During the month of August 2020, six engineering students Georges Madi, Jad Jarade, Karine Ismail, Raphael Sassine, Rosy Tawil, and Serge Makhoul did a virtual internship at mavencare.ai in California. For Mr. Pierre Moubarak (USJ-ESIB alumnus), who followed up the students during the full process, “The internship students have done a great job working and completing a challenging project amid very difficult circumstances in Lebanon. I was very impressed by their technical and organizational skills as well as their personal talents and their motivation to learn and research new technologies.” As per the representatives of the company: “this project helped them tackle a new challenge they are facing, engage students' energy and creative power to strive during the crisis, and connect with Lebanese youth”. Students found this experience helped them learn and practice new competencies on technical, human, and international levels with leading companies during these difficult times. 

Georges Madi commented, “I got in touch with a field that I didn't imagine myself in and I got to experience a remote internship with an international company. I couldn't have wished for a better first time than this and I am grateful for everyone that made this possible.” For Serge Makhoul “This internship experience was honestly amazing and enlightening. Being remote, it was a new type of challenge and taught us how to handle working from home on our personal machines and prepare for online meetings and presentations.” Raphael Sassine told us: “This one-month internship was a triple experience: it was remote, international and in an industry that was unfamiliar to me, the healthcare industry. It really got me closer to my ultimate career goal.”  For Rosy El Tawil added “The internship opened my eyes to the vast world of medical technology which is a subject that I have never tackled before, and being remote helped me know how to manage my own time, it allowed me to work on my own time and terms.”

Starting summer 2021, USJ will be offering its students in different schools an international virtual internship. This internship is a team project-based activity. Multidisciplinary teams of six to eight participants will work to solve one institutional challenge. Each week students will meet with a professor and a company coach that will lead them to a clear understanding of the company and will help them identify a tangible solution. At the end of the eight weeks, students will have a clear understanding of the challenge, potential solutions, and a proposed prototype. 

This new innovative internship model opens doors for international collaboration. Companies will get access to the rich Lebanese talent base online. Students can access the global market while getting local support.