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LCN Reaches New Heights With 4th Annual Convention
Students and professionals from California, Arizona, Ohio, Washington DC, New Jersey and various parts of Michigan took part in the 2011 LCN Convention at Oakland University. This year’s convention, which included an alumni track for the first time, provided a series of workshops and social events and attracted a record number of attendees and sponsors. Ambassador of Lebanon, H.E. Antoine Chedid, in a show of support, attended the awards ceremony dinner and provided the keynote speech along with Oakland University Provost Dr. Virinder Moudgil.
The Convention kicked off April 1, 2011 with the President’s Forum. University Lebanese Club Presidents and LCN Board Members held a closed meeting where Presidents were able to voice their feedback directly to the board and review the LCN 5- year strategic plan. After the meeting, presidents joined their members and other professionals at the Social Icebreaker to create new connections with peers across the nations and get introduced to the attendees of the LCN11 Convention.
LCN President Sevag Sislian welcomed the 100 participants Saturday April 2nd at the Oakland Center as part of the morning presentations. “The convention is the differentiator for us as board. A lot of effort and thought are put into each workshop for your benefit, so make sure to get the best out of your time at LCN11!” he stated before students and professionals each went on their separate workshop paths.
Please help us congratulate the upcoming LCN board members:
<center>President: Judith Farah
Secretary—Vicky Haddad
Treasurer: Tamara Ayoub
Vice-President of Events: Anita Abdul Karim
Vice-President of Membership—Myrna Ghorayeb
Vice-President of Public Relations—Joseph Sadek</center>
Helping with the workshops, and returning from last year’s convention, were the founders of Write Track Admissions, Khaled Beydoun and Hamada Zahawi, who led the “Getting into Grad School” Workshop and LebNet member Cyrille Habis who led the “Project Management” Workshop. Along with the “Parlimentary Procedures” workshop, students shuffled among the three 45-minute workshops. Professionals had the opportunity to learn about data mining techniques in the “Understanding the Numbers” workshop by PhD Candidate Gilbert Haddad from the University of Maryland College Park. The workshops are presented in details at mylcn.org/LCN11.
Following the workshops, convention attendees passed a resolution during the general business meeting to honor and congratulate the Lebanese Club at Oakland University for co-hosting the LCN convention. The meeting acted as a prelude to the LCN board elections where each candidate was given the opportunity to address the participants and voice their platform. Arriving from his flight early, Ambassador Chedid witnessed the tally and the declaration of the LCN 2011-2012 board winners.
To conclude the convention, over 200 people took part in the LCN Awards Dinner to honor and recognize the distinguished LCN award winners, volunteers and supporters. Ambassador of Lebanon to Washington, His Excellency Antoine Chedid spoke to students and guests and voiced his support to the organization and its members. “Remember that you are bringing the Lebanese together, and we stand steadfast like the cedar tree as one unified nation […] You are a joy to me, it’s really nice to witness what you are doing and the way you are doing it ” he said, “We know you will be successful just like the other Lebanese who have contributed a great deal to America throughout the years”. OU Provost Dr. Moudgil seconded the Ambassador’s remarks and highlighted the diversity and talent of the OU campus. “After all, the Lebanese Club here on campus worked diligently to bring the convention to OU, and for that we are very proud.”
LCN had its own pride to share as well in the recipients of the Academic Excellence and Heritage Scholarship Award Danny Azar and Tony Ghorayeb, who each received $1,000 check as well as the Lebanese Club at University of California, Santa Barbara, who’s president Nadine Hammoud received the much anticipated Most Outstanding University Lebanese Club Award. This was UCSB’s second award since 2009. Also recognized were two outstanding LCN supporters who have gone above and beyond to support LCN. Mr. Wassim Mahfouz, executive director of Lebanese American Heritage Club, and Mr. Selim Sassine, president of MA Engineering.
This is LCN’s 4th Annual convention since 2008. LCN extends its gratitude to the many attendees, volunteers, supporters and sponsors that made the LCN 2011 a success. Please visit mylcn.org/LCN11 to learn more about the convention and our sponsors. The 5th convention has already been scheduled for March 23-25 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.