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Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET), formerly known as Middle East Education Through Technology, is an innovative program that brings together Palestinian and Israeli young leaders through the common language of technology and entrepreneurship. Working in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 2004, MEET's goal is to educate and empower the next generation of Israeli and Palestinian young leaders to take action towards creating positive social and political change in the Middle East.
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Structure
MEET teaches computer science, entrepreneurship and leadership to excelling high school students (age 15-17) over three years. The program comprises 3 consecutive summers with volunteer instructors from MIT, and weekly program sessions in the two intervening years at the MEET hubs in Jerusalem and Nazareth, taught by MEET alumni. Run entirely in English, the program provides MEET's 200 high school students with the skills, values and network to become "agents of change" in the region. Graduates of the program stay connected through the Alumni Program and continue developing social and business projects at the MEET Venture Lab in Jerusalem, in partnership with Google.
The students: excelling youth from the West Bank, Jerusalem (East and West) and the Nazareth area. MEET is unique in its ability to bring together these communities in one cohesive and intense long-term program. Students are evenly distributed across gender and nationality and gain a deeper understanding of each other and the conflict through working on pragmatic projects with real world impact.
The entire program is conducted in English. Neither students nor instructors pay to participate.
History
MEET was founded in 2004 by a group of young Israeli and Palestinian students and professionals. At start, it was three friends: Anat Binur, a graduate student in political science at MIT, her brother, Yaron Binur, and Assaf Harlap, who came up with the idea. Soon after, two Palestinian friends Abeer Hazboun and Sandra Ashhab joined the team.
Board of Directors
Purpose
The program is designed to empower Israeli and Palestinian youth through education, and technology. By connecting students through joint interests and to opportunities to learn about each other, the program offers more than just a platform for action beyond dialogue.
MEET is grounded on the vision of developing common ground between Israeli and Palestinian youth, providing a safe forum for them to meet and discover one another's cultures, and explore similarities and differences. Despite being only a few miles apart, Israelis and Palestinians' views of each other are largely based on media, propaganda and politics, but rarely through personal interaction where the seeds of humanity could be sown. MEET facilitates a shared common ground through an innovative educational environment for Israeli and Palestinian high school students to learn to look at one another not simply as fellow individuals, but as potential partners and collaborators in a joint common future.
MEET is affiliated with MIT.