The Excellence Center visited Hebron’s Chamber of Commerce on Monday, 20th of June, 2016. The purpose of our trip was to interview about a dozen employees who are interested in taking courses at the Center. The level of the students ranged form beginners to intermediate. Moreover, we met with the CEO of the Chamber, Jawad Sayyed Al-Herbawi. We discussed the future plans for the students and agreed that the best time to begin the courses would be after the month of Ramadan. Furthermore, the courses will be held at Hebron’s Chamber of Commerce to accommodate the schedule of the students.
Osama Abu-Husseini of the Excellence Center, also participated in the interview process. He decided it would be best to have two classes for the students in order to ensure everyone’s level of speaking English is taken into account. The interviews lasted about five minutes each. The students expressed interest in the questions that were being asked. The question pertaining to traveling was answered with great eagerness. Many students expressed interest in improving their English speaking skills to ease future traveling plans.
Additionally, some students stated that they were enrolling in the classes to refresh their memories. Many of the students categorized into the intermediate level have higher proficiency levels, however, due to the lack of language usage, they have forgotten some of the words and ways to express themselves. Lastly, some of the students were just looking to learn the basics of the language. It was agreed upon that the beginner level courses will be attended by a fluent speaker in Arabic. The Excellence Center provides fluent Arabic speakers to assist the international volunteers at the beginner levels.
Excellence Center’s visit to the Hebron Chamber of Commerce was concluded by a final meeting with Mr. Harbawi. Future plans of cooperation between the Chamber and the Excellence Center were discussed. As mentioned previously, the classes will begin after Ramadan to ensure that the students are provided with full and undivided attention. Mr. Harbawi requested that the Excellence Center prepare the contracts ASAP so that we may proceed with the scheduling of the classes and deciding on which volunteers will be teaching the courses at Hebron’s Chamber of Commerce.