Two years after USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) launched its collaboration with USAID’s University Scholarship Program (USP) to provide students from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Lebanese American University (LAU) with internship opportunities, in April 2022 CSP expanded its internship program to include hundreds of undergraduates and fresh graduates from nine additional Lebanese universities which are partnered with USAID under its Higher Education Capacity Development Program (HECD). Accordingly, selected candidates are being placed in internships across all USAID-funded programs in Lebanon, allowing them to enrich their professional and soft skills to enhance their employability, while providing them with much needed financial support during these difficult times. Between July and early October 2022, CSP onboarded 21 new interns from the nine universities, raising the total number of current and former students placed in internships to 100 – a 281% increase compared to 35 internship placements recorded by the end of 2021.

“This is an invaluable opportunity which focuses on people’s skills, regardless of the university they come from, which is helping me to expand my horizons and stand out among other candidates,” stated Ani Sarraf, a recent graduate in Business Advertising and Communications from Haigazian University, who is supporting CSP’s recyclables waste management Community of Practice.