News >Joyce Azzam’s Motivational Session

On Monday, March 28th, 500 Access students congregated on Zoom for a motivational session by Dr. Joyce Azzam.

Joyce is a Lebanese woman who surmounted gender stereotyping, a chronic lung condition, a potentially debilitating hypermobility syndrome, and socio-economic challenges to go on and become a conservation architect and a mountaineer, with a Ph.D. in Landscape and Environment and three Master’s Degrees.

Joyce’s mission is to become the first Lebanese woman and the second woman in the world to complete the "Explorers Grand Slam." After having climbed the world’s highest seven summits, she is just the North Pole and the South Pole away from achieving that.

Taking the Access students through her inspiring journey, Joyce introduced them to the concepts of education as a powerful arm, setting out on fulfilling a dream no matter how daunting it may seem, exercising determination, taking calculated risks, and not shying away from "climbing down," as when one would need to take a step back, equip themselves better for their mission, and then leap forward toward their set objective. Most importantly, Joyce introduced them to FAIL as being a "First Attempt in Learning."

The Access students flooded the meeting's chatbox with likes and "amazing," "fascinating," and "inspiring" comments. Notably, Cedra Dik wrote: "This motivates us to persevere in the pursuit of our dreams and encourages us to achieve our goals and not give up on them. Thank you very much for this wonderful experience that stimulates our spirits."

The session's buzz persisted overnight, with 50 Access students (10% of the total) already following Joyce on Instagram and connecting to her hashtags # Yes_You_Can and # InspireChange.