Mabelle Wehbe, a distinguished Chemical Engineering Graduate from the Faculty of Engineering (FOE) at the University of Balamand (UOB), has been accepted into the prestigious 2024 Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Student Leaders Program (SLP) for the academic year 2024-2025.

The SLP is a rigorous leadership and civic engagement program that selected up to 60 undergraduate and graduate students from the MENA region out of 1,500 applicants. The selected students were offered places at US universities for the 1-month duration of the Summer program. The focus for the 2024-2025 program is Climate Change and Environmental Protection. This year-long program is divided into three-parts: pre-summer, summer, and post-summer with the most intensive part taking place during the summer.

Mabelle stands out as the only engineer from Lebanon among the selected participants. She has attended Delaware University in the United States starting the intensive in-person Summer 4-week program taking place from June 28 until July 26, 2024, which unfortunately made her miss the graduation 2024 ceremony where she would have received the newly created award for BS students, The Dean’s Award for Innovation. Mabelle has for sure set the bar high for others to follow. Mabelle was joined by three other Lebanese participants—one from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and two from the Lebanese American University (LAU).

Taken from the acceptance letter: “Through this program, participants will develop leadership and collective problem-solving skills through academic, experiential, and community service activities exploring concepts of civic engagement and participatory governance. Participants will also learn about U.S. and Middle Eastern and North African history and culture, leadership development, project development, and professional development”.

Vice President for Internationalization and Engagement and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Professor Rami Abboud extended his heartfelt congratulations to Mabelle for engaging with the competition in October 2023 and for being selected as the only engineering student from Lebanon and one of only two engineering students from the MENA region for the MEPI Student Leaders Program. He stated that Mabelle’s journey will serve as an inspiration to her peers and a testament to the quality of engineering education provided at UOB. Prof. Abboud congratulated Mabelle for winning the 1st Dean’s Award for Innovation and expressed his confidence with Mabelle’s abilities to continue to make significant contributions to society, both in Lebanon and beyond. ​