The Grandpa Corner

Alumni navigating through their journey of excellence!

Khaled Hamadeh

Khaled Hamadeh is from Baakline, Chouf and joined the YES Program in 2007 where he was placed in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from high school, Khaled started his Business Administration degree at the Lebanese American University (LAU).

He worked in the insurance industry in Dubai for a year with the leading multinational NASCO, right after, Hamade received the Fulbright scholarship to do his Masters degree in International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Gerogia Tech). After completing his Masters degree, Khaled worked with AMIDEAST in the “Entrepreneur Institute” and then joined the international Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in Zahle. Hamade is currently a Project Coordinator working with Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Recently, Khaled passed the civil service exam to join the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pursues a new career as a diplomat.

Ali Zaydan

Born in Tripoli in 1991, Ali Zaydan joined the yes program in 2007 where he was placed in Seneca, South Carolina. After his exchange year, Ali was an active alumnus where he was part of the “Northern Lebanon Alumni Committee” for 2 years, for him to be elected as YES Alumni President in 2012. Ali joined the Lebanese University for a degree in Finance, and in 2012 he finished his undergraduate degree, he later on started working as a Credit Officer in AEP, a national Financial Organization for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises).

By 2013, and along with his full-time job, Zaydan was admitted to an MBA Program at the Lebanese American University with being a part time Graduate Assistant.

In 2016 and after graduating, Zaydan decided to make a big shift in his career, where he stepped out of the financial industry entering the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) with joining Transmed in Dubai, Proctor and Gamble’s largest Distrubutor in the Middle East.

A year after moving to the UAE, Zaydan moved to Nestlé, the prestigious Swiss top FMCG corporate as a Field Sales Representative.

Ali's ambition and motivation keeps hitting the roof where such was translated into being promoted to a "Key Account Specialist" in Nestlé UAE.

Hanan Abou Ali

When people hear someone say that YES change their life, they think it's an exaggeration - little do they know that it's actually an understatement. Before YES I was very shy and self conscious of what people thought of me. I was always worried that people wouldn't see passed my obstacles. Going on the YES program revealed to me the inner strength that I never knew was in me. I discovered a lot about myself like my love for maths and physics which lead me into going into engineering later on. I discovered my passion for giving back to the community and representing the Lebanon I love to the world.

Upon completing my YES year and returning to Lebanon, I finished high school and went into Surveying Engineering at Lebanese International University during which I applied to the Fulbright program. I got selected and came to Pocatello to pursue my MS in Geographic Information Science. My thesis research focused on studying potato crops between Lebanon and Idaho and building a yield prediction model that helps the farmer with management decisions. In addition to using satellite imagery for identifying critical points in the growing season and informing the grower about them to get the most our of their fields. However, the biggest outcome I got was learning about all the open source data and software available at no cost. So my next goal is to present my work to the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture as well as educate students about the open source options to help advance research in Lebanon in the lack of financial support that is available otherwise. In addition to all this, the biggest impact of YES was the lifetime relation with my host family and community. My relation with the Leitermans grew stronger since I left them in 2009. We reunited in 2016 when I came back for my master's and last week my parents visited them in Wisconsin and then they, my parents and my coordinator (at the time) all flew in for my graduation. Seeing them all here made me realize the impact the YES has had on bringing not only 2 families together, but 2 cultures, 2 countries.. Words are never enough and it is thanks to YES that I am now holding a master's degree from ISU and hopefully on to PhD next! *In the picture left to right: Tom & Vicky Leiterman (my host family), myself, my mom Mariam Ayoub, my YES coordinator Deb Prokop and my dad Kamal Abou Ali.

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