Summer Intensive Language Program at The Arab-American Language Institute in Morocco

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, in collaboration with The Arab-American Language Institute in Morocco (AALIM) for the summer of 2013, is pleased to announce its Summer Language program in the Kingdom of Morocco. Students will spend six weeks in historic Meknes, Morocco taking part in an intensive Arabic language program. Students at all levels of Arabic proficiency are encouraged to apply.

Students will spend four (4) hours each weekday in formal Modern Standard Arabic classes, as well as complete out-of-the-classroom assignments. The AALIM center is host to a community of Arabic learners throughout the summer, providing for a fully immersive program. Students may choose to take an additional three (3) hours of Moroccan darijadialect classes.

Those selected will also gain direct personal experience in Moroccan culture, history, and society through a variety of day excursions, local outings, workshops and demonstrations. Meknes is an ideal setting for students to focus on learning Arabic while exploring ancient and modern Morocco. The main AALIM center is located inside the traditional walled old city, called the Medina, an area which features heavily in the Western popular imagination of Morocco. Meknes is also a thriving modern metropolis of over one million residents. The AALIM center is just a short walk from the bustling town center in the New City.

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NCUSAR Model Arab League Student Leaders Prepare to Travel to Saudi Arabia

Later in December the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations will escort a delegation of student leaders from the Council’s Model Arab League program on a cultural immersion study visit to Saudi Arabia. The visit will provide the young American leaders a hands-on experience in the Arab world that few others their age have had.

NCUSAR Student Study Visit to Saudi Arabia, Winter 2012

The National Council, in partnership with the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission (SACM) and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), organized and escorted a delegation of ten Model Arab League students on a cultural immersion study visit to Saudi Arabia, December 27, 2011 to January 9, 2012. The visit provided the young American leaders a hands-on experience in the Arab world that few others their age have had.

The National Council’s university student study visit to Saudi Arabia provided the young American leaders — each one an alumnus of the Council’s Model Arab League Program and shown here enjoying Arabic coffee and dates — a hands-on experience in the Arab world that many may have dreamed of but few others their age have had.

In the 2010-2011 academic year, nearly 28,000 Saudi Arabian students, forty percent of them females, were enrolled in American universities across the United States.  Accompanying them were more than 40,000 spouses and dependents. In marked contrast, fewer than fifty American students in U.S. institutions of higher education were among those privileged over the same period of time in having a firsthand university level educational experience in Saudi Arabia.

In an effort to help narrow this “knowledge and understanding gap,” the National Council has partnered with the SACM and the MOHE. The goal:  to provide an empirical educational introduction to the kingdom’s culture and society for a select group of American students who have performed exceptionally well in the Council’s Model Arab League student leadership development program.  During the course of the visit, the students met Saudi Arabian educators, business representatives, civil society leaders, and American diplomats in addition to visiting numerous sites of cultural, developmental, and historical interest.

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NCUSAR Student Study Visit to Lebanon, Summer 2012

From June 21-July 3, 2012, the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, in partnership with the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation, organized and escorted ten students on a study visit to Lebanon. The delegation was made up primarily of alumni from the Council’s Model Arab League Student Leadership Development Program. Through the study visit the students gained direct personal experience in Lebanese culture, society, and economics, and came away with a more deeply informed knowledge of Lebanon’s strategic aims and requirements as they pertain to Lebanese-U.S. relations and Lebanon’s role in regional and world affairs.

Student Study Visit to Lebanon, July 2012

NCUSAR Organizes & Escorts a Delegation of West Point Cadets on a Study Visit to the UAE; Delegation Meets with U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta

Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research

Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, in coordination with the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), organized and led a March 9 – 17, 2012 study visit to the United Arab Emirates for the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York. The Academy’s delegation was comprised of nine Cadets and two faculty members.  The visit provided the Cadets an opportunity to explore the dynamics of some of the major economic, political, and social determinants of UAE culture as well as the country’s modernization and development.

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