Graduation / Completion Targets
University Scholarship Program
LAU has graduation and completion targets for students from the bottom 20% of the household income group. To achieve these targets, LAU provides comprehensive support systems, including scholarships and financial aid that can cover up to 100% of tuition. Additionally, the University Scholarship Program (USP) incorporates the Individual Development Plan (IDP), a personalized and dynamic tool that guides students throughout their academic journey through various initiatives aimed at fostering academic, personal, and professional success.
A key component of USP is the Individual Development Plan (IDP), a personalized and evolving tool that guides students through their academic journey. In their first semester, students set objectives for personal and leadership development, which they update every semester to identify opportunities for internships, community projects, and NGO engagements. This process ensures that students build essential soft skills, such as communication, team building, and career readiness, alongside their academic achievements.
Additionally, the program includes a Community Service Project (CSP) requirement, where students conceptualize, implement, and evaluate projects that develop their leadership abilities and provide meaningful contributions to their communities. Through CSPs, students gain practical skills in teamwork, networking, budgeting, and project management while building self-confidence and an appreciation for diversity.
The Outreach and Civic Engagement Volunteering Program (OCEVP), launched in Fall 2019, further supports this mission by engaging students under the Higher Education Scholarship (HES) program in structured volunteer activities, requiring four hours of community service each month.
The Tomorrow’s Leaders (TL) Program, sponsored by the Department of State’s U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), supports capable and highly motivated young scholars from underserved backgrounds in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It provides fully funded undergraduate and graduate academic matriculation, civic education, and leadership development. The scholarship invests in Arab youth’s capacity to strengthen their leadership skills, enabling them to drive change and catalyze social progress within their home communities. Additionally, the MEPI-TL program advances students’ awareness of gender equality challenges and solutions. Since its launch in 2008, the TL program has been implemented and overseen by LAU.
These initiatives collectively ensure that students from low-income backgrounds not only have access to education but are also equipped with the tools and experiences needed to complete their education and graduate successfully and make lasting contributions to their communities and beyond. This comprehensive approach underscores LAU’s dedication to achieving its graduation and completion targets for this demographic.
USAID provides merit-based scholarships to financially needy and academically eligible public school graduates from across Lebanon, including the most disadvantaged corners of the country. These scholarships enable students, often from marginalized families that would otherwise have no possible means to attend these schools, to study at the highest-quality Lebanese universities. These universities offer an American-style education that promotes critical thinking, leadership skills and community service.
Our impacts in this sector include:
A higher education scholarship program that provides full, four-year scholarships to more than 600 Lebanese public school graduates. Although the program targets men and women equally, the gender breakdown represents the prevailing one in the public school system; nearly two-thirds of the recipients are women.
Grants awarded through the National Academies of Science to five Lebanese scientists from prominent Lebanese universities to complete specialized research on water and air pollution, wildfires and landslides. The grants promote direct cooperation with American scientists and access to cutting-edge research as part of the Washington-based Partnership for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER).
USAID Announces $50 Million for Higher Education in Lebanon
Today in Beirut, Administrator Samantha Power announced USAID will provide $50 million for Lebanese and refugee students living in the country to attend the American University of Beirut (AUB), LAU and Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU).
Of the $50 million, $15 million will support 140 full undergraduate scholarships to AUB and LAU for financially disadvantaged yet academically meritorious students. The remainder of the funds will provide partial need-based financial aid for about 3,500 students over the next three years to help students who can no longer afford tuition amidst Lebanon’s economic crisis.
Since 2010, USAID has provided more than $156 million in full undergraduate scholarships to more than 1,600 Lebanese and refugee students who might not otherwise be able to attend a university. USAID also works closely with these universities to prepare students with technical and manufacturing skills applicable to emerging sectors, such as solar power.
This new funding reflects USAID’s continued commitment to empowering youth to shape Lebanon’s future.
LAU’s Higher Education Scholarship alumnus Antonio Bakhos welcomed esteemed guests and thanked USAID for their generosity stating, “I am here today to tell you that dreams do come true and that I, Antonio, from Sebeel Public High school achieved my dreams and was able to make my parents proud by being the first person in my family to graduate from the university”. He later introduced fellow AUB Higher Education Scholarship alumnus Buthaina Al Abrash who gave her testimony of success as a refugee in Lebanon who managed to excel both academically and personally.
New Cohort of 66 USP Graduates Celebrated
LAU and USAID recognize the graduates, and mark the end of their undergraduate journey in virtual ceremony.
The event marked “the tenth year of a winning partnership which has provided scholarships to most deserving and remarkable young women and men from across Lebanon’s 26 districts.”
Together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), LAU hosted a virtual ceremony to celebrate the graduation of 66 University Scholarship Program (USP) scholars who have earned their undergraduate degrees with the full support of USAID.
Welcoming guests, President Michel E. Mawad shared that with this new USP cohort, LAU is celebrating “a decade of students graduating with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and above, implementing intensive and meaningful community service projects, and engaging in hours of volunteerism and leadership-based activities.”
He thanked USAID and the generosity of the American people as LAU “stands witness to countless life-changing success stories.”
US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Michaels congratulated the USP graduates, while acknowledging a “longstanding and productive relationship” between the American people and LAU.
In fact, the US has invested more than $150 million in USP in Lebanon since 2010, in addition to $73 million provided by the Middle East Partnership Initiative. LAU’s new graduates brought the total to over 1300 students from all over Lebanon to have received a full undergraduate scholarship.
Addressing the students, Micheals implored them to “apply the same determination they had exhibited at LAU to help build back a better Lebanon and shape its future.”
LAU Vice President for Student Development and Enrollment Management Elise Salem pointed out that this event marks “the tenth year of a winning partnership which has provided scholarships to most deserving and remarkable young women and men from across Lebanon’s 26 districts.” She congratulated the students on their “academic successes, leadership potential and impactful citizenship in a country that so desperately needs you.”
Expanding on the rigorous academic, leadership and community service requirement of the program, Program Director and Assistant Vice President for Outreach and Civic Engagement Elie Samia gave an overview of the graduates’ outstanding achievements. Confirming the three objectives of the grant – academic excellence, civic engagement and productive employment – fully achieved, he addressed the cohort saying: “You continue to epitomize the very values of this distinctive program.”
During the event, USP scholars gave live and recorded testimonials on the impact of the scholarships on their personal and professional growth.
Speaking on behalf of her graduating cohort, banking and finance major Maryse Abi Haidar spoke about her LAU journey, rich in internships and workshops, some of which she had delivered herself. She urged her colleagues to “continue to seek learning, and not to give up in the face of difficulty.”
Community Service and Engagement
Community Service and Engagement (CSE) manages LAU’s USAID University Scholarship Program (USP), which allows academically qualified but financially underprivileged Lebanese students from public high schools to attend the university. The program aims to provide quality education in various majors and develop the leadership potential of the students, providing them with the skills necessary to build their communities.
Under the leadership component of USP, every student is required to implement a community service project (CSP).
The CSP aims towards:
Developing and testing the leadership skills gained through training in the field;
Personal development of scholars.
CSPs help students gain:
Team-building skills;
Networking and communication skills;
Project conceptualization and budgeting skills;
Self-confidence and leadership skills;
Better appreciation of diversity.
Students must follow a certain process during the conceptualization, implementation, and evaluation post implementation
Volunteering Program (OCEVP)
CSE launched in Fall 2019 a volunteering program “Outreach & Civic Engagement Volunteering Program” (OCEVP), specifically for LAU students under the Higher Education Scholarship (HES) program.
Those allocating LAU HES volunteers should complete 4 hours of volunteer activities per month. Accordingly we will be sharing with you the list of assigned LAU HES volunteers on a monthly basis.
Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
Geared for scholars of the University Scholarship Program, the IDP is a live document that guides students throughout their years at LAU, and brings CSE up to speed on their interests and needs. It allows the scholars to explore their holistic potential and advance their soft skills, character development and career-readiness.
During their first semester at LAU, the scholars set the general objectives pertaining to their personal development, including opportunities for leadership and civic engagement.
Every semester, the scholars update the IDPs to identify internships, community development projects, and NGOs they wish to work with.
MEPI Tomorrow’s Leaders Program
The Tomorrow’s Leaders Program (TL) is an initiative of the United States Department of State U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) that supports capable and highly motivated young scholars from underserved backgrounds in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by providing a fully funded undergraduate level academic matriculation, civic education, and leadership development. The full-coverage scholarship aims at investing in Arab youth’s unexplored capacity and strengthening their leadership skills to become drivers of change and catalyze social progress in their home community.
The TL program has been implemented and overseen by LAU since its launch in 2008.
Programs for Future Students
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TL Undergraduate Program (TLU) Scholarships for high school students |
TL Graduate Program (TLG) Scholarships for master’s programs |
Programs for Current Students
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TL Gender Scholars Program (TLS) Scholarships for currently enrolled LAU students |
TL College to Work Pipeline (TLP) Helps TL students find meaningful employment in the region upon graduation |
