From in front of the building of the Colleges of Sciences and Arts, where the thirteen groups of its first university graduates in various disciplines were hosted, the first meeting was launched for the Graduates' Forum of the Arab American University in overjoyed atmosphere between friends and classmates who were absent from each other for years, to be gathered again by the university.
The activities of the forum began with the regiments of graduates and their Deans and teachers meeting together. It included displaying pictures about the university since its inception, how it started, until the time it has reached recently, and they all recalling the college life they lived, the difficulties they faced and the beautiful attitudes they have been through.
Following, the graduates and university students, old and new, gathered in the Arab American University International Stadium for speeches and a concert. It was opened by the Palestinian National Anthem and a minute of silence for the souls of the martyrs and the martyrs of the university, then it was followed by the word of the President of the Arab American University Dr. Ali Zeidan Abu Zuhri, where he said: "Palestinian greeting, purely Arab greeting, I greet all of you with the Arab American University greeting, your university, your second home", conveying greetings from the chairman of the board of directors and the chairman of board of trustees, and the members of both boards.
He added, "I stand before you in this ceremony, and I am filled with happiness and pride. This ceremony brings together the university graduates and the already existing, and the new students for this academic year. I stand here before you and look at the our first thirteen groups of graduates and I recall the beginnings with my friend and my life-long companion Prof. Dr. Waleed Deeb, and the difficulties that all of us - management, professors, staff and students - had faced and suffered from. I recall the faces and features of the first batches of our students, who trusted in the university since its inception, and who became the best example of the affiliation of a student to his alma mater, as well as the students that followed them subsequently".
Dr. Abu Zuhri addressed his thanks to the Forum of the graduates of the Arab American University for their initiative and said: "You saw in your own eyes to what the university have reached after seventeen years of its opening, where it has made great strides in terms of academic development in the disciplines, faculties, laboratories teaching aids and the expansion in infrastructure and institutes. Those achievements would not have been accomplished except because of you and with you".
In his speech to the university students he wished them beautiful and successful study days, and asked them to tap into whatever the university provide them of science and knowledge, and to cooperate between them for the good and benefit, and told them, "I ask you and my heart is full of hope to look at your colleagues who had graduated from the university, and to the successes they reached and how they belong to the university and take pride in it, for it had put them on the path of life and opened their prospects for the future. "
In his speech, President and founder of the Arab American University Dr. Waleed Deeb said: “I want to read you excerpts from my speech that I gave at the graduation of the first group of the university students, and it was on 24th of June 2004, to remind you of it where I told you: “you are the first, and the first of you have a special place, we have learned from you and much you learned from us, and without your patience and endurance to the hardships and sufferings, this university would not have succeeded, because its success was due to the very first graduates, then to the following first graduates of this university, which began small with you, and grew bigger with you, and for you and through you it expanded and became five times more of faculty and staff, and the number of students multiplied during the four years. You passed experiences no one in your ages did, and we were tough with you and made you go the extra miles for a universal exam to measure the level of students at the universities, an exam not even the prestigious universities dare to go to, but we wanted to prove that we trusted as much as you trusted us”.
Then he directed his speech to the students who have graduated recently where he said: "four years of your life at the university have passed, during which you lived fatigue and comfort, success and failure and a lot of contradictions, and now you stand at the gates of another life, I wish you every success, and be ambassadors for this university wherever you go".
Dr. Deeb also addressed the new students where he told them: "You are fortunate that you met the former graduates to hear from them their success stories and to learn how a person builds his self, and I tell you, welcome to your university and I wish you all the best".
In the speech of the Forum of the Arab American University graduates which was read on their behalf by the graduate Qais al-Qasim who said: "establishing the forum was the idea of one colleague, and it became an initiative, and it will be a contributor and supportive to the students and graduates of the university", he expressed his happiness for this festival which was organized by the Arab American University, where he said: "a meeting which gathered the loved ones and friends after an absence of more than 12 years, a date we waited impatiently to remember the years that we have lived in the university, its good and bad, we remember how the university began, and now it has become a huge scientific beacon, a pride to every Palestinian". He thanked the Arab American University administration, and all who contributed to the success of this meeting.
In a comedy paragraph, Ammar Haseeba who graduated in 2004 had presented the stages that he lived when he chose to study at the university, and during registering, and the beautiful years he spent with his friends, and attitudes that he passed through during the years of study.
The events concluded with a singing paragraph by the artists Shadi Borini and Qasim al-Najjar, who hupa pitch with national and folk songs, where the graduates and students joined them in the longest string of popular Dabke, and the local Dahiah.
