MIT-ASO Science and Technology Awards Banquet:

The MIT-ASO Science and Technology Awards Banquet, or SciTech Awards Banquet for short, honors the achievements of Arabs, and Arab-Americans, in U.S. institutions, who have had significant contributions in the fields of science and technology. The SciTech Awards are divided to four main categories: the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Young Professional Award, the Graduate Student Award, and the Undergraduate Student Award, in which the winners are selected by a selection committee of four MIT professors who come from different science and technology related backgrounds.

A list of the previous winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Farouk El-Baz (Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University), Hassan Ali (Professor Emeritus of Anaesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital), Charles Elachi (Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and VP of Caltech), Huda Zoghbi (Professor at Baylor College of Medicine), Ahmed Zewail (Director of the Physical Biology Center for Ultrafast Science and Technology at Caltech), Mostafa El-Sayed (Director of the Laser Dynamics Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology), Elias Zerhouni (Former Director of the National Institute of Health), Fawwaz Ulaby (Former Provost of KAUST). (Click here to read more)

MIT College Admissions Mentorship Program (CAAMP):

Due to our commitment to giving back to society, the ASO has been running its college admission mentorship  program, CAAMP, on an annual basis, since the program’s initiation in 2007. CAAMP aims to reach hardworking, intelligent prospective students who are unaware of the educational opportunities in the United States and/or the application process. In collaboration with MIT Admission Office, the ASO organizes various information sessions and workshops that touch on topics, such as, financial aid for international students, competitive universities’ application process, and student visa application procedure.  The ASO hopes to achieve its CAAMP vision through informational presentations and workshops at public and private high schools during the annual trip to the Middle East, meet with local high school students, parents, counselors, and MIT alumni to help better prepare students for college, and mentor students through the college application process.

Through collaborations with leading educational institutions in the MENA region, the first CAAMP “mission” reached over 700 high schools students in the Middle East and Northern Africa. The three subsequent trips managed to reach around 2,500, 2,700, 3500 students respectively. (click here to read more)