AMIDEAST is actively engaged in a number of initiatives that are helping to expand global understanding "one person at a time."

Exchange programs for young people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to live in and directly experience American culture and society continue to be one of the best ways we know to build bridges of international understanding between Americans and people from different cultural backgrounds.

For over 40 years, AMIDEAST has been proudly associated with the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, one of several programs committed to preparing leaders capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

Program Summary

The Hope Fund Undergraduate Scholarship is designed to provide talented Palestinian youth who possess leadership potential with an opportunity to pursue an undergraduate degree in the United States. It targets Palestinian refugees living below the poverty line throughout the Mideast, but especially in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, where the needs are most urgent. The program is the result of the generosity and commitment of Dr. Fahim Qubain, with support and cooperation from AMIDEAST’s offices in West Bank/Gaza, Jordan, and Lebanon. Since its inception in 2000, nearly 30 bright young men and women have begun their undergraduate studies in the United States.

Main Goals

• Expand educational opportunity for youth of Palestinian background living in Lebanon, Jordan, or the West Bank and Gaza, particularly those living in refugee camps
• Encourage youth with leadership potential and desire to give back to their communities

Program Results

• Nearly 30 young women and men have received four-year scholarships from U.S. higher educational institutions since the establishment of the Hope Fund in 2000.
• Participating schools include Augustana, Bridgewater, Columbia, Guilford, Hollins, Illinios, Manhattanville, Randolph-Macon, Roanoke, and Swarthmore Colleges and Washington and Lee University.

Please select a country for more information on how to apply.

Lebanon West Bank & Gaza

Program Summary

Between 2007 and 2009, the Legal and Business Fellowship Program (LBFP) brought nearly 90 young Arab professional women to the United States for a combination of executive education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Law School and fellowships at top-tier law firms and leading companies across the United States. The program, which was funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, enabled them to improve their professional skills and gain valuable experience working in the U.S. business and legal environment.

Program Summary

The Diana Kamal Scholarship Search Fund (DKSSF) makes the dream of study in the United States possible for highly qualified Arab students from underserved populations in the Middle East and North Africa. Through this initiative, AMIDEAST is able to identify students of exceptional accomplishment and promise who wish to pursue undergraduate study at an American college or university, but cannot afford to do so. The resources in this special fund then enable AMIDEAST to provide the services that assist several candidates each year to apply and qualify for four-year scholarships to select U.S. institutions of higher learning.

The DKSSF was established in 2006 in memory of AMIDEAST Senior Vice President Diana Kamal, a recognized leader in the field of international educational exchange and an individual with a lifelong commitment to improving understanding between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa.

For over 50 years, AMIDEAST has been a leader in the area of fellowship and scholarship management.  We have supported thousands of individuals from the Middle East and North Africa who have come to this country on scholarship and exchange programs to study for long and short periods of time.

These cross-cultural programs remain unparalleled as a means for improving and advancing understanding and dispelling stereotypes and misinformation.