – Director, Elementary School Bruce Knox – Director, Secondary School Lina Mouchantaf – Director, Preschool/Lower Elementary, Ain-Aar François Richard- Director, Upper Elementary/ Middle School, Ain-Aar Mahmoud Shihab, Ph.D – Director, Educational Resources Center

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Update your contact details on www.ic.edu.lb/alumni/stay-connected Ticket information will be announced soon For further information please contact the IC Advancement Office at reunion@ic.edu.lb - Tel. +961 1 367 420

EDITORIAL TEAM:

Editor/Writer: Reem Haddad / Layout: Nazha Merabi Production coordinator: Sana Yamout

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Letter from Joel Peinado I would like to thank you, parents, for all the support that you are providing your children during this difficult period.

Virtual learning brings new meaning to the school-parent partnership, doesn’t it?

Although it comes with many positive outcomes, there is no denying that it is also trying for parents and for teachers too. So, again, thank you for all that you are doing to help us, educators, to continue working with your children.

As parents of e-learners, you are aware that e-learning, also called virtual or online learning, is made of two types of classes: synchronous where students see their teachers and have a live interaction with them online, and asynchronous which are prepared by teachers using various platforms. These can also be interactive, and they allow students to work at their own pace and according to their own schedule.

Several elements were considered when IC developed its e-learning program. First, the implementation of virtual learning had to be adapted to each age group. For example, we had to decide on the daily amount of time we could expect students to spend in front of a screen. To help us with such decisions, IC aligned itself with international standards such as the ones developed by the Illinois Board of Education.

IC also followed the recommendations given by the accrediting team who visited the school in 2018 for IC’s reaccreditation with CIS and NEASC. These recommendations indicated that IC had to move away from a mainly teacher-centered classroom environment. So, when it came to designing virtual classes, we decided to avoid as much as possible structuring them like an old-fashioned teacher-centered classroom only, where the teacher uses the computer as a camera to film himself or herself in front of a whiteboard. Virtual

learning at IC needed to be as interactive as possible. Teachers were therefore encouraged to use interactive platforms and interactive lesson plans that promote class discussions when appropriate.

An essential component of our virtual learning program is that the IC administration and teachers are supported technically by the IT Department and the Educational Resources Center. The faculty and administration regularly attend international Webinars on virtual learning and benchmark what they do against the other major international schools, including ones in the US. I am happy to say that IC is at the forefront of what is being done in this group of schools.

In addition to teaching, we also believe like many international schools, that we must tend to the well-being of our students and continue supporting those who need learning support. Consequently, counselors and learning specialists have kept on working with Learning Support students online.

Finally, e-learning is a process and evolves continuously. The feedback from parents and teachers is crucial as it helps us modify our e-learning strategies. I would like to thank you all for your feedback Joel Peinado IC President

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Contents FEATURES The Face-Off: IC Vs. COVID-19 ............................................................. 6 The Lebanese Food Bank: Give and You Will be Given............................... 8 A Beautiful Cooperation: A Former Teacher and Her Students..................12 How to Become an Entrepreneur in 9 Lessons ...........................................14 The Diplomat ..........................................................................................17 The Challenge: Repairing the Homes of Akkar ........................................20 A Duty: the Learning Support Program ..................................................22 What Makes You Happy? ........................................................................24 The Business that was Meant To Be ..........................................................26 CAMPUS COVID-19 Week .....................................................................................28 DEVELOPMENT NEWS USA..........................................................................................................30 ALUMNI NEWS Letters to the Editor..................................................................................40 Alumni Updates .......................................................................................42 In Memoriam............................................................................................43

For co sugg mments o esti r us at ons, emai rhadd l ic.edu ad@ .lb

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Letter from Paula Mufarrij Our children are all presently living challenging times. School life, which we still considered to be “normal” back in February, has collapsed and students are adhering to a form of lockdown protocol that has taken them away from their original daily routine. For the parents, housework has doubled or tripled with the children - and indeed the entire family - studying and working from home.

Anxiety levels are also on the rise given the uncertainty of the future.

IC was one of the first schools to react to the new situation and to consider that “crisis is the new normal.” It made of COVID-19 a catalyst to implement creative teaching and learning solutions in a relatively short period. Our school has always been a pioneer in education and has managed to survive many periods of turmoil in this region of the world by continually adapting and reinventing itself when faced with new, unexpected situations. The many webinars we attended online reassured us that many prestigious international schools are evolving at the same pace as ours in responding to the crisis.

To maintain our momentum and allow the students to keep learning at the same high standards in our unique studentcentered approach to teaching, we decided that we would intensify the work rhythm for all the faculty and staff involved in the teaching process. Regular virtual coordination meetings were held with directors and their assistants, coordinators, facilitators, teachers, counselors, students’ support teams, and librarians.

At the heart of the process were principles like flexibility for the sake of students, creativity for teachers, open communication with parents, empathy, and student wellbeing. We maintained daily continuous follow-ups on classwork and individualized attention for those who needed it. All the actors of the educational process continued to provide their services with the same intensity with one big difference: the school environment which has shifted from the school premises to the home.

Parents, especially the ones from the lower school, proved to be a vital element at the heart of the learning process. Their contribution was a condition of success as

they created a school environment in their children’s rooms, the dining room and even the kitchen.

This shift in paradigm allowed IC to invest itself fully in ELearning where information technology is the major medium of communication. Fortunately for the students and the teachers, and unlike many schools in Lebanon, IC has been prepared since many years to face the challenge.

During regular brainstorming sessions, the directors took major decisions regarding the curriculum geared towards students’ wellbeing including prioritizing, mapping the curriculum and ensuring a smooth transition.

Why prioritizing? Prioritizing because students cannot, given the new paradigm, cover everything and give equal importance to every lesson from the curriculum. The focus has be on basic concepts and knowledge from every subject matter Mapping the curriculum: because some parts of the curriculum were necessarily omitted, chairpersons, coordinators, and subject experts compiled a list of all pedagogic material covered and not covered during the eLearning period to ensure a safe and smooth transition from one grade level to the other.

As for the transition: action plans have been put in place to make sure that teachers from all grade levels know which parts of the curriculum were covered and which were not.

I can assure you that the first two months of the next academic year will be quite different from any previous year.

Without any doubt, this experience took us to new unexplored grounds, but one thing remains sure: our response was quick and up to standards.

Learning and teaching cannot anymore be like before: Our students have evolved, our teachers have adapted and progressed and the whole community expects a new reinvented approach for teaching and learning at IC. Paula Mufarrij Vice President for Academic Affairs

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The Face-Off: IC vs. COVID-19

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echnically, COVID-19 should have caused some kind of mayhem at school. But the truth is, it didn’t. On February 29th, the Lebanese government asked all schools and universities to close.

That was on a Friday. On Tuesday, IC was almost fully operational - online.

Teachers and students automatically took their places across their computers. It was school as usual.

Ironically, it is thanks to the October revolution, which allowed the school such a smooth transition. Only a few days into the revolution, Mahmud Shihab, the Director of the Educational Resources Center and IT, quickly implemented the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) – which had been in the works for several years now. Maybe it was some kind of premonition on his part, but Shihab had been training teachers – current and incoming – in using the latest web tools.

As the once Educational Technology Program Administrator at IC, Shihab began lobbying for the integration of IT in the classrooms over ten years ago when he recognized that incoming younger students were digital natives – children who had never heard of a world without internet. His first challenge was training hundreds of technologically “old” teachers in both Ras Beirut and Ain Aar (“old” defined as anyone born in the pre-internet era or, in other words, over the age of 20) to use the latest web tools. In 2010, Shihab introduced Moodle (Modular Object-

Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment - a high end learning management software system that produces internetbased courses and websites). It was the first step in creating a collaborative learning environment at IC and has proved to be highly effective during the school’s sudden emergency closures during the next few years. In 2017, Shihab took it one step further and introduced google classroom or G Suite. Then and now, G Suite and Microsoft Office 365, provide the single backbone sign-on system for all the school platforms with just one username and password and allows the access of thousands of websites that support Google or Microsoft sign-on systems.

Students only need their mobile phones to stay connected with their teachers.

And so it was that when both the October revolution and COVID-19 forced the closure of schools, teachers and students automatically took their places behind their screens.

But as Shihab recognized, even those measures are quickly becoming somewhat redundant.

“A new world is being shaped very fast,” he said, “we have to be ready.”

Simply put, ‘being ready’ means the ability to transition at a moment’s notice from face-to-face schooling to a 100% online mode. In a 26-page report submitted to the IC Board, Shihab outlined in painstaking details a K-12 Virtual Learning Framework that he designed (mostly based on Koehler

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS Academic Management Systems Inspired by the Danielson Framework for Teaching which IC recently adopted, Shihab went a step further and created a Virtual Learning Classroom Cycle. Both his models have been presented to the Lebanese Ministry of Education and the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) charged with modernizing and developing the Lebanese curriculum.

Devised by Shihab, the K-12 Virtual School Plan builds on Koehler and Mishra’s TPACK Framework as well as Shulman’s idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge with an emphasis on alternative assessment strategies, student support services, parents’ support, and community support.

The student is the central factor that determines the technology used, choice of essential content, teaching methodologies, and assessment practices.

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and Mishra’s TPACK Framework and Shulman’s idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge) which covers essential academic and non-academic school functions including technology platforms, devices, teaching strategies, roles and responsibilities, training needs, assessments, and communication protocols supporting hybrid or full virtual learning in the school community.

Inspired by the Danielson Framework for Teaching, which IC recently adopted, Shihab went a step further and created a Virtual Learning Classroom Cycle emphasizing the planning and delivery of teaching which includes: Planning and Preparation, Setting the Virtual Learning Environment, Online Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities (see graphs).

Both his models have been presented to the Lebanese Ministry of Education and the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) charged with modernizing and developing the Lebanese curriculum.

Virtual learning, he explained is a balancing act between Synchronous (happening live and collaboratively, in which all participants are connected at the same time) and Asynchronous (happening at any time, in which lessons, videos, and assignments are posted ahead of time for a later response or discussion).

On their part, administrators and staff would run the school online through live conferencing with Google suite tailored to both academic and non-academic personnel. (IC had already started moving all non-academic platforms to the cloud to ensure full functionality of systems in times

of disaster or emergency school closures.)

Still, it is the parents and students who need to give the final nod of approval.

Towards the end of May, a survey was conducted to assess parental feedback to the current virtual classroom environment, and Shihab was thrilled to note that the response was mostly positive.

“Nothing will ever take the place of face to face learning,” said Shihab. “But we have to adjust to a new reality. The world of education has changed quickly and drastically. IC is keeping up, yes, but we want to be one step ahead. Students don’t have to live with the fear that they may have to repeat the year if classes are suddenly suspended.”

He should know. Shihab himself lived with this fear growing up during the vicious 16-year Lebanese civil war. In a world where WiFi did not even exist yet, it was up to him to figure out how to solve homework packets prepared by teachers.

At times, there were no packets at all. He had to somehow ‘catch up’ with baffling lessons on his own.

“I remember always being worried that I would have to repeat a year or even two because I couldn’t get to class and I wouldn’t be able to teach myself at home,” he said.

It was this relentless anxiety that served as an impetus to create the Virtual Learning Plan. “IC students will never need to have such a worry,” he said. “We will face COVID-19, crises or whatever else comes our way. Learning will continue.”

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The Lebanese Food Bank: Give and You Will be Given

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spiraling financial crisis against the backdrop of a politically troubled Lebanon has hit the country’s weakest: the poor.

“Not even the poor,” said Kamal Sinno ‘57, the tycoon behind Toy Market in Lebanon, “the desperate.”

Sinno paused, gathering emotions threatening to erupt.

“There are Lebanese who are hungry,” he said quietly. “And there is nothing more painful than hunger and nothing that makes a human more desperate than hunger.”

According to the World Bank, more than 200,000 Lebanese have fallen into abject poverty since 2011 and has warned that the poverty rate is threatening to increase from a third to half of the population.

As the founder and head of the Lebanese Food Bank (LFB), the 82-year old Sinno is progressively feeling the weight of the increasing spread of poverty in the country.

“It used to be that weddings and events were plentiful,” he said, “and restaurants were full.”

Since 2011, LFB has been sending refrigerated vans at midnight to various venues to gather and package the food surplus (after being tested by LFB experts for freshness because the “the poor also have the right to good food”) and distribute them to about 80 NGOs feeding 3,000 people every day.

It wasn’t long before Sinno realized that the needs of the impoverished, most of whom are elderly, disabled, chronically ill, single mothers, and orphans extend much more than a daily cooked meal. And so LFB also began distributing dry food parcels throughout the country.

It all started when Sinno inquired about the destiny of unconsumed food in restaurants. The answer: the food was buried behind venue lots or tossed in big garbage dumpsters.

This is absurd, thought Sinno. So many Lebanese are hungry.

A successful businessman, Sinno had many contacts. And he used them.

Before long, he had established an NGO headed by well-known peers committed to fighting hunger and food waste in Lebanon. The LFB developed as part of the Food Banking Regional Network in Dubai, which in turn, is part of the Global Banking Network.

Back then, Sinno’s goal was straightforward: Eradicate hunger in Lebanon by 2020.

But with the ongoing economic crisis

and political turmoil in full swing, that goal doesn’t seem likely. Unfazed, LFB doubled its efforts. His phone at his Toy Market office – usually ringing off the hook – is silent. Business has more or less come to a stop. After an hour or so dutifully sitting at his desk, Sinno moves to an upper floor – the hub of LFB and the heart of the NGO, where he would spend the rest of the day.

It is hard to believe that once Sinno was a young rebel of sorts in his youth.

A youngster who loathed learning maths and sciences. His brain was in continuous motion developing various business projects. He happily joined in various classroom frolics creating havoc for some of the teachers, mostly the unsuspecting foreign ones. Outside class, the young heavyweight bodybuilder was easily riled up and would, at times, get into fights. But the young rebel also had a big heart – one which would ultimately lead him even to befriend his fighting rivals.

His main preoccupation, however, was money-making ventures – even to the extent of charging his parents for the privilege of seeing photographs of his brother, who was studying abroad at the time. (Sinno had convinced his brother to mail personal pictures to him only).

During the summer days, he would charge local children to ride his sister’s brand new bicycle.

At 15, he learned his first lesson in humility. The son of a tobacco company owner, Sinno enjoyed a comfortable life.

But he was aching to work in a business

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environment and convinced his parents to forgo a summer holiday and allow him to volunteer his time in a trade shop in Weygand street in the souks. Sinno was in his element pricing commodities and selling them. Until the day when the supervisor asked him to clean the shelves.

Sinno balked. What! Clean? Never. Was an IC boy too proud to clean then? retorted the supervisor. Suddenly, the wealthy owner of the shop walked in, grabbed a rag, and wordlessly began cleaning the shelves. A red-faced Sinno learned the lesson that would serve him well in the years to come: no shame in any work.

In 1956, disaster struck the family. Sinno was at his father’s tobacco factory as he watched Senegalese soldiers barge in the factory, confiscate the equipment and shut down the company. They handed Sinno’s father an official notification: all local tobacco companies – as dictated under the French mandate -were to be shut down immediately to make way for the Regie Libanaise de Tabacs et Tombacs.

And just like that, the family became destitute. Unable to pay the last year of IC’s tuition, Sinno had to drop out. (His father never got over the shock of losing his company and died a few years later).

Sinno’s business brain worked overtime. The teenager, the youngest of four children, created a product named “Chocottro” (made with chocolate, butter, and sugar) and stored them in his neighbors’ freezers. Every day, he would pack them in two suitcases and walk along the train rail from Furn el Chebbak to

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AUB. The sweet attracted many clients, but after a year and a half, Sinno was exhausted and closed his little business.

It was around then that he got an opportunity to sail to London to take a business class. The condition was, however, that he would travel the whole way on the deck of the ship for a significant discount.

Was he willing to do so? Sinno jumped at the chance, but halfway through the London business school class, he ran out of money. Undaunted, he approached the school’s administration and made them an offer: he was willing to teach Arabic at the school in exchange for a tuition-free course.

The faculty accepted, and Sinno finished his studies.

Back in Beirut, Sinno went to work for a pasta and confectionery supplier. From the start, Sinno refused to do any factory work and insisted on making sales. For free, he added. The surprised owner accepted as Sinno accompanied a salesman on his rounds. Ten days later, Sinno appeared in front of the owner. “You are running a deficit,” Sinno announced. “You need to sell your spaghetti in boxes and not per kg.”

And while you are at it, added Sinno, move the halawa (a confectionary) from metal to plastic containers as people will tend to buy the sweet for the plastic container (a relatively new commodity).

A few days later, Sinno sold 2,200 boxes of spaghetti in one day, and as for the halawa, it sold out in two weeks. The owner was dumbfounded. Stay and work for me, he said.

No, replied Sinno. I want to be my own

boss, not an employee.

Without a lira to his name, Sinno wandered the souks and found himself entering the Chamber of Commerce. After a few inquiries, he discovered that there was no business directory in existence.

That’s it! He thought. I will create a directory and sell it. Thrilled with his idea, he forgot two essential points: he had no office and no money to hire a typist.

A few days later, he bumped into an old IC friend, who quickly came to the rescue.

Would Sinno like to set up an office in the tiny janitor quarters on the roof of a building owned by the family?

Sinno quickly agreed. Now, to find a typist. Unfortunately, as soon as they heard that payday was a year away (after he sold his book), potential secretaries turned down the job. Finally, one Armenian woman agreed, seemingly intrigued by Sinno’s idea.

And so Sinno set to work, walking from company to company gathering the needed information. But the door was often slammed in Sinno’s face when he occasionally showed up disheveled after walking countless kilometers – at times in the rain.

And so he found a car dealer who sold him a Buick – to be paid off in a year.

As he predicted, company doors opened readily to the suited young man arriving in a Buick.

A year later, the Lebanese Industrial Directory “Made In Lebanon” appeared detailing the contacts of around 1500 Lebanese industries and factories. Not only

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was the book a resounding success, but it was translated into different languages.

Once his debts were paid off, Sinno was ready for a new venture.

After a series of small and prosperous endeavors, Sinno had accumulated enough capital to start his own trade in ‘something.’ But what?

One day, he spotted a Cadillac – owned by a prominent toy trader - parked in the souks. Sinno paused.

Well, he thought, I like children, and they love toys. How about a toy business?

After somehow convincing a bank manager to give him a loan to buy an office, Sinno was ready to launch his business. Sinno set up an office in Souk al Azaz – an area that in the 1960s was dominated by the Jewish community – the kings of the toy market.

Competition was fierce. As an outsider to the Jewish merchant community, Sinno was shunned. Determined to make a go of it, Sinno outwitted them. He rented a van and made his way across the country.

At every stop, people flocked to his van to buy his toys. One van eventually turned into five. Each corner of the country was covered. But by 1969, Sinno noticed a strange occurrence in the Souk al Azaz.

Despite their high rate of sales, his Jewish merchant rivals were shutting down their toy shops one after the other and leaving the country. Puzzled and yet somehow pleased, Sinno quickly stepped in to take over the role of king of the toy market.

Business travels took him all over the world in search of the perfect toys. The civil war years brought their many trials, but Sinno’s Toy Market made it and thrived.

It was during one of those years that one day two nuns entered his showroom.

They were here to buy Christmas toys for the orphans, they explained, as they set out carefully selecting the products. Sinno found himself giving discounts. Then, offering the toys at cost price. Finally, he looked at the nuns. “I can’t take your money,” he said. “Please just take the toys for the children.”

“But we collected the money,” replied the nuns.

“Then use it to buy chocolates,” he said.

“I just cannot write up an invoice.”

A month later, as Sinno picked up his mail from the post office, he found an envelope postmarked India. Sinno was surprised. He had worked on commission for an Indian toy company a few months ago. But the company had gone bankrupt before Sinno received his commission.

Sinno had written it off as an awry deal.

But as he now opened the envelope, a

check slipped out. The amount was for 3,600 UK Pounds Sterling – a whopping amount back then. An accompanying letter explained that a company bought the factory and by law, the new owners had to close off all past debts Sinno stared at the check. He felt a distinct link. You gave, so you have been given, whispered an inner voice.

It was at that moment that Sinno began to mix business with philanthropy.

The businessman can cite many incidents throughout his career of giving and receiving. His most significant philanthropic chance came in 2011 when Food Bank regional office arrived in Lebanon, and he decided to take the helm of the Lebanese Food Bank. When word reached the LFB that hunger was spreading in the country, the organization posted an appeal on Facebook. Over 360 money transfers came in - totaling $300,000.

When restaurant and hotel food began to dwindle, the LFB put out a video appeal. We need volunteers to cook meals.

One hundred and twenty women quickly set to work, producing hundreds of homecooked meals.

Plans are currently underway to create kitchens capable of feeding 500 to 1000 people per day in impoverished villages.

“Good people are all around us and eager to help,” said Sinno. “I have seen the Lebanese rise up to the occasion.

Hundreds of people are giving us food and donations. I am proud to see that the Lebanese love the Lebanese.”

Sinno paused.

“You see,” he said softly. “Give, and you will be given.”

COVID-19 UPDATE With 50% of the Lebanese population living under the poverty line and 300,000 Lebanese who lost their jobs due to the economic crisis in COVID19, the Lebanese Food Bank doubled its efforts and is working with 85 NGOs to create a database of families in distress.

Their target is to send food packages to all 26 districts in the country.

LFB is asking for donations. 35$ per box feeds a family of 4 for a month.

For donations or to volunteer go to https://lebanesefoodbank.org/

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A Beautiful Cooperation:

A Former Teacher and Her Students

COVID-19 UPDATE As COVID-19 began spreading in the country, the ICAA launched a fundraising drive by WhatsApp and raised almost 18,000,000 LL to help support the work of our front-line health workers at the Rafik University Hospital, the Lebanese Red Cross and the AUBMC. Contributions also went to support the Lebanese Food Bank.

Below: A teacher from the public school, Shaden Orfali Ghida Fakhri (IC parent), Dina Agha (IC parent), Lana Bahri (ICAA Operations Coordinator), Dania Sinno (ICAA member), Nadine Mazboudi Itani (ICAA member), Rawia Baalbaki (ICAA member), Karim Noueihed (Head of the ICAA Legal Committee)

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hanks to the efforts of a former teacher and the IC Alumni Association (ICAA), sixty public school children received a ‘goody’ package in January containing a brand new jacket and various needed items.

It all started quite by chance. Former IC biology teacher, Ghada Feghali, had contacted the Association in the hope of finding volunteer tutors to help at MMKN, an NGO created by Feghali in 2010 to help public school students pass the official Brevet Exam and thus save them from a truant lifestyle.

The ICAA jumped at the chance. With the ongoing disturbances in the country, many of the initiatives planned by the association have been put on hold, but still, the ICAA had been brainstorming to find positively impacting philanthropic opportunities during the ongoing economic crisis.

Feghali’s call was music to their ears.

That was exactly the kind of project they were looking for, and a meeting was set up.

As several ICAA members walked into the MMKN’s office, Feghali scrutinized their faces. Somewhere within these adults were the middle school students that she had taught years ago.

“Do you remember us, miss?” they asked.

Suddenly the lines of the adult face reverted to childish ones.

There’s young Karim Baalbaki, she thought. Still smiling.

And here he was married to another one of her students, Rawia.

Karim Baalbaki (ICAA President)

To her amusement, her former students looked nervous. Feghali laughed. She had been a firm teacher and - at one point, their associate director - and expected students to mind her. But she loved them, and they knew it.

“Do you know why I studied biology even though I hated it?” said one ICAA member, “It’s because I knew that you were teaching us from your heart. I used to study for you.”

The ice broken and warm greetings over, the MMKN and the ICAA got down to business. It was a perfect match, really.

MMKN had the way but not the reach. The ICAA had the reach but not the means.

What can we do to help out a public school right here in Ras Beirut, they asked?

Feghali had the answer. Since its inception in 2010, MMKN had expanded its activities to younger students in elementary and middle school, providing after school educational activities. One of her ‘protégés’ is Ramlet al Zarif public school. The economic crisis had hit its families hard. Parents would appreciate anything the ICAA can offer its children.

The ICAA set to work. The “Give a Little, Help a Lot” campaign was duly launched. Over 1600 emails were sent out to the alumni community.

“We realized that people don’t have much money, so we asked for clothes and toys,” explained Lana Bahri, ICAA’s Operations Coordinator. “Items in good condition that they have at home.”

Dozens of items began arriving at the ICAA office. Many alumni donated money – enough to buy 60 students, aged 3 to 15,

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new jackets and hats.

Volunteers showed up, and the sorting began. Finally, 60 boxes, containing clothes, toys and, of course, the new jackets and hats, were packed and ready.

Accompanied by Feghali, several ICAA members arrived at the school on January 7. Excited children received their packages gratefully. “It was touching for all,” said Feghali. “The children, MMKN and the ICAA.” The success of their first collaborative effort has prompted ICAA and MMKN to plan for the next alliance: the Get Active Day at AUB – a two-day workshop at the university for fifty public school high school students intended to introduce them to the concepts of goal setting, volunteering, and social entrepreneurship.

MMKN needs volunteers. Several ICAA members signed up as tutors.

The cooperation between the two groups promises to become a permanent one as official papers are currently being prepared.

“It’s so gratifying that you have left an imprint on your students,” said Feghali.

“When you work from your heart and teach with love, students know it. I gave, and now they are giving back.”

ICAA and MMKN will be launching similar projects in various public schools. If interested in donating or volunteering, contact ICAA at 71 686 772. (https://www.icaalebanon.com/) MMKN is funded mostly by private tutoring lessons – a large part of which goes to fund public school afterschool classes. If interested in hiring a tutor, call: 01755070 (https://www. mmkn.org/)

Ghada Feghali

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hings were going well for young entrepreneur, Yusr Sabra ’02. So well, that sometimes she wondered if it could all be true. But on that day in October 2019, she erupted into tears. She didn’t let anyone see her cry. Certainly not her team. A demoralized staff was the last thing she needed. They were all so hypedup about the projected large orders of the soon-to-come Christmas gifts.

It promised to be a great season for her online delivery service. As she watched the protests unfold, Sabra dried her tears.

Things will pick up, she consoled herself.

She will find a way to make up the sudden 70% drop in orders. But for now, let’s help out, she told herself.

She sent out an ‘SOS’ message to all her staff. Drivers with motorcycles: go ahead and take the next few days off to transport protestors back and forth. Free of charge.

Those who cannot help the revolution, please come to work. Sabra waited. Will her team show up? She had long realized, even at the tender age of 23, when she first started working, that a close-knit relationship with her team was key to a successful business. She prided herself on selecting staff based on certain character traits - mostly dedication and loyalty to the business.

As she expected, her staff showed up.

Sales are down, she said. We can’t stay afloat at this rate. We will find a way, they answered. And Sabra knew that they would indeed find a way together. Wage cuts and layoffs were not an option. All eyes looked at Sabra. She was the epitome of a young entrepreneur. Hardworking, passionate, and determined. Economic crisis or not, she will find a way. The brainstorming began. Finally, a plan of action: How about appealing for help for our business on a social platform?

And so Sabra did just that and sent out a video message asking for financial assistance to keep her business afloat.

It didn’t work. Very little money came in. But, and to her pleasant surprise, her appeal managed to attract two investors: one from Lebanon and one from Oman.

It was enough to keep the business going for another year and a half. Her thoughts began to expand outside the country. Yes, she told her staff confidently, we will find a way to survive this crisis.

Sabra smiled. Another lesson learned – certainly not the last: Never ever give up.

Lesson 1: Get to Know Your People Little did Sabra think or dream that she would be owning or operating a successful

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business one day. In fact, her aspiration when still at IC was to become a teacher.

Her high school grades, however, managed to get her into the electrical engineering department at AUB. Even though she graduated with honors, she attributed much of her success to the group work required. She didn’t know it then, but she was developing a keen sense of managerial skills.

They were skills that would begin to surface during a job stint at Solidere’s allmale maintenance department two years later. Barely a month in the job, the team leader resigned, and Sabra found herself assigned his post of project manager.

The callow 23-year old was at first aghast. She had no experience on the ground to speak of. The highly experienced male staff – ranging in age of 30 to 60 – were obviously skeptical. A kid, they fumed. Just a kid. And a female kid at that.

She knows nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The cynical attitude didn’t go unnoticed

by Sabra. She didn’t let it faze her, knowing quite well that there was one thing that she did have: perseverance. Dogmatic perseverance.

Lesson 2: Learn and Listen She resolved to earn their respect. The next days saw the young manager spending endless hours with each technician, shadowing him, and learning every job aspect possible. She was with them at all hours. A machine malfunction at midnight? The technician on duty would

turn around to find Sabra there. A blown roof antenna at dawn? Sabra would practically trail the attending engineer.

At home, she would devour books on the subject and google every topic ad nauseum, until she developed an arcane knowledge of the technicalities of each job.

And somewhere along the way, a mutual respect developed between the rookie manager and team.

Lesson 3: Smile. Create a ‘Happy ’ Atmosphere It was an open-door policy, and staff floated in. Many times, Sabra found herself wearing a psychologist’s hat as she patiently dealt with ‘difficult’ characters.

She knew, callow or not, that the secret to a successful team, was a harmonious and contented staff. In their young manager, team members found an avid listener, as each complaint was noted seriously. Sabra set about ‘fixing’ things for disgruntled workers.

“The complaints were legitimate, really,” she said. “They were things that I could easily fix, like rewriting schedules or restructuring their hours, refurbishing offices, and creating a nice rest area. So I did.”

Lesson 4: Give Credit, Say ‘Well Done’ Still, much to Sabra’s dismay, some workers remained disgruntled. Until the day that is, she shared a compliment given about the team. She watched incredulously as frowns turned into smiles.

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to the job. He was to drive Sabra’s car.

But it soon became clear that one driver couldn’t possibly cope with the sudden avalanche of requests mostly from e-commerce businesses, startups, online stores, and even individuals.

Word of mouth was quick. Various big investors – six so far - came on board. The company swelled to fifty staff members, including 35 drivers – two of whom are women.

Lesson 7: Be Passionate About What You Do Today, Wakilni, is a delivery service that provides support with a governmental transaction, offers storage room, and provides workspace (in cooperating with ANTWORK) and hooks up clients with those who can guide their startup companies. Its driving force then and now: Sabra’s unwavering passion for the company.

Before long, the team became exemplary in the company, and seven years sailed by smoothly. In 2014, Sabra completed her masters at AUB in engineering management, technology, and entrepreneurship. She was now well within her ‘comfort zone’ at her job.

“Really?” said her uncle during a visit, “don’t you think you could be doing more?”

Lesson 5: Think big, Take risks Solidere was downsizing at the time and offering financial packages as incentives to resign. Sabra opted for the package, took the money and invested it into cofounding a maintenance team company, ‘Tiqany.’ Almost immediately, the team was hired for many projects. With every project, however, came a rather odd question: Could you please take care of our errands while we are away?

And so in 2016, Sabra branched into yet another business idea: concierge service, ‘Wakilni.’ Requests came pouring in. But not for errands, as she thought, but mostly for courier delivery services.

Lesson 6: Recognize An Opportunity.

Explore it!

Why not, thought Sabra. It’s a new niche. One company driver was allocated

Lesson 8: Hire The Right People A long way away from her first rookie job, Sabra largely credits her success to her tried-and-tested formula during her Solidere days: the staff.

“We have a superhero team,” she said. “Hire the people with the right personalities, train them well, create a good work atmosphere, and you will earn their loyalty. I couldn’t have done anything without the support of my team.”

Lesson no 9: when COVID-19 hits, take precautions but keep the show going

Initially, Sabra took a decision to shut down the operation. But clients pleaded with her to continue. They themselves had shut down their stores and were desperately relying on e-commerce.

Finally, Sabra gave the choice to her staff: those who want to come, come.

Those who don’t, stay at home. It’s ok.

Most opted in. Those who stayed at home voluntarily returned two weeks later.

Safety precautions at the office went into effect: social distancing, masks, daily temperature readings, disinfectants – the whole works. On several occasions, the police came and shut them down. Sabra had to petition authorities to reopen citing that her company has become the sole lifeline of many businesses. Permission was repeatedly granted.

“Many people are relying on us,” she said. “You just can’t let them down.”

Next Lesson: Pat Yourself On The Back For a Job Well Done.

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The Diplomat If anyone had told Kabalan Frangieh ‘94 that at the age of 27, he would be responsible for saving almost 200 people from impending death, he wouldn’t have believed it.

And yet, in 2003, as the newly assigned Deputy Chief of Mission to the Ivory Coast in West Africa, urgent appeals reached him from petrified and stranded Lebanese nationals residing in Monrovia - who make up much of the merchant class of Liberia – of being trapped in their homes without food or water. Around them, the shelling was incessant. They desperately appealed for help to get out of the country as rebels besieged the capital. Humanitarian and aid agencies have already been forced to shut down operations because of the danger.

Staff at the Lebanese Embassy had been evacuated. Frangieh and one other employee were on their own.

Americans and Europeans were already evacuating their nationals. I can do this, thought Kabalan. I have to bring them here to the Ivory Coast, and quickly. The reports from Liberia described massacres.

Don’t panic, Kabalan. Think.

It was then that a sense of calm came over him as he remembered his days in India. It was his first post in the service. At only 23, he was assigned to the Lebanese Embassy in India as Deputy Chief of Mission. He was a newbie, relatively untrained, and still confused about his career choice. Just one week after his arrival, the ambassador went on holiday, leaving the young anxious Frangieh fumbling to find what his duties exactly entailed. For a few days, he allowed this incessant anxiety to engulf him. I wanted to come to India, he reminded himself. I wanted to be different. Prove that you can do it.

Only two years earlier, he was an AUB student rallying his peers to take part in the student movement he co-founded with other IC alumni at the university.

The ‘Commoners’ promised to change everything at the university from the administration to the campus itself. A handful at IC, (“I am what I am” he had written defiantly under his 1994 torch picture), he became a full-blown activist at AUB. He continuously felt that he had to make the world better for people around him. Upon graduation and after

giving the valedictorian speech, he sat for a diplomacy test. Not that he wanted to be a diplomat. But just because there was a test.

He passed with flying colors and somehow found himself in the rather unwanted foreign service. I don’t like it, he thought, but here I am.

He was given a choice of countries for his first assignment. Without hesitation, he chose India. It was beginning to dawn on him that his ego was getting rather inflated. Materialism around him was also beginning to irk him. He longed for some spiritual growth. He knew that he would find that growth in India. And so he packed a small bag and set off to the mystic orient. Now, with the ambassador on a two-month leave, Frangieh found himself running the Lebanese Embassy.

The anxiety eventually gave way to a sense of efficiency. By the time the ambassador returned, Frangieh had picked up all the diplomacy nuances and duties required.

Along the way, he had also picked up what he had long yearned for: a spiritual awakening. He had even acquired an Indian guru. Slowly but surely, his perceptions changed. The avid activist boy in him grew into a levelheaded adult.

“I started the journey in India of really becoming a man on the spiritual plane and not on the material plane as you are taught to be,” he said. “This was my real personal growth. Me, Kabalan, and not the product of my parents, my school, or university.

And this helped me a lot in my career.”

And now was the biggest moment in his career – and life – so far: saving his people in Liberia.

Kabalan Frangieh in South Africa

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It was a race against time. Frangieh discovered that a French Navy ship off the Liberian coast, Orage, had evacuated the European and Americans. That’s our only chance, he thought. They must go back and pick up the Lebanese.

He grabbed the phone and placed a call to the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There’s a French ship that just set off. Ask it to come back. The ministry contacted the then Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. The PM called French President Jacques Chirac.

The phone rang. The ship was coming back! In a fervent state now, Frangieh called his counterpart in Liberia. Get the Lebanese nationals to the ship. Now. To the sound of heavy mortar fire, the Lebanese managed to flee to the port.

Meanwhile, Frangieh called the Lebanese council members in Ivory Coast to a meeting. When he had arrived over a year ago, the Lebanese community members were at odds. To his surprise, the Lebanese in Africa had allegiances to the

various sects in Lebanon. Even here, he had thought sadly. He had then insisted on holding many reconciliatory meetings. Put your differences aside and find a common goal. It worked. The members had become much closer.

Now, he called on them for help. This is the situation he told them: We have just under 200 Lebanese stranded in Liberia.

We are going to bring them here to the Ivory Coast. We arranged 72-hour visas for them, but now we need to provide them with hotels, meals, and airline tickets to Beirut. Will you help?

The Ivory Coast Lebanese quickly got on the job. A few hours later, 175 shellshocked passengers got off the ship and were warmly welcomed by the Ivory Coast Lebanese. Hotel rooms and meals were ready. In the interim, Frangieh contacted MEA, which sent one of their airplanes to the Ivory Coast. Twenty-four hours later, the evacuees were on their way to Beirut.

As Frangieh came to the hotel lobby to bid them goodbye, one elderly man approached him and showed him a label sewn inside his pants: “Made by Hanna Khoury,” it stated. Khoury was Frangieh’s maternal grandfather, a famous tailor in Liberia in the 1950s.

“I remember your grandfather well,” explained the elderly man. “You are as good-hearted as he was.”

After a three-year appointment in Vienna, Frangieh was posted in Poland and adopted its Lebanese Ambassador, Massoud Maalouf, as his mentor. From

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him, he learned the art of diplomacy.

“He was my example as an ambassador,” recalled Frangieh. “So giving, so generous, so competent, so honest and straightforward.”

Ironically, Frangieh was then contemplating a move to leave diplomacy.

But Maalouf talked him out of it, and Frangieh found himself not only accepting his career choice but resolving to excel in it. “Thanks to him, I now know what it was to be competent.”

And so it was with this new determination that he accepted the post in São Paulo, Brazil, as Lebanon’s Consul General to São Paulo.

He was quick to note that the closeknit Lebanese community in Brazil had practically little or no contact with their home country. “Untouched and unrecognized” by Lebanese diplomats, as described by Frangieh.

According to the Brazilian and Lebanese governments, around 7 million of Brazil’s population are of Lebanese

Arab Chambers honors outgoing Lebanon consul

descent. The Lebanese, who began to immigrate to Brazil in the late 19th century, seemed to be everywhere to Frangieh; in the parliament, businesses, trades, theatre, TV, schools. “There were more Lebanese here than in Lebanon,” said Frangieh.

For Frangieh, now 31, it was the ultimate challenge: bringing them home.

Spiritually if not physically. And so began an endless series of meetings, events, lunches, dinners, “you name it,” he said.

“We reached out to everyone.”

Finally, in 2016, 300 Brazilian-Lebanese nationals were flown into Lebanon to take part in a conference and tour, organized by the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They represented all walks of Brazilian life from politicians and professors to actors and singers, including a Formula 1 driver. Among them were filmmakers and journalists. Back in Brazil, a series on Lebanon began to appear on television and social media. The number of Brazilian tourists arriving in Lebanon increased significantly. Similar tours followed in the next few years.

But perhaps the most poignant moment for Frangieh was fulfilling his then bedridden grandmother’s wish.

“Find my brother,” she had asked. “I don’t know what happened to him.” Frangieh’s maternal grandparents and their children had immigrated to Brazil in the 1950s.

Only one daughter – recently married stayed behind in Lebanon (the mother of IC’s math teacher, Jeanette Frangieh).

Over time, the family lost touch. It would be years before word reached them that Frangieh’s grandparents and sister had died. Only one brother remained. After much effort, Frangieh managed to find him. A tearful family reunion followed.

Unfortunately, Frangieh’s grandmother died before knowing that her brother had been found and was alive.

“This career is my journey in life and is still a discovery process for me,” said Frangieh. “What I do know for sure is that I want to be involved in Lebanon, and I like to make the life of Lebanese living abroad easier. Lebanon is my country, and I will fight for it until the end.”

In 2018, Frangieh became the ambassador of South Africa. He is also responsible for Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The staff has been given strict instructions that all embassy guests are to be given the five-star treatment. He is currently in the process of opening up South African/ Lebanese communities to Lebanon.

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The Challenge: Repairing the Homes of Akkar

A

t first, the villagers cried. Many were elderly or widowed. Assem ’87 and Ghaida Nawam stood awkwardly, trying hard not to stare at the abject poverty around them. No electricity, no running water. Several homes were sharing an outhouse. A flimsy curtain designated the shower area. There wasn’t even a proper kitchen to speak of.

They were in Akkar – an area with the highest poverty rate in the country, amounting to 63.3% of its population.

The region is historically neglected and registers the worst household conditions in Lebanon after Hermel. It is an area where

many houses remain unconnected to the electricity grid and where access to public water supplies remains limited.

As she took in her bearings, Ghaida’s brain was already in motion. These Lebanese deserve to live in healthy, safe, and decent houses. They deserve to live with dignity. I know my team would be willing to help. So what if there is an economic crisis? This is the time to help.

We must help.

Assem knew better than to question his wife. For once Ghaida gets hold of an idea, she doesn’t let go. And more often than not, she ends up succeeding. He saw his wife, a mother of three, build her own business from scratch and expand her business. In fact, in a few short years, she managed not only to thrive in Lebanon but also to open an office in Hong Kong.

True to her word, Ghaida immediately consulted her five-member team. Only a few months ago, she and this very team were busy creating and promoting gift ideas for their company, Siraj Art Gifts and Premiums.

But when the economic crisis hit earlier in the year and businesses began to lay off employees, Ghaida couldn’t fathom the very thought. No layoffs and no wage cuts. She had a good relationship with her team. They were family. And then it came to her. A little idea at first. A kind of inner yearning that she’s had for a long time but somehow just never did anything about it.

Business had been good in the past few years. Very good actually, until now. And so

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Ghaida laid out her idea to her staff: I have enough money from last year’s sales to pay you – full salary - until the end of the year.

In return, instead of all of us sitting around here getting depressed, let’s do something for others. Who is on board?

Her young employees, a close-knit group, not only jumped on board but were thrilled. Assem, the owner of an automotive parts company and a telecom business and a member of several NGOs, readily acquiesced, “a brilliant idea,” he added and moreover, provided his wife with a crucial detail: contacts through his company and NGOs – many of whom were IC alumni. Family members, friends from Lebanon, and abroad immediately offered support.

Together, they set to work contacting them, and called the initiative “Nusaned”, meaning we support.

The original philanthropic idea was to help struggling farmers cultivate alternative crops or create dairy farms, market, package and import their goods. A friend had suggested Akkar. Meetings with municipalities followed, and agreements were drawn up. And so the work began.

But now standing in the dilapidated homes of villagers, Nusaned team knew they couldn’t turn away. The meticulous planning began. Altogether, 300 houses in eight villages were identified as in desperate need of repairs.

To create work in the area, local Akkar contractors and laborers were commissioned. Municipalities gave their blessings as local NGOs signed up to give any needed assistance. Over 60 locals from Akkar signed up as volunteers.

A community spirit began spreading across the villages. .

One thing was missing though: money.

Each house costs 8m LL to fix up.

Despite the economic crisis in the country, Nusaned team did not doubt that the Lebanese will give. But how to get them to give quickly?

Ghaida had a brainwave: let’s use social media to launch a challenge. And so in December “The 300 challenge” was launched.

This is how it works, she explained: “I, Ghaida, will sponsor one house, and I challenge you (friend) to sponsor another and I challenge you to challenge ten of your contacts to do the same.”

The challenge was meant for friends only. But the message quickly spread across the country.

To the amazement and bewilderment of the Nawams themselves, over $500,000 poured in less than one month. Teams gathered to sponsor houses. Many of the donors were IC alumni. If not individually, then as graduating classes (ex: the class of 1985, 1987). One IC group in the US even created a grassroot movement to support Nusaned. Other donors included schools, nurseries, associations, businesses, etc.

“It was a snowball effect,” said Ghaida.

“It was amazing. I couldn’t keep up.”

Now only a few months later, the Nawams and the team are turning their attention to another impoverished area in the country: Bekaa.

“There is much need in the country,” she said. “We can all sit around and feel depressed about the economic situation, or we can do something to help people. I am not alone. Everyone is helping in one way or another. The support of the Lebanese people has been amazing.”

COVID 19 UPDATE A month after the country shut down and the NGO’s work was forced to halt, Nusaned rebounded with several projects aimed at helping villagers deal with COVID-19 and its consequences.

It bought and distributed 25,000 face shields and continued with its project of distributing 3500 food parcels and providing 2000 gas refills to villagers. Througout Ramadan, it distributed one million loaves of bread throughout the country thus reopening many closed bakeries. It is also about to launch four new projects aimed at helping farmers and villagers sustain themselves.

Meanwhile, assessments for the renovation of houses continue and construction is scheduled to resume throughout the summer.

For more information or donations, go to: www. nusaned.org or contact Ghaida Nawam at: ghaida.nawam@nusaned. org . Tel: +961 76 727273/ +961 03 223881 and/or check their video ad at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=u-0bCNYgUyA

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A Duty: the Learning Support Program

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n a bid to meet the increasing demand for a comprehensive learning support program across the school for students with learning difficulties, IC administrators are expanding existing programs and introducing new ones.

“Not everybody learns the same way,” said Paula Mufarrij, IC’s Vice President for Academic Affairs. “And students don’t always learn at the same pace. It is our duty to support our students until they reach a certain maturity level or until we bring them where they need to be.”

The truth of the matter is that schools worldwide can no longer ignore the growing number of children with learning difficulties.

Neither can IC, and so three years ago, a pilot project was implemented at the middle school to assess the need for such a program. (The elementary and preschool already had a learning support program established a few years earlier and are in the process of expanding it). The feedback was overwhelming.

“We have identified many needs in our students, and we now know what we are facing,” said Mufarrij. “More and more parents are now asking for help.”

According to a 2013 study by UNESCO, 2.43% of Lebanese youth (age 15-24) suffer from a learning difficulty.

As Mufarrij explained, we are still at the ‘embryonic stage’ at IC. She, herself, saw

the agonies of one of her own relatives struggling through school because of a mild learning difficulty. It didn’t have to be this way.

Mufarrij has been holding many meetings with directors about the need to expand the learning support program. All, she said, are crying out for more learning support instructors and more help for their students.

It is a cry that the administration is taking seriously and currently brainstorming ways to expand the program best and reach as many students as possible.

But at least, we took the first step, said Bahera Abbas, a learning support instructor at the Middle School. She and fellow instructors, Sanay Hamieh, are part of the pilot project initiated in 2017. Their job was to start a learning support center at the middle school.

It was an overwhelming task. The idea was daunting to many faculty members and embarrassing to students. Parents, weighed down by the stigma of words like ADD or ADHD, timidly and yet with great relief, headed to the counselors. Will this mean that their child can stay and indeed thrive at IC? Yes, replied Abbas. Oh, yes, she said enthusiastically. All children can succeed with some help. All. That was the beginning. It wasn’t easy.

Counselors persisted. It is ok to be

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different. It is ok to ask for help. You have the right to be here. Slowly but surely, teachers slowly adjusted to the idea of some differential learning techniques in their classrooms. In the beginning, hesitantly. But many positive results later, enthusiastically. Students who at first slithered away from the very mention of ‘Learning Support’ began to seek the counselors themselves. Moreover, some began advocating for their own needs.

As for parents – at least the ones who overcame the stigma, their relief and thankfulness was gratifying.

“These cases are not a one-time thing,” said Abbas. “More and more children are being diagnosed with learning difficulties.

Some come up from the elementary school already diagnosed, and some we spot ourselves.”

Some of the mild to moderate cases identified at IC so far include ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Dyspraxia.

By 2018, 6% of IC’s student body – both in Ras Beirut and Ain Aar – were receiving learning support.

This year, reported Abbas, saw a dramatic increase in cases – almost double.

At the moment, she and Hamieh are catering to fifty students.

It could be due to many parents overcoming society’s taboo and ‘confessing’ to their child’s difficulty or simply that

the IC community (including parents) are becoming more aware and adept in spotting the various symptoms and thus suggesting a diagnosis.

And yet, many more ‘hidden students’ remain undiagnosed.

“Cases will only increase,” said Abbas.

“These students need us. Our goal is to encourage students to advocate for themselves and become independent lifelong learners. We work with each one according to his or her individual needs.

Our center is still in its infancy. We still have a long way to go. But the students we are helping have changed so much. It is like they have been set free.”

In secondary school, Rama El Hassan ‘14, also reports an increase in cases.

Twenty-eight cases have so far been reported at the high school level. Those include those who came up from the middle school and newly diagnosed cases, but “I know there are many more coming my way,” she said. “You cannot just press pause at secondary school. We have to continue what was started.”

For El Hassan, who joined IC a year ago as a learning support counselor, the spectrum of learning difficulties at the secondary well goes beyond learning support. It includes learning strategies or memorizing techniques. “Sometimes, that is all it takes,” she said quietly.

As a student at IC, she herself had faced academic difficulties. As a result, her self-esteem plummeted, and her selfworth plunged. Her difficulties continued unexplainably in the first year of university.

She had no one to turn to for help. That is until she took a class in psychology. It was life-changing. The professor was explaining the brain and the memory and even went so far as to show the class some tricks in learning. Intrigued, El Hassan began to apply them on herself. Before long, her grades picked up significantly. Learning became easier. Her self-esteem picked up, and she finished university and obtained a degree in psychology with flying colors.

“That was all I needed all these years,” she said. “Just a few learning and memorizing techniques.”

And now, this is what she is eager to impart with other struggling students at IC and is eagerly waiting for the needed department and tools necessary.

“This is IC’s future,” said Mufarrij. “We may be late establishing such a program, but it is going to happen for certain. I can assure you that we will eventually have a learning support department for the entire school. We are getting there.”

COVID-19 UPDATE According to Abbas, Learning Support (LS) students at the middle school level, at first faced many challenges with online learning, with a high number of LS students reporting being overwhelmed. Concerned parents inundated the department with phone calls. This prompted the LS to prepare special schedules, routines, activities, individualized Zoom meetings for its students, and one-on-one sessions with learning support instructors. The interaction was through WhatsApp, email, and Zoom. LS pushed in on teachers’ online sessions and encouraged reinforcement and small activities embedded in lessons. LS instructors have seen a marked improvement and report that their students are now responding well with the screen.

At the secondary school level, El Hassan reported that LS students have taken to online sessions rather quickly and, in fact, seem to be enjoying working at their own pace.

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Hiking the Machu Pichhu Mountain

What Makes You Happy?

I

t was an odd question from somebody you had just met – and over the telephone nevertheless (compliments of COVID-19). “Do you know what makes you happy?”

A good question which needs some pondering. Not for Hadi Hajjar’90. He knows what makes him happy. He had known it since adolescence: traveling the world, meeting different people, and learning about different cultures, religions, and tasting different food. Or better put, experiencing the world.

Only six years into his adventure, Hajjar has been to 82 countries with a minimum of five stops in each nation and a maximum of 55 stops in countries like the US. His adventures took him to North and South America, North and South East Asia, Western Europe, North Africa, India, and the Middle East. He even made it to Antarctica in the South Pole and to the exotic Saint Martin Island embedded between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. But these visits are not average in-and-out tourist jaunts but actual residencies among the countries’ natives.

He wanted to see it all, the good and the bad. Among his destinations were Ushuaia in Argentina (the southernmost tip of South America, nicknamed the ‘End of the World’), the Middle of the World City in Quito Ecuador, Cusco the capital of the Inca Empire, Machu Picchu in Peru, the lost city in Colombia, the Vietnamese

war resistance tunnels and the Americans jails in Saigon, the Phnom Pen world hidden massacre site, the Punta Tombo National Reserve – home for a vast colony of Magellanic penguins, the Everglades (the biggest reserve for alligators), Key West in Florida, the Bahamas Island, the Huston Rockets Museum, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, the Dead Sea in Jordan (the lowest point on earth), five Universal Studios across the globe, famous opera houses and wineries.

Seeing it all included participating in the color festival in the India Golden Triangle “The Happy Holly,” participating in most of the 2020 Rio de Janeiro Carnival blocos

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( groups of individuals who plan street parties during the Carnival), swimming and playing with Sea Lions in Puerto Madryn in Argentina, climbing to the top of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador - the point on earth closest to the moon (1.5 miles closer than Everest), sailing in the Beagle Canal, hiking on the iconic Mount Fuji in Tokyo, and mingling in the high crime poverty-stricken favela neighborhoods in Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

He even managed to pick up a new snow sport, which is apparently the rage in Finland and South Korea: snow skating.

Not only did he pick it up, but he managed to participate in the world snow skate competition in Pyeongchang Olympic Arena in South Korea against professional men half his age. So impressed were organizers that he has been invited to join other snow skating competitions in Germany, China, and Canada as a part of the different world completion.

Along the way, as he picked up the different nuances of various cultures, he became a Lebanese social writer - basically pointing out the flaws in Lebanese society, earning him both raving and caustic comments.

Usually, after a few weeks, months, or even a year, he moves on to the next destination. The main frustration so far has been obtaining and organizing visas that fit into his tour sequence. That is until COVID-19 hit. He was in South America at the time and about to embark on a new journey when the disease reared its ugly head. Hajjar managed to make it back to Beirut a day before the airport closed.

Unfortunately, his luggage did not.

It was a deviation from the ‘Plan.’ A setback. But setbacks can be readjusted and readapted. The Plan must continue. The

Antartica

world beckons. “I will finish the world and move to the moon,” he thought, repeating to himself his favorite motto. Nothing will stop him from continuing his lifetime project.

And so he is currently recapitalizing his resources in a plummeting Lebanese economy to finance future trips in a world which has suddenly changed.

There is little choice but to wait out COVID-19. Patience has become his best virtue. And yet, there was a time when Hajjar was a well known rumbustious student at IC. Always in trouble in some way or another. He couldn’t seem to control his actions. And then one day, he figured it out. He yearned for freedom. He ached to be on his own, take responsibility for his own choices, make his own decisions and his own mistakes.

He was 14 at the time. But that discovery would pave his future. And so, while the battles raged around him during the Lebanese civil war, he was meticulously drawing up his ‘Plan.’ A plan which would take him to all corners of the world. A plan which spelled out freedom.

Patience was key. He needed to complete his education and get a successful business going first.

The ‘Plan’ was detailed. Excruciatingly detailed. No wife. No kids. Be unconventional. Work hard, save hard, and retire at 38. Except that he retired at 43.

Close enough. The Plan allows for deviations.

But sometimes, life gets in the way.

The COVID-19 lockdown is an antithesis to his freedom. But the first plane that leaves the airport – he will be on it. He had found his happiness and was not about to let it go.

“Do you know what makes you happy?” he asked again. “Find it and then work for it. But I will tell you this: Whoever did not experience freedom is not alive.”

Ubud

Rio Carnival

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Hisham Ramadan ’87 and Ahmad Ramadan ’85

The Business That was Meant To Be

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t was meant to be. One day, Hisham Ramadan ’87 was planning to mass produce his patented invention that he had been working on for the past few years, and the next day, he was manufacturing protective face masks to a market that couldn’t seem to get enough.

“We literally can’t keep up,” he said, bewildered.

‘We,’ is he and his cousin, Ahmad Ramadan ’85, a fashion expert and consultant. The two saw each other briefly at a family gathering six years ago.

Hisham then asked Ahmad to design an appealing pattern to his invention, the ‘Wearable Strap for Holding Devices and Accessories.’ Ahmad agreed and thus was born their small business, “Dibrace.”

As the invention was about to be released in the market, COVID-19 hit.

The cousins were on immediate alert.

They made a perfect team. Hisham, an engineer by trade, was an inventor on the side. Since his IC days, he loved creating models of all kinds. In fact, he became a certified 3-D modeler a few years ago and today holds three patents of his inventions in the US, Europe, and Lebanon. His latest patent was the wearable strap, which was about to hit the market.

Ahmad, on the other hand, owned and operated his own clothes factory and was successfully producing the work of Lebanese fashion designers. But with the economic crisis which had started earlier this year, he found himself significantly downsizing his company.

What if, thought the cousins, we can create fashionably designed masks? Ones that comply with the protective standards of the US-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention and follow the guidelines of the Lebanese Standards Institution (Libnor)?

They knew it was now or never. Hisham immediately set about creating the simulation. The result was a three-layered mask: One for protection, one for that soft cotton feel against the skin, and one to filter out germs.

Now, it was up to Ahmad to make the masks appealing to the highly fashionconscious Lebanese market.

Ahmad regathered his workforce and called up various Lebanese designers. The work began.

Well, joked Hisham, as he watched his simulation take shape, we could always give them away to our families if they don’t sell.

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With halted breath, they posted on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp ads of their uniquely designed protective masks, sanitized and delivered to the doorsteps.

Would it work?

At the start, the orders were few, but as COVID-19 spread, the orders trickled in, and then suddenly poured in.

Caught in a whirlwind of demand, the cousins could barely keep us. More workers were hired. Ahmad’s factory was back in business.

In less than two months, the ecofriendly masks, which now came in various models and various sizes (toddler, child, women, and men), were being sold in several supermarkets. A large number of orders were also coming in for customized masks – dotted with Swarovski crystals, normal strass, or machine embroidering logo, name, or novel patterns.

Much to their surprise, the Ramadan cousins also found themselves exporting to the US, Canada, KSA, UAE, and Kuwait.

“It all happened so fast,” said Hisham. “I am still trying to get used to it. I guess it was just meant to be.”

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COVID-19 WEEK To cheer up his students, Secondary School Director, Bruce Knox, created a music video and posted it on YouTube. It quickly received more than 22,000 hits.

Go to: https://youtu. be/5coyrNZFo30

[Verse] Good morning everybody, it’s a COVID-19 Week I hope you’ve checked your schedule so to your teachers you can speak And I hope you’re being sensible and you maximise your time Cause for the foreseeable future, your schooling is online And its time to charge your laptop, and create a study space And tell your brother and your sister to get out of your face Cause you got all your study and your online sessions too You’d better check your email to know it ifs a Google Meet or Zoom [Chorus] Cause its a COVID-19 Week And while the future may be bleak There’s so much learning you can seek In this COVID, in this COVID-19 Week So listen very carefully to your teachers when online And don’t dare mute their microphone, because it’s just a waste of time ‘Cause time just keeps on ticking, with still so much to do

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We need everyone to do their best to help everyone get through [Chorus] Cause its a COVID-19 Week And while the future may be bleak There’s so much learning you can seek In this COVID, in this COVID-19 Week Think a moment of your parents, everything thing they’re going through Their lives have changed considerably with so much now to do With everyone stuck in the house, it’s tough to keep their cool They’re longing for the day that they can send you back to school.

[Chorus] Cause its a COVID-19 Week And while the future may be bleak There’s so much learning you can seek In this COVID, in this COVID-19 Week In this COVID, in this COVID-19 Week

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The Teaching Fellows Program was started in 1963 by then IC President, Tom Schuller. Schuller toured Princeton, Yale & Harvard to recruit new graduates to come to IC to teach for one year. For many graduates, this was the first trip abroad and for all, their first trip to Lebanon. The Teaching Fellows served also as dorm counselors in Sage and Thomson and several as athletic coaches.

The last TF Reunion was held in May 2004 in NYC. On Jan 31st, 2020 with Kate Murphy Mcclintic having worked for two years to find a date where a good % were able to attend, the 2020 Reunion was held. Rick Betts and Nick Kourides , both NYC based attorneys and former Teaching Fellows helped mobilize the TF who came to NYC from around the country. Trustee

Fred Crawford worked tirelessly on the reasons to support IC. The purpose of the TF Reunion was to engage with IC and to position the TF Endowed Scholarship. The assembled TF raised $60 k on the night and now are within $68k of the target $250k. Three former Teaching Fellows currently serve on IC ‘s Board of Trustees: Fred Crawford, Mac Deford & Anthony Jones.

IC Teaching Fellows Reunion Dinner in Support of an Endowed Scholarship Friday January 31, 2020 New York, New York

Dr Nora Chokr ‘08 & Rayan Beydoun ‘08, Trustee Anthony Jones

Peter W. Tague, Rick Betts, John Jones

Dr Sandy Rea, Jim Garrett, Moufid Beydoun ‘64, Fred Crawford

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Jim Garrett, Edie Garrett, Peter Schuller, Sharon Gracen , Dick Hobson, Arthur Defaa, Trustee Matt Reynolds

John Bowers, Linda Bowers, Fred Crawford, Nick Kourides, Lucyd Kourides, Charles McDowell, Mary-Lou McDowell , Sofia Crawford

Joel Peinado, Ian Reed, Eric Hayden, Rhea Smith-Tague

Stephanie Judson, Lach Reed, Deb Chase, John Funk, Taffy Field, Trustee Mac Deford, Dr Sandy Rea, Moufid Beydoun ‘64

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Consul General of Lebanon in New York, Abir Taha Audi

Background: Mary-Ann Awada ’08, Rayan Beydoun ’08, Karma Salem ’06, Sirine Ghalayini ’06, , Nadine Habbal ’06, Nour Kibbi ’06, Ghassan Tayyara ’06 Foreground: Nora Chokr Beydoun ’08, Mohammad Kibbi ’08

Dinner for IC Alumni and Friends in Support of Scholarships Monday February 3, 2020 New York, New York

Hani Beyhum ‘76, Nadim Habra ‘65, Hayat Barakat, Moufid Beydoun ’64, Mona Husami, Rola Baddoura, Monir Barakat ’64, Rashid Baddoura ‘66, Zeina Mattar, Khodor Mattar ‘90

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Dinner for IC Alumni and Friends in Support of Scholarships Wednesday February 5, 2020 Washington DC

Walid Chalhoub ‘96

Nadim Haddad, Claude and Pascale Karam, Toufic and Nada Nassar Baaklini, Farid and Rima Abboud

Elizabeth Murphy Evans, Lama Sayegh Najjar ‘87, Misbah Ahdab ’79 , Hind Soufi Ahdab ‘87, Joel Peinado, Jeremiah Patrick , Rana Barakat ‘88

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Rami and Peggy Rahbani Makhoul, Anthony Mouawad, Karim Kaissi, Rami Tabbara ’97, Dalia El Baba Tabbara ’03, Rola Fakhouri ‘03

Asma Khalil ‘84, George Bitar ’86, Moufid Beydoun ’64, Walid Chalhoub ’96 (LOW) / Firas Sleiman ’91, Raed Hamdan ‘86

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Ziyad Mneimneh ‘76, Moufid Beydoun ’64, Chirine Mneimneh

Mac Deford, Zahra Deford, Moufid Beydoun ‘64

Dinner for IC Alumni and Friends in Support of Scholarships Friday February 7, 2020 Miami, Florida

Oscar Seikaly ‘75, Joel Peinado, Marwan Iskandarani ‘70, Abraham Awad ‘80

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Alex Zakharia ‘54, Mac Deford

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Standing: Amer El Haje ‘73, Roxanne el Haje, Mila Diab, Moufid Beydoun ’64, Lachlan Reed Sitting: Amer Diab’90, Waddah Chehadeh ‘59

IC Dinner in Support of Scholarships Feb 20th, 2020 Bay Area, CA

Mrs. Petrakian, Moufid Beydoun’64, Jibran Jahshan ‘82, Jad Naous ‘01, Shaun Jahshan, Marwan Manneh ‘97, Marwan Dakroub ‘05, Raja Petrakian ‘82

Kate McClintic, Zahra Salahieh, Doris Bowers, John Bowers

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Betsy Saliba, Karman Antoun, Wael Barakat ‘03, Maha Beydoun, Maya Bleik ‘87, Yahyia Beydoun ‘00, Moufid Beydoun ’64, Rabih Saliba ‘03, Ahmad Bleik ‘01

Basim Sayegh ‘67, Shelly Floyd, Sonia Nader ‘75, Albert Loshkanjian ‘69, Aghek Yannikomishian ‘64, Mona Ghandour ‘85

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Dinner for IC Alumni and Friends in Support of Scholarships Tuesday February 11, 2020 Atlanta, Georgia

Jocelyne Jreissati Zakka, Samia Farah Hazim ’77, Daniel Hazim ’75, Bassem Tannir ’94, Haitham Haddad ’76

Trustee Mathew Reynolds

Layla Ghalayini, Abdul Rahman Ghalayini ’84, Atif Dabdoub ‘67

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Letters to the editor Although I infrequently communicate with my IC Aluma, I cannot find words to express my feelings and memories about this great institution. The lessons I learned during those formative years have had a great impact during my life and played an important role in shaping my professional life. The education I received in IC has had a great impact in success of my professional life.

I cherish reading the IC newsletter which in a way, reminds me of those happy years. I wait impatiently to receive each issue which I read from first to last page.

I am presently a Professor of Medicine/Physiology at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, having joined this institution in 1967.

I graduated from IC (French section) with Baccalaureate II in 1952 and MD from School of Medicine, AUB, in 1959.

I am pleased to share with my colleagues the latest award I received in October 2019 for Career Excellence from the Lebanese Society of Nephrology/Hypertension.

I would like to thank my IC Alma Mater for giving me the opportunity to share with my colleagues what IC has always meant to me.

Thank you again.

Best wishes.

Respectfully Adel Elias Berbari, M.D. ‘52 I graduated from International College in 2004, but I was part of an extinct breed in the history of the school. I was part of the second to last high school class. What is the high school class it was made of foreign students. Well not exactly foreign students but Lebanese students of Lebanese parents who were born aboard and raised there for the first 10 years of their lives. Our parents shared two things in common, first they all emigrated and left Lebanon in search of a better future for themselves, and second for some reason or another decided to move back with their families to settle in Lebanon.

My classmates grew up in places like Canada, Australia, the USA, and part of Africa, Europe and the Arabian Gulf.

Why did our parents move back? Some for work, some to be close to family but ultimately because they had hope in Lebanon and didn’t want their kids raised away from home.

What was life like as a high school student? Different from those who were in the Lebanese Baccalaureate or French Baccalaureate, that’s for sure. We didn’t have to study for the Brevet and the Bacc. We didn’t study Tarikh wa Joghrafiyah, (History and Geography), well at least not like our peers. Our history lessons didn’t focus on Fakherredine and Jamal Pasha. Instead, we learned about Europe and Asia and the world wars, the industrial revolution and civil rights. We didn’t have to take Arabic grammar, instead we took special Arabic and special French. Most of us spent the first decade of our lives learning Arabic at home. Sure we could speak it but we had no knowledge about grammar and

spelling in Arabic. A shame we didn’t learn the language as much as we should with it being such a beautiful language that’s becoming extinct itself.

Our class was cool, we all spoke English fluently and were spoiled with foreign culture that we unknowingly flaunted.

We weren’t trying to show off, but it was just the culture we knew. Our interests were a mix of foreign and Lebanese.

We read a lot of American literature, watched, and listened to a lot of American culture. We read Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison, and James Joyce. Instead of Al Moutanabe we read Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Frost. We were a bunch of misfits. Our colleagues would tease us for our weak Arabic but also because we were getting away with an easier curriculum. We didn’t have government tests to study for and take. We were also lucky because middle school through graduation, we were all in the same class, we built strong friendships and grew into a tight knit group. We joined the Terry Fox Run together; we set up our own roller hockey team that would practice after school. Of course, some of us left halfway through the school years, some moved back to the US or the Gulf, whether for parents work or an older sibling’s college career. Our last year the class was split up; half of us went into the International Baccalaureate program and the rest graduated as high school students and incoming freshman in college.

Most of us went to local schools in Lebanon after graduation. I went to AUB and I was a freshman hoping to become an engineer. The year was 2004 and we were excited what the future held. Lebanon was booming, tourism was breaking records year after year and the downtown area of Beirut was coming back to life. Maarad street was packed every evening with folks enjoying dinner al fresco. The whole world was talking about us, CNN, the New York Times, everywhere you looked people were raving about Lebanon that was coming out of the ashes. Most of us wanted to stay in Lebanon and build our careers there.

Very few of us thought of applying abroad, a handful did for specialty degrees or for the desire to attend some great foreign schools. Then in February 2005 everything changed, for the first time our class of returned emigrants experienced what it was like to be Lebanon, fear, uncertainty and confusion about what the future held. Would Lebanon be ok, would life carry on as usual? We joined the Cedar Revolution and attended protests, all these felt like a rite of passage as a Lebanese.

My family and friends were all nervous about the future; I took my family’s advice and transferred to a college in the US. Reluctantly I packed my bags and left for college life in the US. It was interesting and eye opening, but part of me missed my friends and home. They were all still together and life was good they carried on. So after two semesters abroad I packed my bags and headed home in May of 2006, I reinstated my AUB registration for the Fall. Then summer of 2006 happened and I fled again, thru Syria, then to Riyadh, then Dubai and finally back to Texas to resume classes. This time a lot of class mates were looking to get out

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Letters to the editor of the country as well.

I left Lebanon 14 years ago. I graduated from Texas and went on for a Master’s at Cal. Every step of the way I have considered a return to Lebanon or to the region to be closer. Our teachers in IC taught us about Al Loubnane Al Moughtareb and I have driven by the statue at the port numerous times. I look up at the statue with the tarboush that embodies the diaspora. I never imagined I would join their ranks. I am glad and thankful for my experiences and opportunities I have had in Lebanon. But I tell myself I was part of a generation that returned after the war. Our parents brought us back because they had hope, but we ended up leaving again, with a part of our heart, our families always back at home holding the fort. With everything going on in Lebanon right now I was reflecting on my generation and our time at IC. My story is not unique, there are many who share this experience, but here is to hoping for a better future for our country.

Roger Valla who headed the Section Francaise (when Leslie Leavitt was IC’s President, and later Archie Crawford). He also taught us in a masterly manner ‘Economic Geography’ in the Classe de Seconde. Classes were held in my days until the Deuxième Partie in Bliss Hall. His son Didier was a Cub in my Pack when I was Akela. Valla had summoned me to his office, and I had wandered ‘what have I done wrong’?

I was quite relieved when he had invited me to sit down, and told me his son was asthmatic, and would I please ascertain that on a forthcoming camping trip, he would not be sleeping next to a boy whose sleeping bag was filled with ‘down’. I had entered his office through a small door ‘so-tospeak’, and he had accompanied me respectfully through the main door . . . I had then felt as if seven-feet-tall!

Seylaz and Genestlé, who taught us French Literature over the classes of 3e until MathElem, and had made us love French – literature and poetry – which I still enjoy in my elderly years, still capable to recite well over one hundred verses from memory. Genestlé had bequest a lot of land in Mechref to IC in his will; he was never married.

Dumont, who taught us Mathematics over several years including the seven books during the year of MathElem; a stern but lovable wizard with numbers, equations and geometry, with a great sense of humor, always with a lit cigarette stuck to his lower lip! Years later and until retirement, he had become IC’s Deputy President, as I recall.

René Habachy who taught ‘Existentialism’ at AUB, and one class of The History of Civilizations in the Seconde, and who drifted into ‘off course’ philosophical thoughts which delighted us.

I came to IC class three in 1967 and returned to my home country after completing class four in 1969. I left IC after just two school years, but IC has been with me ever since.

Today, when I look back and compare, I know why. At IC, I was not taught, I learned. The difference may appear subtle, but when you learn, you understand, when you are taught, you just memorize. Maybe it was the attitude of my teachers, or maybe it was the organization of the school, or perhaps the proximity of the American University of Beirut.

Whatever the explanation, I matured to be responsible for my knowledge, my mind became programmed for learning, for studying and searching, for understanding and evaluating, for truth.

I graduated from medical school and devoted my career to medical diagnostics and preventive medicine. I worked on the theory of diagnosis and contributed to the rise of a new specialty – the diagnostician. Over the years, medicine has changed greatly, and today preventive medicine is among the four main branches of health care. Prevention saves lives if people are aware of the dangers confronting them.

The precondition is: learn, understand, and know the truth about your health. I fostered the idea of “Health Squares” – sites in cities for jogging, exercising, and improving health awareness. Curiosity led me to the French title of master in industrial management. I spent some twenty years chairing supervisory boards of large companies. Corporate management and supervision involve diagnostics, so my background was an advantage. Working for my city, I participated in several large projects, for example, the new Philharmonic Hall in Stettin, which won the prestigious European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2015. Socrates is quoted in Latin as saying, “Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.” May IC continue its mission and forevermore bring up its students as children of this great philosopher. May every one of them, like me, proudly, honestly, with gratitude and satisfaction repeat the title of Reem Haddad’s book: I am IC.

Elie Sehnaoui ‘56

Tomasz Dutkiewicz ‘71

Mohamad Tassabehji ‘04 Memories of Yesteryears:

Updates

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‘60

picture. Please contact him at: john@mnjhi.com

Nohad Baroudi sent in the following photo of for class of 4ème, French Section (1954)

’64 Basim Dubaybo recently established an Endowment for IC at the Center for Arab American Philanthropy in Michigan. http://www.centeraap. org/funds/view-ourfunds/internationalcollege-class-of-1974endowed-scholarshipfund/

‘65 Marwan Stambuli sends the following message. “Our IC 1965.com website is growing beautifully with events and updates. Please visit it and let us have your news if you have not joined the group yet.” www.marwanstambuli.com

‘69 Nicolas Khairallah sends the following message: “Best regards to our great professors at IC, French section, late fifties, the sixties, and part of the seventies; Gibran Massoud and Robert Courson.”

‘71 John Hachmeh asks for help to identify the students in this

‘80

Ola Touma is married to Toufic Majdalani with three children Nasri (29), Sarya (28), and Tanya (23).

She live between Montreal and Beirut. “My best years were my IC years … what I am today I owe it all to my IC years.

I was involved in many extra curricular activities (social service club, basketball). During my years at IC, the campus became my second home. After graduating I continued to be an advisor for the Social Service Club.”

She is currently an Independent Educational Consultant and owns her own company CAP Student Services. www.tossthecap.com

‘90 Rim Jaber is an Assistant Professor at the Telfer School of Management, Univers ity of Ottawa, Canada.

‘93 Hani Oubari currently lives in Beirut where he works at the Council of Development & Reconstruction as a Project Coordinator on roads projects. He also manages his own engineering & renovations firm “Vertispace”. Previously, and after gaining the PMP credential, he worked with Solidere as a Project Manager on infrastructure projects. He is married to Rawan Takkoush and has two daughters, Celine & Yasmina. He may be contacted on 03-549631 or by email at h_oubari@yahoo.com

Updates ‘99 Cynthia Ghorayeb, and Sarah Taher are celebrating the 10 year anniversary of their company etcetera. Since 2010, etcetera - Educational Teaching Consultancy - has promised and delivered highlighting innovative and personalized tutoring services to learners from kindergarten though grade 12 and adults of all ages. Its staggering success with children of all needs has paved its way as a consultancy to work alongside schools and parents, ensuring the learning potential of all students and maximizing their academic and emotional growth.

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partnerships with businesses such as Adobe and Instagram.

She was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2020 list in the Media category: https://www.forbes.com/30-under-30/2020/ media/#446c64ff3aa3

‘00 Mirna Abrahamian is currently the Country Manager Levant for Reckitt Benckiser. Mother of two boys Christopher and Karl and “my eldest is a student at IC Ain Aar,” she writes. “I feel proud watching my son create his own experience at IC where the culture of empowerment & entrepreneurship overpower the traditional ways of learning shaping one’s personality. IC was instrumental in shaping my journey where the experiences & knowledge gained within such a diverse environment is priceless.

Thanks to IC students are able to succeed in tough times & overcome life’s challenges with strength & positivity!”

‘05 Balsam Khodr is in Dubai following nine years in the Hospitality Industry in Lebanon with one of the leading organizations, the Phoenicia InterContinental, Balsam’s passion for the “business of selling dreams” has led her to Dubai where she has been leading the training function at the InterContinental Dubai Marina since September 2018.

‘09 Nour Chamoun is the cofounder of Scopio, an image marketplace of more than 200,000 photos from creators in 150 countries. The four-yearold startup’s mission is to make stock photography more diverse, authentic and affordable. Nour, Chief of Product, oversees engineers and photo editors and manages

‘17

The sit in for Gaza to protest the 2009 war.

Georges Kanaan just finished a two-and-a half-month internship at NASA aerospace center, at the Goddard Space Flight Center campus Maryland, US. This marks the first time a Lebanese is selected to be an internship at NASA. He is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of Toronto in Canada.

We regret to inform you that Dr Diala Najjar ‘92 passed away in February 2020. IC staff and faculty send their deepest condolences to the Najjar family.

We regret to inform you that Tony Asfour‘51 passed away in February 2020. IC staff and faculty send their deepest condolences to the Asfour family.

We regret to inform you that Alex Bezjian ‘59 passed away in January 2020. IC staff and faculty send their deepest condolences to the Bezjian family.

We regret to inform you that Sami Kaid Bey ‘48 passed away in January 2020. IC staff and faculty send their deepest condolences to the Kaid Bey family.

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“I AM IC� is a touching story of a school looking for a place it could finally call home.

Sold at Antoine Bookstores, IC Advancement Office and online at: www.antoineonline.com All proceeds go towards the IC Scholarship Fund International College

P.O. Box 113-5373, Beirut, Lebanon.

Tel. 961 1 367420/33, Fax: 961 1 367433. Email: alumni@ic.edu.lb 215 Park Avenue South, Suite 1710, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A. Tel. : 212 529 3005, Fax: 212 529 8525. Email: icny@intlcollegeny.com www.ic.edu.lb

@IC_Lebanon

@InternationalCollegeLB

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