Lebanese international students navigate displacement, war, uncertainty

Amany Bouali, Contributing Writer

A group of students from the American University of Beirut and Lebanese American University venture to VCU every semester to experience American culture and education. However, this semester’s cohort is also managing feelings of guilt and sadness as their peers back at home deal with bombings, evacuation and uncertainty, according to the students.

More than 3,100 people have been killed and over 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon since October of last year when Israel “ramped up” its campaign against Hezbollah, according to The New York Times.

Lebanese Minister of Education Abbas Al-Halabi suspended classes across several governorates in Lebanon on Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.

Although UNICEF supported the Ministry of Education to help students return to class on Nov. 4, Lebanese American University and the American University of Beirut students have still been experiencing many changes to their education.

Fourth-year marketing student at LAU Rima Sfaxi evacuated Lebanon when the bombardment of Beirut began in early September.

Sfaxi came to VCU during the spring of 2024 on The U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative, with the Department of State. The program brings a cohort of fully-funded students to VCU and other universities across the United States every semester to build community leaders in the Middle East and North African region.

The Ministry of Education was persistent in keeping students in school, according to Sfaxi. She said she remembers hearing and feeling the impact of bombs dropped eight miles away from her LAU residence hall in Jbeil, around 23 miles away from Beirut, shortly before she evacuated.

“Our future is blurred — until now actually,” Sfaxi said. “Now I’m talking to you and I don’t know what’s going to happen in my life.”

Yasmine Ghriss, a Tunisian third-year computer science student at AUB in the MEPI program, is currently at VCU for her exchange semester.

As peers and professors are living through the violence in Lebanon, it creates a “very painful” and “isolating” environment for Ghriss here at VCU, according to Ghriss.

“My best friend who I had lived with for two years texted me, ‘they’re bombing my area, this might be the last time I speak to you,’” Ghriss said.

There was a time when Ghriss skipped class due to an inability to do anything, she said.

There are many resources for students who might be experiencing similar emotions on campus, according to Sarah Carrier, the associate director of global learning in the Global Education Office at VCU.

The GEO sends resources to MEPI students as well as other international students who are experiencing crises in their home countries from other programs to utilize such as counseling services, crisis hotlines, information about emergency funding opportunities and additional academic support.

The GEO also hosts trips, such as hiking or apple picking, to get all international students off campus to create memorable experiences.

A Lebanese student, who asked to remain anonymous for visa and immigration reasons, is a fourth-year pre-medical student at LAU who currently lives in Lebanon and is also in the MEPI program.

His family lived in the town of Jezzine in south Lebanon, but they are currently displaced to a hotel in Beirut after their house and town were damaged by Israeli strikes.

Many once-tourist hotels are currently filled with displaced families who can afford them, according to The New York Times.

The student still lives in LAU’s dorms and said after the evacuation of the international students, it has become a safe house of sorts for faculty and their families.

He is an aspiring physician who was planning to apply to complete his residency at VCU’s School of Medicine, along with other U.S. schools. However, with the MCAT canceled or inaccessible in surrounding testing locations, he cannot apply to any medical school outside of Lebanon.

The student’s access to scientific equipment has affected his current cancer research and future resume opportunities, he said.

LAU counselors set up a mental health support group, offering students a platform to share their challenges, according to the “Talk It Out” program website.

Normal tasks become hard in traumatizing times; the student said he had new feelings of extreme fatigue and the need to always check on loved ones to ensure their safety.

“I’m studying, but in my heart, I’m not studying fully because I know something might happen that could ruin this,” the student said.

Myriam El Khoury-Malhame, an associate professor of psychology at LAU with a PhD in neuroscience and clinical psychology, grew up in Lebanon and was a student at AUB between 2000 and 2006. She recalled the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005 and the instability that resulted in her education.

“I would not have wished for more generations to see this, or to live this, or to witness this or to tell stories about this,” Malhame said.

This generational trauma is why she decided to specialize in trauma therapy. Lebanon has had a few times of peace to reflect on collective memories and try to move forward in a more positive way, according to Malhame.

“My way of contributing to a narrative is that there’s nothing ‘post’ to the traumas in our part of the world,” Malhame said. “And it’s very different from what the Western concept of PTSD is.”

Around 20% of the faculty of LAU are international and have evacuated Lebanon, according to Malhame. Students in Beirut, though, are still encouraged to attend classes in person.

“Social bonding has always been shown to be the best of protective factors in times of crises and war and atrocities,” Malhame said. “So, they’re there in person for each other, they’re not alone.”

To accommodate student limitations, exam dates are unconfirmed and school transitions from synchronous to asynchronous in reaction to the changing circumstances each week, according to Malhame.

The curriculum has also been affected, with professors teaching their respective subjects while also drawing direct examples of how students can impact their current environment. For example, Malhame’s colleagues in public health are teaching their students about white phosphorus, an incendiary weapon spread by missiles, and how to deal with their aftermath in a sustainable way.

The Israeli army fired artillery shells on civilian neighborhoods containing white phosphorus, a violation of humanitarian law, on multiple occasions in October 2023. The indiscriminate attack should be investigated as a war crime, according to Amnesty International.

Civil engineering students are also now learning about the effects of bombings on the structural integrity of buildings and how to address destroyed cities post-war, according to Malhame.

Israel’s military campaign has reduced dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon to gray craters on satellite imagery, according to Reuters.

The MEPI cohort of students will return to their home countries at the end of the fall semester.  Carrier, the director from the Global Education Office, explained that although all these students must leave VCU in a few weeks, they can coordinate with the Department of State about other locations they can go to in the event they cannot return to Lebanon. Their MEPI advisors are also assisting with academic planning amidst the uncertainty.