Three eager students from the Zahia Kaddoura Public School for Girls recently met with Lara Kerbaj, Assistant Director of Bicharaf, to share their progress on advancing academic integrity. Rasha Skayki, Rita Assaf, and Dani Abi Khouzam attended the Bicharaf Leadership Camp in February, and since the camp’s conclusion, these enthusiastic students are creating academic integrity awareness at their school. These students are actively helping their peers to become more familiar with the Bicharaf website and are encouraging their friends to take the Bicharaf Academic Student Survey.
Rasha offered a brief update on the first activity the students offered at their school. These students gave short presentations to the 7th and 8th grade students to discuss academic integrity and shared thoughts about the Bicharaf’s objectives. “The students got so excited after they heard about the camp we attended, and wished they could attend a Bicharaf Leadership Camp, too,” Rasha added. The girls agreed that the classroom presentations were very successful and the students didn’t mind missing their breaks.
Dani shared about the successful movie event they hosted, a screening of an episode from Adventures from the Book of Virtues for 8th grade students. The series features two friends, Zack and Annie. In each episode, one of the characters goes against that episode’s value, such as honesty, integrity, or loyalty. Because the character committed a wrongdoing, he or she suffers the consequences of his or her action. Dani and Ms. Loubbana, their advisor, explained that the students were really engaged in the screening and were interested to know more about integrity and good character. Dani recommends this series to other schools, and believes that it is a great way to reach the younger generation. After the screening, the Bicharaf students gave a presentation that introduced the Bicharaf initiative.
Bicharaf is incredibly proud of the initiative the Zahia Kaddoura students have been taking, and we encourage other schools to do the same. The students are using the tools they have learned from Bicharaf and are effectively implementing those tools at their school in order to make a change.