A new program from the Alumni Relations Office in Lebanon is giving alumni the chance to come back home and provide a different kind of education to LAU’s students. The office is seeking prominent members of the alumni community to meet the student body and share their experience with current students on campus. Alumni who have been helped by their education at LAU will make their case in several courses, showing how the time spent at the university has made an impact throughout their lives.

Alumni who have carved successful careers will also have the opportunity to share their real-world experience, in the shape of solid career advice. Meeting alumni will also give students an early chance to make connections that can shape their fledgling careers while learning more about the world outside campus. Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Ghada Majed explained, “It is one of the projects that will engage both alumni and students, so that we can introduce the idea of alumni to all students at an early stage and show them that the university stays with them after they graduate, helps them achieve their goals and follows up on their successes later on in life.” One of the first to participate was Hayat Karanouh, who holds a degree in fine arts and worked to become a notable photographer. Hayat spoke to students in Bassam Lahoud’s photography class, sharing lessons from her experience as a student and a photographer.

The project is coming to fruition thanks to the collaboration between the Alumni Relations Office and academic chairpersons throughout the university community. The new initiative is also another example of the Alumni Relations Office’s efforts to provide new services for alumni and the university community, after holding several successful seminars on emotional intelligence in the workplace and on Asian medicinal techniques.

While the alumni team has always worked hard to keep the alumni chapters of the university thriving, this represents a new way for the university to keep connected to its alumni family while caring for the newest members of the growing LAU community.