In continuation of its Access Teachers Training program funded by the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the program provider Teach For Lebanon (TFL) held trainings on May 28-29, 2022 for a total of 94 teachers largely from Lebanese public schools, with the rest from semi-private schools.

On Saturday September 25 and Sunday September 26, as part of the teacher training component of the Access Program, Teach For Lebanon (TFL) hosted an online workshop series for 38 teachers working with underprivileged Lebanese schoolchildren.

On Saturday March 18, 2023 the Access Alumni Program honored the winners of the INCLUSION + Mini-Grants at an award distribution ceremony that took place in Padova Hotel, Sin El Fil, Beirut.

 

For celebrating the winning projects, the event was attended by the US Embassy’s Public Affairs Officer Ms. Melissa O’Shaughnessy who gave its keynote, English Language Coordinator, Public Diplomacy Ms. Edith Bitar, and Management Officer Mr. Michael Moise, in addition to TFL’s interim CEO and Access Program Director Mr. George El Assad, Access Alumni Coordinator, Miss Rodaina Boushaheen, and other staff. Members of the broader Access Alumni base in Lebanon, who participated in the Inclusion+ Program overall, were also on hand to cheer the achievements of their winning peers.

 

As part of the Teachers Training component of the Access Program, Teach for Lebanon has organized a series of 4 workshops entitled “Training for Educators” for 25 teachers of the English language at public schools in Beqaa region. The teachers committed to attend the 4 workshops that elaborated the following three topics: Trends of Teaching English Language, Universal Design Learning, and Wellbeing as an Essential Teaching Element. The four training modules were held at Delora Hotel – Chtaura in the Beqaa region, Lebanon

As part of the Teachers Training component of the Access Program, Teach For Lebanon has organized a series of four workshops entitled “Training for Educators” for 25 teachers of the English language at public schools in the South region. The teachers committed to attend the four workshops that elaborated the following three topics: Trends of Teaching English Language, Universal Design Learning, and Wellbeing as an Essential Teaching Element. 

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.

Under a workshop titled “Wellbeing for Optimum Performance”, the Access Alumni Program of 2023-2025 kicked off its training events. Held on July 27, 2024, this training was organized for Access alumni from Tripoli and the surrounding North Lebanon region.

On January 23rd, and 25th, 2024, Access students at Damour Public School and Choueifat Public School were visited by U.S. Embassy representatives and by Access staff from Teach For Lebanon. Among them, was the U.S. Embassy’s English Language Coordinator/Public Diplomacy, Ms. Edith Bitar.

On February 25th and March 3rd, 2024, half of the 500 Access Cohort 16 (2022-2024) students, and the other half, respectively converged from all around Lebanon on the campuses of the Lebanese American University (LAU), Byblos, and Beirut, for the Career Day event which marks the last step of their personal development under the Access Program. 

In a crowning of their journey through the English Access Microscholarship Program, the 484 active students of its Cohort 16 in Lebanon received their graduation certificates in a memorable ceremony on Sunday 21^st April 2024.

On February 24th, 2024, Teach For Lebanon and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut celebrated the successful conclusion of the 2022-2024 Alumni component of the English Access Microscholarship Program. 

During May and June, four Alumni Networking Events took place as part of an extra Alumni grant by the US Embassy in Beirut to Teach For Lebanon. The events aimed to bring together Access alumni to provide them with the opportunity to connect with each other and with external opportunity providers to widen their horizons and enrich their networks. 

In the context of the Intensive Sessions component of the English Access Microscholarship Program funded by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Teach For Lebanon held a summer camp in 2023 attended by 445 of its 500 students students from all over Lebanon, and divided over 4 regional clusters.

With the unswerving support of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and that of the U.S. Regional English Language Office (RELO), TFL’s Access team held a Field Day for the 500 students of Cohort 16 of the Access Program which TFL stands as provider of in the country. The students, teachers, teacher assistants, Access alumni volunteers, and TFL staff converged from all parts of Lebanon to the event’s venue at El Rancho Resort in Ghedrass on Sunday, May 14, 2023.

The English Access Microscholarship Alumni Program, funded by the US Embassy and executed by Teach for Lebanon, launched the INCLUSION+ program to train, equip, and empower 86 Access alumni to lead community initiatives under the theme of inclusion, during the month of February, in a two-day retreat in these regions: Mount Lebanon, the North, Bekaa, and South, and Beirut. 

On Sunday, January 22, 2023, Teach for Lebanon (TFL) held the opening ceremony for the 2022–2024 iteration of the English Access Microscholarship Program in Lebanon at the Hilton Beirut Habtoor Grand hotel. 

TFL proudly announces the start of the Access 16 program! 

On October 15, 2022, 29 Access alumni attended a training on critical thinking and problem-solving at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut. 

The Access Cohort 15 journey has come to an end! On October 23 and November 6, 2022, TFL honored the Access 15 cohort at a graduation ceremony that took place at LAU Jbeil and LAU Beirut respectively, with each event grouping nearly half of the students.

In the context of the Intensive Sessions component of the English Access Microscholarship Program funded by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Teach For Lebanon has held a summer camp in 2022 for its 480 students from all over Lebanon, divided over 4 regional clusters.

With the unswerving support of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and that of the U.S. Regional English Language Office (RELO),  TFL’s Access team held a Field Day for its 480 students who converged from all parts of Lebanon to the venue at El Rancho resort in Ghedrass on Thursday, July 7, 2022.

On the occasion of the visit of the USA’s Regional English Language Officer (RELO), Eran Williams, to Lebanon, accompanied from his base in Amman-Jordan by the Regional Public Engagement Specialist (REPS), Sacha Fraiture, he held meetings with select Access alumni and students at the American Corner in Tripoli, which were attended by officials from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

On March 23, 2022, Teach For Lebanon hosted at its office at Badaro Street, Beirut, the Regional English Language Officer (RELO), Eran Williams, accompanied from Amman by the Regional Public Engagement Specialist (REPS), Sacha Fraiture, along with the U.S. Embassy in Beirut’s Public Affairs Officer, Kristina Hayden, and Cultural Affairs Assistant, Edith Bitar. The four-hour visit tackled the implementation of the three components of the English Access Microscholarship Program by TFL’s Access Program team: Scholarship, Teachers Training, and Alumni.

TFL is delighted to announce the 2022 Access Alumni Mini-Grants awards! Five of the project proposals submitted by alumni of the Access program in Lebanon were selected.

Teach For Lebanon celebrated Teacher’s Day in Beirut on March 9th, 2022, with the goal of keeping Access Program teachers motivated and in excellent mental health in the midst of Lebanon's acute socio-economic and financial crisis.

In a virtual ceremony hosted by Teach For Lebanon (TFL) on January 17, 2022, the Alumni component of the Access Program celebrated the three Mini-Grant projects completed in 2021: Learners Do Matter, Women Entrepreneurship Hub, and House of Mastery. 

Over a period of six weeks spanning November-December 2021, our Access alumni benefitted from a training called “Employability Skills Program”. A group of thirteen participants with backgrounds in engineering and technology received this training through two CV writing workshops, two interview skills workshops and one cover letter writing workshop.

Back in November 2021, TFL held its third training for the Access alumni.
Titled “LinkedIn, Jobs In” the training was conducted by Shant Estepan (MBA), IT Consultant and Instructor in Computer Science & MIS.

On December 11, 2021, twenty-nine attendees from the Access alumni received training on “How to Write a Proposal and Apply to Grants”. It aimed at equipping attendees with the tools needed to write professional proposals and apply to the Access Alumni Mini-Grants.

During the third week of December, each of our Access classes gathered at their schools to attend Christmas and winter holidays mini-events. We were also very excited and happy to host one group of students at TFL's office in Badaro. 

During the month of November, Access students learned about and experienced Thanksgiving. Each Access class was paired with another class from a different region, and students were divided into groups of 4-5 students to do activities related to Thanksgiving (e.g. watching a movie together, cooking a meal, writing thankfulness letters, meeting each other’s siblings, and so on ...).

This September 500 Access students across Lebanon learned about International Peace Day, International Democracy Day, and World Tourism Day through the program’s “U.S. culture and values” sessions. 

English Access Microscholarship Program classes started on April 15, 2021. Both students and teachers have received their instructional materials, including stationery, textbooks from National Geographic, laptops, and USB drives. We hope the tools they have been given and the support they will continue to receive leads them to do great things and to have a positive impact on the world.

A thousand thanks to the US Embassy in Beirut for their generosity and support!

On July 27, 2021, Teach For Lebanon (TFL) held an in-person meeting for the Access program teachers at the Modern University for Business & Science (MUBS) in Beirut.

Thanks to a grant from the Access Program (sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut), Access Alumni Nour Lakkis and Mada Yazbeck are currently implementing their project, "Women Entrepreneurship Hub" which is aimed at providing entrepreneurship training sessions to 80 women from North Lebanon and Bekaa in order to empower them to start their own small businesses ...

A couple of weeks ago our Access team led individual sessions with the Access Alumni grantees to check the progress they had made on their respective projects and discuss their needs, next steps, challenges, and lessons learned.

On Saturday June 26, 29 Access alumni attended a seminar on “Effective Interpersonal Communication.” This was the second in a series of six training sessions scheduled for Access alumni throughout the life of the program. The training was given by leadership consultant Maya El Tal.

The opening ceremony for the 2021–2022 iteration of the English Access Microscholarship Program in Lebanon took place via Zoom on Sunday, April 25. Attendees included Access students and alumni; teachers; school administrators; parents; and representatives from Teach For Lebanon (TFL), the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, the U.S. Embassy in Amman, and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) – all in all, over 400 people tuned in!

On Friday, May 21, a ceremony was held in Tripoli to celebrate the distribution of laptops to 20 Saba Zreik public high school students who are participating in the 2021–2022 English Access Microscholarship Program (Access). The event also marked the distribution of 480 additional laptops to the other Access students scattered throughout Lebanon.

Winners of the 2021 Access Alumni Mini Grants have been decided. Three of the project proposals submitted by alumni of the Access program in Lebanon were selected.

The first Access Alumni training was held virtually on December 12, 2020, and focused (at the request of the participants) on women empowerment. The 30 Access Alumni who participated were welcomed before the sessions by Kristina Hayden, the US Embassy’s public affairs officer. After the first session, the alumni were also joined by Edith Bitar, the US Embassy’s cultural affairs coordinator.