Inaugurating the Mount Lebanon Startup Weekend For BAU Students Bahia El Hariri Let us Invest in the Dreams of our Youths

The Center for Entrepreneurship at Beirut Arab University with the collaboration of Kauffman Foundation organized the “Mount Lebanon Startup Weekend Competition 2013” which was inaugurated by an Opening on the 15th of November, 2013 and culminated on the 17th of November, 2013 at Debbieh Campus.

The Opening Ceremony was held in the presence of the President of the Parliamentary Commission of Education and Culture, MP Bahia El Hariri, Prof. Dr. Amr Galal El Adawi, President of BAU, Mr. Issam Houri, BAU Secretary General, Dr. Leila Abboud, Director of the CFE at BAU, Mr. Nabil Itani, CEO of IDAL, Ambassador Abdel Mowla El -Solh, Eng. Mohamed El Baba, Member of the Municipality of Sidon, a number of deans and professors, as well as a crowd of students participating in the CFE competition and their parents.

The event included the launching of the best students’ projects competition and was opened with the Lebanese National Anthem, followed by the BAU anthem. Dr. Leila Abboud, Director of the CFE, then, delivered a speech in which she pointed out that the aim of the competition is to provide young people with an opportunity to demonstrate their talents and creativity.

Prof. Dr. Amr Galal El Adawi, President of BAU, remembered late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, who was the first Lebanese to consider education and its importance for the youth. He had thus sent over 35 thousand students to study abroad, who consequently attained distinguished higher degrees. Prof. El Adawi added, “The creativity and ideas of the youth are plentiful, but they need someone willing to study and adopt them. The youth need someone to help them realize these ideas. Thus this competition enables the youth to be creative and present ideas that will see the light. Since it is team-work that is successful, the competition is based on the idea of group-work”. The President further pointed out that the CFE was launched two years ago with the aim to develop the abilities of the youth. The philosophy behind it was that no individual should await a job, but rather that we should contribute through our ideas to the creation of jobs.

Next, Mrs. Hariri gave a speech emphasizing on this distinguished weekend, and wished there had been more similar programs for them, the people who work in the public arena. She hoped that all people could cooperate and collaborate towards the good of Mankind and of the homeland, to achieve its progress and prosperity. She said that we live in a country which, rather than investing in the dreams of young men and women, their lives are filled with nightmares and crises. Advanced societies did not achieve progress except through the dreams of their members. She  therefore, extended her thanks to the BAU Administration and the Kauffman Foundation for their kind invitation – an invitation that has revived hope in her, as she explained.

The participating students, then, proceeded to elaborate on the projects they had innovated, which focused mainly on issues of energy conservation and the preservation of the environment. Some projects offered solutions to difficulties faced by people in their daily lives, some of which were dedicated to people with special needs.