FAFS AREC ’80 Scholarship Fund

The check donation

Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences alumni have always shared a special bond—in part because of the time they spend together at AREC (Agricultural Research and Education Center). In 2002 members from the class of AREC ’80 who were taking part in the faculty’s 50th anniversary celebrations decided they wanted to build on that bond to remember three of their classmates who had passed away, and to support scholarships at FAFS.  They made a commitment to each other to raise $75,000 by soliciting annual contributions from their classmates until they reached their goal.

At a reception on May 22, a group from the AREC ’80 class, including George and Marwa Barbour, Tony Chahine, Fadi and Marianne Freiji, Khallad Kaballan, Nada and Bassem Khatib, Nada Radwan, Rabih Talhouk, Rami Zurayk, and Salma Oueida from development, presented Dean Nahla Hwalla with a check for $40,000—the first installment toward their goal of establishing the AREC ’80 Endowed Scholarship Fund in Memory of Diab Abu Jawdeh, Sinan Qaisi-Farran, and Randa Smine. The class of AREC ’80, which is about to launch another round of solicitations, hopes that other AREC classes will also establish scholarship funds to celebrate a class reunion.  As Rabih Talhouk explains, “If each one of us contributes even just a modest amount every year, we can make a difference.”