Ali Ghandour Center for Leadership, Diversity and Civic Engagement
Established in 2019, the Ali Ghandour Center for Leadership, Diversity and Civic Engagement (AGC) marks the first community-based learning center of its kind at the secondary school level in the region.
Jointly funded by IC and the Ghandour family, the AGC offers an intensive leadership and dynamic citizenship program through a Community Engaged Learning (CEL) model. Spread over three years, starting with the 10th grade, the program mentors students through a sequenced journey, beginning with extensive volunteering with an array of grassroots organizations and culminating with students leading Community Service Projects (CSPs).
The AGC student body comprises scholar students from disenfranchised neighborhoods in the greater Beirut Area and non-scholarship IC students. Through an outreach effort,
Non-scholarship IC students are selected through the same application process. Together with the scholars, they undertake the three-year journey into community based learning, which in addition to their regular academic requirements, encompasses rigorous training in critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, innovation and activism.
The program also exposes enrolled students to national, regional and international competitions in a wide range of fields, among them social entrepreneurship, project design, implementation and evaluation and public speaking, all with the aim of providing students with the skills and tools to become active agents of change.
The center is named in honor of Ali Ghandour (class of 1950) who is an avid believer in social activism and a true visionary. The center is endowed by two of his children, Fadi Ghandour and Raghida Ghandour al Rahim.
FALL 2023
Three years since its inauguration, IC's Ali Ghandour Center for Leadership, Diversity, and Civic Engagement has graduated its first cohort!
