Elias Bou Saab receives certificate of recognition at CGI Annual Meeting

These scholarships will help students attend The Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication (MBRSC).

Elias Bou Saab, Executive Vice President of AUD and a Member of CGI since its inception in 2005, received the certificate of recognition from President Bill Clinton on Friday September 26th 2008 for this commitment to action taken by the American University in Dubai.

Through this commitment, AUD has played an important role in addressing global challenges by creating the scholarship program at the MBRSC in addition to the current Clinton Scholars program established with the Clinton Foundation, all in an effort to bridge the gap between the East and the West and to promote intercultural harmony and understanding.

Bou Saab commented:

"The ultimate goal is to train students from around the region to become objective, fair and responsible media specialists. Eventually, the new generation of communication experts will help usher in a new era of improved relations between the Arab World and the US."

"H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum donated the funds to support this project. With this donation, His Highness has reiterated his support for the media sector, recognizing its important role in shaping the future of the Middle East Region," concluded Bou Saab.

The Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication at the American University in Dubai was recently established in collaboration with the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC). The School's mission is to prepare and train students as journalists who will develop an understanding of mass communication and journalism and become familiar with the diversity of global culture as indicated by racial, ethnic, religious, gender, and regional differences.

This scholarship program has the vital aim of bridging the gap undermining the current Arab media sector. The program will give Arab students the opportunity to be educated as journalists with a respect for objectivity, truth and journalistic integrity, as well as an exceptional command of both the Arab and English language.

The partnership between AUD and USC will help in developing the School's curriculum to offer an unsurpassed quality of education in the different fields of journalism and in radio/TV/cinema studies. The School hopes to become the beacon of communications studies in the Middle East region, as it is oriented to fill the gaps that have historically marred the teaching of media in the Arab world.