Faten Taki (standing) leads her table in a discussion about Thanksgiving

Twenty-eight alumni served as leaders in an AMIDEAST and US Embassy—organized Thanksgiving celebration for 565 English Access Microscholarship Program students. Alumni attended this Thanksgiving lunch held at Le Bristol Hotel in Beirut and facilitated with organizing students, leading table discussions and answering questions. Alumni shared their experience celebrating Thanksgiving while on the YES program, discussed the meaning of the holiday and asked all the students to share things for which they are thankful. The event was full of opportunities for all the participants to develop cultural awareness, establish relationships and practice the English skills the Microscholarship students are learning. Mireille Moukarzel '04 said she enjoyed her role as a team leader. "I helped students to communicate in English by trying to translate and by supporting them when they could not understand," she explained. For Issam Maita '05, being a team leader helped him work on his leadership skills. "This added to my community service experience as I handled working with a new group of people and being their leader," he said. "I learned how to manage a group of people who are working as a team."

The interactions at the event allowed students to make friends from all over Lebanon as multiple regions are represented among YES alumni and the Microscholarship students. "It was fun to interact with people from different regions of Lebanon, especially to tell them about Thanksgiving," said alumnus Ali El Azzi '05. "The experience was educational on both sides," agreed Mohammed Hamdan '05. "As a team leader I learned how to bring together a group of people from different regions and to facilitate them becoming friends, and the students got to learn about American culture."

The event concluded with words of encouragement from the Lebanese Ministry of Education and US embassy officials, and all the students received certificates of award and were presented with a dictionary or an English language grammar reference book.

Hisham Kotaish '04 and Ali '05 are working on organizing the tutoring club in their school, the Public School for Boys in Sidon. As they have their exams this year they are concentrating on involving their schoolmates in the club and are studying Biology and English.

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