Washington, DC, March 12, 2012—American educational organization AMIDEAST announced today that it has formed a partnership with the GE Foundation to fund the launch of a pilot certificate program for English teachers in six countries:  Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia. AMIDEAST recently introduced the Professional Certificate in English Language Teaching (PCELT) program as a vehicle for improving the quality of English language teaching in schools in the Middle East and North Africa.  Generous funding from the GE Foundation will accelerate the implementation of this important initiative and help make PCELT available soon to the region’s teachers, particularly in public school systems that stand to benefit most from increasing their pool of competent English language teachers. 

College fairs are a regular feature on AMIDEAST/Egypt’s fall calendar, but it was especially important to hold them this year in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and the January 25th Revolution. The fairs underscore the importance of continuing to provide the many educational and training services that Egyptians seek as they consider the next steps in their academic careers.

Women’s empowerment and inclusion are critical to the economic and political transitions currently taking place in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. Specialized training programs such as the 10,000 Women program at the American University in Cairo (AUC) are important components of what must be a broader effort to enhance the ability of women in the region to achieve their potential and contribute fully to the social and economic development of their societies.

AMIDEAST is pleased to announce the appointment of James Ketterer as country director for Egypt. He assumes responsibility for AMIDEAST’s largest field operation, which includes field offices in Cairo and Alexandria, as well as activities that extend beyond Egypt’s two primary cities.

As part of the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, which met in Washington, DC, in mid April, Safwan Masri, Director of Columbia University’s Middle East Center in Amman, and Katherine Wilkens, AMIDEAST Vice President for Communications, co-chaired a Working Group on Higher Education in the Arab World. The group brought together a distinguished group of educators, specialists, and public sector officials from the United States and the Middle East to review the current state of higher education in the region and consider the key challenges facing reform today. Discussions over the three-day conference, which was held April 12–14, 2011, focused on three key challenges: Quality, Governance, and Educational Outcomes for Development.

A unique Fulbright initiative, developed in partnership with Islam’s oldest university, is building bridges of interfaith understanding, while giving concrete expression to President Obama’s call in Cairo in 2009 for broader engagement between the United States and the Muslim world.

Tourism workers acquire language and cross-cultural communication skills that will help them ultimately provide better customer satisfaction.

 Just as spring semester was starting for the 53 American undergraduates enrolled in AMIDEAST programs in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco, events intervened to give them a lesson in history that they’ll never forget. 

Tourism workers acquire language and cross-cultural communication skills that will help them ultimately provide better customer satisfaction.

At historic Helnan Palestine Hotel, where “service with a smile” is the order of the day, staff members are studying English.

Teacher and students in the Taghyeer program.

In Arabic, taghyeer means “change” and that is the goal of a new youth program in Al Mokattam, one of Cairo’s poorest neighborhoods. 

Washington, DC, November 4, 2010 —The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has awarded AMIDEAST a $225,000 grant that will enable it to support Egypt’s largest and most prestigious public university, Cairo University, as it seeks to strengthen its capacity to host U.S. study abroad students.