The LBFP Link, Summer 2007, Volume 1, No. 2

In This Issue

About The LBFP Link

The LBFP Link is a forum for the LBFP and BIP alumnae community to express views, share experiences, and stay connected. Published quarterly, The LBFP Link is sponsored by the Bureau of Near East Affairs, Middle East Partnership Initiative, U.S. Department of State, and produced by AMIDEAST.

How to participate in THE LBFP Link: Submit your alumnae updates, professional achievements, community activities, points of view, and recent photos to Lia Hutton at lhutton@amideast.org.

Submission guidelines: Submissions may be edited for style and language. Not all essays/comments submitted will be printed. All submissions must include your name and contact information including e-mail address.

About MEPI
The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is a U.S. Presidential Initiative founded to support economic, political, and educational reform efforts in the Middle East and champion opportunity for all people of the region, especially women and youth. The initiative strives to link Arab, U.S., and global private sector businesses, non-governmental organizations, civil society elements, and governments together to develop innovative policies and programs that support reform in the region.

About LBFP
The Legal and Business Fellowship Program (LBFP) seeks to help participating women develop their management, business, and legal skills while gaining experience in the cutting-edge U.S. business environment.

The 2007 LBFP cohort is comprised of women aged twenty-three to thirty-three who exhibit strong leadership potential, academic and work records, and English language skills and who are active in the business and legal sectors of Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza, and Yemen.

The 2007 Legal and Business Fellowship Program group with faculty and staff of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Around the United States—in hub cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, San Jose, and Washington, DC, and on trips beyond—LBFP fellows have been jumping full force into their internship projects while still squeezing in time for everything from meeting U.S. leaders and sharing their perspectives with community groups to pursuing interests from Shakespeare to skydiving.

Here are tales from a few fellowship adventures….

LBFP Fellows: At Work and Play
Nadine Ghalayini (Lebanon) has been interning with Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel. "My scope of work is private equity and strategic investment…I'm doing serious work," she reports. As a result of her experience, she is now considering a career shift to focus on the banking and finance side of law.

Grace Harb, also part of the Intel group from Lebanon, has similarly found her Intel internship rewarding. "My mentor has given me great opportunities to meet with outside law firms and work on their projects as well," she says. "So I am attending trials, outside meetings, assisting in pro bono cases—all is extremely interesting and new."

Continue...

Gains and Challenges: Three Fellows’ Views The following excerpts portions of an article originally entitled "Middle Eastern Businesswomen Discuss Challenges They Face at Home and Abroad," published by Knowledge@Wharton...	Building Peace and Understanding in Dallas An LBFP internship is about more than success in a new workplace. Frank Roby, CEO of Holmes Murphy Texas, which sponsored two fellows from the program, in fact thinks that "the corporate experience is relatively minor."
Question of the Quarter Before every issue, The LBFP Link asks all alumnae to provide their own personal thoughts related to a particular topic. This issue's "Question of the Quarter" is—	Life Would Be Easy...If It Weren't for Aggressive People The aggressive personality views life from a win/lose perspective and creates oppositional relationships. Interactions with such individuals become struggles for control of our personality and our life.
Letter from Chicago The following correspondence was sent by Peggy Parfenoff, Executive Director of the International Visitors Center of Chicago, to Sonia Franceski, Economic Pillar Manager for the Middle East Partnership Initiative, in June 2007.	Alumnae News & Updates Lamia Hassan (BIP 2005, Bahrain) has passed the examination to become a Certified Islamic Professional Accountant, a credential that qualifies her to assess Islamic financial institutions in their compliance with Shari'a accounting and auditing standards.

About AMIDEAST
America-Mideast Educational and Training Services, Inc. (AMIDEAST) is a private, nonprofit organization that strengthens mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. Every year, AMIDEAST provides English language and professional skills training, educational advising, and testing services to hundreds of thousands of students and professionals in the Middle East and North Africa; supports numerous institutional development projects in the region; and administers educational exchange programs. Founded in 1951, AMIDEAST is headquartered in Washington, DC with a network of field offices in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza, and Yemen.

AMIDEAST supports MEPI in recruitment and selection of LBFP fellows, as well as their placement in executive education program and internships in the United States. AMIDEAST also provides support to LBFP and BIP alumnae through this quarterly newsletter as well as periodic
in-region networking events.