Dear Orange Friends:
Our women’s lacrosse team played their hearts out Sunday night against a talented Maryland squad in the national championship game. Maryland won in a close contest played in Maryland. My heart broke seeing the anguish on the faces of some of our players at the end. Thousands of Syracuse fans showed up and stayed throughout the game and the ceremonies that followed, cheering for our students throughout.
It was a great season for this team, led by Coach Gary Gait. I hope you will join me in congratulating them for a great year, and in cheering for them next season.
I went to the championship game almost directly from Dubai, where Ruth and I visited the Dubai Contracting Company (DCC), home to the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s Dubai summer internship program. Launched in 2008 and sponsored by our wonderful alumnus Abdallah Yabroudi, president and CEO of DCC, the internship program offers seven civil engineering students the opportunity to spend one month in Dubai studying with students from Lebanese American University. Together, the students are getting the kind of real-world experience classroom teaching alone can’t provide.
Dubai is an amazing laboratory for construction, as it is among the largest and fastest-growing cities in the world. Professor Yabroudi arranges for the students to be fully immersed in his company, to visit many construction sites, to meet with leaders in all aspects of civil engineering, and also to have fun with each other and the Lebanese students in many venues.
This is a rigorous internship that greatly enhances the knowledge and employability of the students, and it is a model for what we can do in many areas.
I hope you are having a great summer!
Chancellor Kent Syverud