Eight Deserving Students Win Scholarships for U.S. Study;
Four DKSSF Scholars Graduate.
 

AMIDEAST is pleased to announce that eight outstanding young men and women have received full scholarships covering their undergraduate studies through the Diana Kamal Scholarship Search Fund (DKSSF), an AMIDEAST initiative that seeks to open doors to educational opportunity by matching highly qualified, deserving Arab students with scholarships from U.S. institutions.  Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Concordia, Grinnell, and Wilson Colleges, and Adelphi, Harvard, and Vanderbilt Universities awarded the scholarships to the four men and four women, who come from Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, and the West Bank.

Muscat, May 15, 2012 – AMIDEAST President and CEO Theodore H. Kattouf marked the five-year anniversary of AMIDEAST’s presence in Oman with a visit to Muscat, beginning May 11, 2012. During his four-day stay, he met with officials of Oman’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education and signed the renewal of the American education organization’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Education. He also participated in a variety of meetings focused on AMIDEAST’s workforce development and entrepreneurship training programs.

Washington, DC, April 18, 2012 ― AMIDEAST President and CEO Theodore Kattouf was honored by the Arab American Institute today for his long and distinguished public service career in government and as the head of AMIDEAST.  The AAI awarded him its Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service in recognition of his 30-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, which included service as U.S. ambassador to the UAE (1998-2001) and Syria (2001-03), as well as the nearly nine years since he joined AMIDEAST.

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. 

Washington, DC, February 7, 2012 — AMIDEAST is pleased to announce the appointment of Samar Khleif as AMIDEAST’s new country director for Kuwait. She replaces Maureen Aldakheel, who is retiring after 14 years of dedicated service as country director for AMIDEAST/Kuwait.

 Washington, DC, January 2, 2012 — AMIDEAST is pleased to announce the appointment of Dana Shuqom as its new country director for Jordan. She takes over just as AMIDEAST/Jordan completes the relocation of its Amman office to a much larger facility that will enable it to expand its offerings of programs and services in the country.

 Washington, DC, Kuwait, UAE, Lebanon, Morocco, November 14, 2011—The American non-profit education organization AMIDEAST and the Citi Foundation—Citi's philanthropic arm—today announced the launch of the Arab Women's Entrepreneurship Project (AWEP) in four countries: Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco and the UAE.  This initiative, which will be launched in November, aims to provide 80 female entrepreneurs from underserved backgrounds with training that will help them start a new business or expand an existing one.

Washington, DC, October 31, 2011 — AMIDEAST is pleased to announce the appointment of Quincy Dermody as new country director for Tunisia. Ms. Dermody, who will be based in Tunis, brings over 10 years of experience in international education to this position. Nearly eight of those years were spent at AMIDEAST headquarters, managing several key scholarship, exchange, and internship programs that AMIDEAST implements on behalf of a wide range of sponsors.  During her tenure, she has also been actively involved in new business development and has taken on a number of short-term, field-based assignments in other areas.  

New partnerships are enabling AMIDEAST to expand entrepreneurship training in Oman, one of several countries where AMIDEAST has established Cisco Entrepreneur Institutes to support the region’s drive to develop its entrepreneurial potential, create jobs, and promote sustainable economic growth.

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.