The Ali Ghandour Center for Leadership, Diversity and Civic Engagement (AGC)

AGC Students’ Engagements During the First Term

By the end of the first trimester, the AGC level 1 students got engaged with ShababLab in an online asynchronous learning experience “Web for Change” where they are creating a web-based solution to a social challenge related to the topic of “Civic Engagement in Development”. Through the module, the students are learning concepts of applying positive leadership, design thinking, entrepreneurship & business planning, designing a website, and pitching. The aim of the platform is to empower students to learn how to innovate and create their own technology solutions that will change their communities.

To integrate experiential learning to the concepts taught, the students were involved in hands-on experience of working directly with the community through volunteering in different opportunities. During their Christmas break, students volunteered in Souk El Balad, a Lebanese community market initiative to empower and aid small scale Lebanese producers, farmers, and artists. Our students took part in the Logistics & In Souk Events, Sales, Marketing, Photography & Social Media, and Quality Control alongside with expertise from the Souk. Moreover, a group from the Level 1 and 2 AGC students are volunteering at establishing and equipping a Library at the Pine Community School (PCS) in Shouf. The Pine Community School, is a subsidized school founded in 1953 that is operating with minimal basic requirements and a very constrained budget. As a start, the students visited the school to conduct a needs assessment. They engaged with the students, did ice breaker activities, got a feel of the school environment, and identified needs. Meanwhile they are collecting books and sorting, with the help of the IC librarian Ms. Nora Kabraelian, books that will soon fill the shelves at the Pine Community School.

Meanwhile, the AGC level 2 students, who are in the process of planning and designing their Community Service projects (CSPs), started following the “Empathy to Impact” approach. The approach helps students, through an interdisciplinary learning experience, to design transformative projects with a deep purpose, applied skills, and community