Rana El Chemaitelly founded The Little Engineer in July 2009, in Beirut. She is an instructor in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut, teaching in the Mechanical and Engineering Management Department. The Little Engineer is an after-school edutainment center which introduces kids and teens to pre-engineering courses such as robotics, physics, electricity, electronics, renewable energy and more. With her organization and her partners, she wants to bridge the gap between schools and universities by exposing youth to what they might expect at university, in case they want to join the faculty of engineering. She says: “I believe that I can at least distract my kids for few hours in the week, away from electronic games, entertaining them with some educational and environmental activities, to prepare them to meet the challenges of the future”.
Rana’s venture was a one-woman show when she started out and she confessed: “When I opened my third center in East Lebanon this Spring, there were people burning tires and fighting in the streets nearby. I almost wondered if I wasn’t crazy to be going ahead in this context!”.
Rana has graduated from the American University of Beirut and holds a Master degree in Engineering and Industrial Management. In 2011, she was nominated for Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards.
