Rami George Khouri, Director of Global Engagement, American University of Beirut
Rami George Khouri
La Grande Boissière, 1966
Director of Global Engagement, American University of Beirut
USA-Lebanon
Learn more about me :
I work full-time for the American University of Beirut, mostly in New York City as the university's Director of Global Engagement; I spend every spring semester at the Beirut home campus teaching journalism and doing interviews for my weekly podcast with AUB professors talking about their research, what they have discovered, and why it matters to the world. I also continue to write opinions and editorials pages in the global press and longer research-based articles on contemporary Mideast issues and do interviews/analyses on Mideast issues.
It's hard to choose from so many great memories of Ecolint, but if you force me to I would say it was playing bridge indoors or basketball outdoors during the nearly 2-hour lunch break when kids like myself who lived far away stayed in school and used the time constructively and enjoyably.
Ecolint shaped my entire worldview of being open to and eager to get to know other people and cultures, and, due to the work of a few teachers, it instilled in me a love of learning, reading, and writing, which has defined my whole career and personal life.
The only thing I would do differently might be to spend more than 4 years at Ecolint, and perhaps to try a year as a live-in boarder, in my days called "interns" who lived on the top floor of the main building; captivating tales of their assorted doings circulated regularly...
My words of wisdom for Ecolint students is to get to know every student who is different from you and engage in as many extra-curricular activities as you can, because that is where people's true character is shaped and expressed, and it's also a lot more fun than chemistry, in my view.