The American Graduate School in Paris welcomed the Class of 2012 of the Master of Arts in International Relations and Diplomacy, Arcadia’s affiliated program, for their first day of classes on Sept. 13.

The 24 students are from eight different nationalities: United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Georgia, Nigeria, Ghana and Malaysia. The faculty teaching in this master’s program also are very international, coming from 15 different countries.

The registration was held on Sept. 9 in the presence of H.E.Samira Hanna-El Daher, Representative of Lebanon to the Executive Board of UNESCO. Ambassador El Daher is a career diplomat who was the first woman in Lebanon to be named Ambassador, and the first woman worldwide to be an Ambassador in Japan. She also served as Head of Mission in China, Australia, and Great Britain, Ambassador to the Philippines, Switzerland, and Cyprus, as well as Consul General in New York and Legal Advisor of the Lebanese Permanent Mission to the United Nations. She is now part of the American Graduate School in Paris faculty and is teaching the course on Foreign Policy Formulation and Diplomacy.

Ambassador El-Daher says: “Teaching to young minds and exchanging with them is a tremendously enriching experience. Working with the very engaging, supportive, knowledgeable yet relaxed AGS faculty has made this experience irreplaceable—one that I would not want to have missed out on.”

Also present at registration were the president of the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS, professor Eileen Servidio, Ph.D., and the president of the School of Business and Economics at AGS, professor Ali Fatemi, Ph.D., as well as professors Joav Toker and Ruchi Anand, Ph.D., among others.

The Master of Arts in International Relations and Diplomacy at the American Graduate School in Paris is a two-year program based on the American system of higher education, yet it is taught entirely in France and gathers students and faculty from around the world. It is accredited in the United States as an affiliated program of Arcadia University.

The American Graduate School in Paris (www.ags.edu) is a not-for-profit institution that offers U.S. higher education in France to students from every continent. It has programs in Business and Economics and programs in International Relations and Diplomacy.