Thank you all for your questions! feel free to contact us for more info!
how you will develop the content?
We are currently seeking partnerships with many organizations that could deliver programs (STEAM, active learning…) we’re taking online courses on different subjects to enhance the content we already have. We seek training sessions on the subjects we’re working on.
how will you make sure the content is fitting the purpose enough?
An assessment for each student is done every month including his grades, his school teachers’ feedback to address his understanding, communications, proactivity…, the parents’ feedback, academic skills acquired in the center, assessment for the projects the student has done…
how you will approach customers ?
Word of mouth is a powerful tool for us in our current market. as we tend to scale up, social media platforms are key. We’ll focus on delivering an explanation for our methods in engaging posts, their results and more educational information. We have already distributed surveys in schools for the parents to fill (it was a study on how parents look at programs such as this) and now we have a data base including phone numbers to connect to our direct customers through Whatsapp, to offer the explanation for our methods, results and latest offers. And since we have good connections with teachers, they refer students sometimes. Also, we are organizing open-days to engage many students in free activities that will give them a taste for what’s inside.
can you provide more clarity on the business model ?
1- monthly tutoring fee: variable according to the class and number of subjects registered.
2- hourly tutoring fee depending on the class.
3- Summer camps fee.
4- training sessions/activities fee.
What is the innovation that you’re actually proposing?
What differentiates you than all the other academic programs coming out at this point?
Our project is in rural areas were the services we are providing are very new to the community here and the fact that we combine enhancing student’s characters to be more active learners/citizens with working on their academic improvement. Our background comes from a volunteering experience with an active engagement with students rather than theoretical educational courses only.
How do you plan on engaging different stakeholders in Hasbaya community?
We meet with school principals and teachers on a regular basis to discuss students’ performance and maintain good relationships. We take regular feedback from students’ parents through calls. We plan on organizing open-days and be more involved in the community events.
What are each of the team member’s backgrounds?
Issamar Safa:
Chemistry _ UL
3 years’ experience at tutoring centers
volunteering with Red Cross youth department
volunteering with humanitarian values and principles program (RC youth)
20 years at scout
2 years DMS
Volunteering with Momken
Training with AMIDEAST
Ghiwa Abou Kansour
Master 1 physics Lebanese university
Teaching diploma
Delf B2 certificate
tutoring (4 years)
internship at MNC school
certificate of Achievement “employability and entrepreneurship” from AMIDEAST and Citi Foundation “Skills for Success”
Lebanese Red Cross - Department of Youth -Hadath
Be The Change training - Adolescents to benefit their community
Volunteering with Momken
Marwa Ammar
LU, faculty of Public Health.
Red Cross Youth volunteer.
Scout Volunteer.
Momken Volunteer.
Training with AMIDEAST
Training sessions with any organizations.
6 years tutoring experience.
Who exactly are the mentors/tutors? The three of us along with 2 teachers at the moment.
Do the mentors/tutors have previous experience in education & psychology?
You talk about students’ psychology. Is there a psychological framework that you use?
Assets for education: our degrees along with 5 years tutoring experience.
Assets for psychology: training sessions from our volunteering experience(Red Cross youth, scouts) and our psychological consultants.
How you can make it more scalable?
How does the team intend to grow beyond the Hasbaya area?
This is a human driven program - how will you scale by 4x next year ?
We will reach x4 students by providing STEAM courses, life skills training sessions for students. we will be targeting mainly schools.
these services do not require daily meeting with the students and they’re achievable with the resources we already have once we get the content ready…
As For our tutoring service it’ll be hard to scale it up x4 next year because this service requires opening another branch (it requires daily meeting with the students, new teachers’ team and training, overhead cost, building our network with schools/parents, marketing)
This seems to be a fairly straightforward connection of tutors to students who need it. What do you need investment for, and how will the accelerator program help you grow over the next 4 months?
we mainly are looking to implement new ways of learning in rural areas, particularly STEAM education. and we’re looking into active learning and how to implement it in the center and even in the schools! along with new content for training sessions. this accelerator will provide the training sessions needed, resources for programs and organizations, connections and a guided growth process. please refer to the attached budget above to have an idea on how the money will be spent. The goal is with the implementation of those categories, rural students will acquire the skills needed to succeed in jobs now-days.
Great presentation. Try to focus more on what you girls have as an extra value add to differentiate from existing after-school initiatives.
Thank you we appreciate this advice 
The team is specialized in Special needs student ?
Unfortunately no. But it’s definitely something to think about for future developments!.
In times where mobility is not possible and the reliance on technology is more than ever important, how will you ensure your programming is relevant and impact in the coming few years?
Since the corona virus crisis began, we closed the center and moved online. We are currently using “zoom” to teach the students.
After 3 weeks we assessed this method using surveys and calls. This is our first experience in online teaching and training and we see a great potential lying there as we could deliver the same quality of teaching as we did in the center. The students were comfortable with it and we, as tutors, could access a lot of online resources and show it immediately to the students! So this is our first experience which we loved! We are looking into developing a website with a suitable platform for online teaching, still a fresh idea though.
have you tried to address teachers? coz attitude of teachers is a key issue and have big impact on students.
Absolutely!, we have regular meetings with them to let them know about each student specific needs and they can tell us about how the student is performing within the classroom, also to discuss different methods and approaches and we attend Parents-teachers conferences.
Market size defined as geographical - needs to be in numbers. Noted thank you
Anticipate rapid need post Corona - some students will have fallen behind. Great market opportunity!
Thanks for the heads up!
In some cases the issue faced by such students is that they are not able to offer the solution, so maybe consider having a social giving by telling people that for every 2 students registered a student will be able to receive the support for free or figure the way that works with you.
Also consider making the parents aware for not to compare their children by others.
Great presentation and slides! Keep on your hard work.
Noted thank you
Did you generate revenue since October 2018 or not yet?
We started with zero Lebanese Lera and reinvested everything we generated. 16 M LBP so far!
age group/grade? How would you engage the parents?
Grade 1 to Grade 9, 6 to 14 years. by regular communication and sessions to explain our methods and how they can help from home.
Best of luck
Thank you
Who would cover the cost on behalf of less economically able students?
We offer discounts for those students. Thank you it made us think of new ways!
it is all online? And are 3 mentors enough? How long do you meet with each student?
It is online now because of the crisis but there is an actual center. There are more teachers hired, and we meet 5 days a week, from 3 P.M till 6 P.M.
Do you plan on expanding onto the MOOCs market?
Not at the moment but great idea! Thanks!
What are the costs and how can it be scaled up? Can the model be replicated in many areas of Lebanon? and What kind of materials are required?
for tutoring services, It can scale up by opening branches in more rural areas. Once the content is updated with the new programs we want to implement (and buying the resources for them), the costs for scaling would be an equipped center with the overhead cost, teachers training and salaries.
However, the training programs alone (STEAM, life skills, social responsibility) could be given to schools all over rural areas (without opening another branch) with an extra cost of transportation only.
