For its third seminar entitled "Le mérite pour un avenir” (Merit for a Future), which was organized under the high patronage of Mr. Vincent Peillon, Minister of National Education and Mr. Claude Bartolone, President of the National Assembly of France, Les Chemins de la réussite (The Paths of Success) Association invited two executives from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik to contribute. The latter were Professor Nehme Azoury, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Commercial Sciences and Professor Nicole Chalhoub, Head of the Doctoral College and Assistant to the President for Academic Affairs.

The seminar, held in partnership with experts from the Ministry of the Interior, aimed at showing that all territories, even the most difficult, included talented people who were able to develop worthwhile professional or academic projects. It also had the aim of having a number of students and talented young people sponsored by ministers.

The seminar, which was held on Tuesday November 27, 2012 in Room Victor Hugo of the National Assembly of France, brought together various ministers, deputies, sociologists, public sector specialists, university professors and students. Proceedings revolved around three roundtables:

• Diversity and discrimination: the end of the glass ceiling?
• Diversity and talent.
• Diversity and equality: perspective or illusion?

Professor Nehme Azoury and Professor Nicole Chalhoub presented their papers during the second roundtable, which was co-presided by Mr. Jean Mallot Chief of Staff of the Minister of Relations with Parliament and Mr. Frédéric Lefèbvre, Secretary of State for Trade, Crafts, Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises, Tourism, Services, Liberal Professions and Consumption. The first paper shed light on the identity problems of youth in the Middle East while the second highlighted the efforts exerted by the University to bridge the gap between multicultural and intercultural understanding.

The two colleagues from the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik were warmly praised and thanked by Mr. Abdelkader Haroune, President of Les Chemins de la réussite Association and the Chief of Staff of the French Ministry of the Interior, who promised to visit the USEK campus as soon as possible, in order to strengthen the cooperation between the University and the aforesaid association.