The origins of the lazord foundation

The Lazord Foundation was created to support young college graduates driven to make an impact in their local communities. The pieces came together in 2010 when Barbara Ibrahim, Nelly Corbel, and Anna Irwin Manice joined to create the first Lazord Fellowship program.

In 2008, Anna met some scholarship students from the American University in Cairo (AUC) and was inspired by their vision, determination, and love for their country. She wanted to create a program to provide graduates such as themselves with local employment opportunities, educational enrichment, mentoring, and a strong network. She presented her idea to Barbara Ibrahim, the Director of AUC’s John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement. The idea aligned with the Gerhart Center’s vision and years of experience strengthening civic engagement and philanthropy in the region, so the Center pulled together a campus-wide committee with individuals from AUC’s career center to the LEAD undergraduate scholarship program to design and successfully run the pilot year of the fellowship program, chaired by Nelly Corbel. This is how Barbara introduced Anna to Nelly Corbel, who was working on a youth leadership program and curriculum for civic education at the Gerhart Center. Anna and Nelly ended up co-founding the Lazord Foundation and the rest is history. Anna focused on scaling up the foundation while Nelly developed the program regionally and was instrumental in creating the curriculum that the Lazord Foundation uses today.

The first Lazord Fellowship began at the Gerhart Center in Egypt in 2010 with 3 female graduates. It has since expanded to INJAZ in Jordan, and UTIL Tunisia with 30 fellows a year. The Lazord Foundation, a U.S. 501(c)3, was formed in order to support the current fellowships as well as create similar programs in neighboring countries around the Mediterranean. The foundation is excited about the opportunity to capitalize on the creativity and expertise of young graduates and provide a civic education that they can put to immediate use!

Timeline

2007
2008

Anna writes a paper at Princeton University about the LEAD scholarship program at AUC; realizing there is space to expand the program beyond graduation

2009
2010

The Student Leaders for Service is redesigned at the Gerhart Center.

2010
2011

Both programs evolve in parallel following the same methodology.

2011
2012

The programs merge under the name Lazord and a new chapter in Jordan is discussed.

2012
2013

The Lazord fellowship opens in Jordan, hosted by INJAZ,  while continuing in Egypt.

2015
2016

A Lazord chapter opens in Tunisia, hosted by UTIL

2016
2017

The Lazord Fellowship program reaches 100 Lazord alumni

Special thanks

Great success comes from great people. We would like to especially thank:

Amal Saffar
Amani el Shimi
Amy Rowe
Barbara Ibrahim
Chandrakant Komarigiri
David Arnold
Deema Bibi
Fawaz Salah
Hana Shahin
Jack Zook
John Irwin
Lamya Marafi
Laura Seltzer

Lorlene Hoyt
Menan Samy
Moez Ali
Mohamed Hesham
Mohammed Khalil
Muhannad AlJarrah
Myrna Atallah
Omar Nimri
Sarrah Kassem
Sherwet Ahmed
Shiz Gerami
Sulaf Taha