Harb Family Helps Launch Middle East Study Abroad
With the Harb family’s help, a new study abroad program to Jordan will immerse students in Palestinian history and culture, add perspective on global issues, and prepare students for international careers.
Nearly 75 years after the first person of Palestinian descent graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a new program will allow students to experience his culture while preparing for international careers.
George S. Harb (’52) was the first graduate in a family with strong ties to the university, which is launching a study abroad program in May 2026 focusing on Palestinian history and culture with a two-week trip to Amman, Jordan.
The UT Experiences Palestine Fund will provide travel scholarships for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students as they learn about possible careers in diplomacy, business, humanitarian aid, and more, meeting directly with people working in those fields.
After graduating in 1947 from the Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank, Palestine, Harb followed family members to Knoxville, where they had started their first business two decades earlier.
“His uncles encouraged him to attend UT, providing him with a solid education and foundation to begin his adult life and succeed in both his business and community life,” said George’s son Daniel Harb, donor steward of the fund supporting students in the new program. Besides George Harb, two other students who left Palestine and attended UT in the 1950s were George Jubran and Maurice George Msarsa (BS ’55, MS ’59).
“I want to help students from Appalachia and Tennessee know these international careers are within their reach,” said the program’s faculty director, Associate Professor Matt Buehler of the Department of Political Science. He chairs the Middle East Studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences and is a senior fellow at the Center for National Security and Foreign Affairs in UT’s Howard H. Baker Jr. School for Public Policy and Public Affairs.
Additionally, the program will immerse students in Palestinian and Arab culture and help them develop a more sophisticated understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They will be able to earn course credit in Middle East Studies or political science.
The program is beginning in Amman, where between 60 percent and 80 percent of residents are of Palestinian descent, making it a cultural center of the Palestinian diaspora.
Volunteer Legacy
Since W. J. and John Harb founded Harb’s Oriental Shop specializing in rugs about a century ago, their descendants have grown deep roots on Rocky Top, as well as in the Knoxville business and civic community.
“There are over 300 members of the Harb/Jubran family in Tennessee, and a very large portion of them are UT alumni,” Buehler said.
Four of W. J. Harb’s children graduated from UT, and three were named Torchbearers, the highest honor for a student, recognizing academic excellence, service, and leadership: Eleanor Harb Marine (’59), Joseph W. Harb (MD ’60), and Charlene Harb (’65).
“We’re incredibly proud of that,” said Roger Harb (’83), who also has been involved in creating the fund. “How much more of a rich tradition can you have?”
Daniel and Roger’s cousin Raja Jubran (’81), founder of Denark Construction, has served on the UT Board of Trustees as well as the board of advisors for both the Tickle College of Engineering and the College of Architecture and Design. Denark has built major infrastructure projects in Knoxville, including Covenant Health Park—the Tennessee Smokies’ new baseball stadium in the Old City.
Cousins Samyah Jubran (BA ’91, JD ‘95), a Knox County assistant district attorney, and Nada Jubran Kuchinic (’86), have served as members of the UT Chancellor’s Associates. Another cousin, Faris Eid (’83), is founder of Design Innovation Architects, one of Knoxville’s largest architectural firms.
“Our long ancestral heritage is Palestine, and I believe it’s important for students to experience the land, culture, traditions, and people in a way that is much different than is typically portrayed or seen in traditional media,” said Daniel Harb. “It’s the experience, appreciation, and respect of other cultures that draw us nearer as people.”
“There is a seriously deficient knowledge of Palestine,” Roger Harb said, adding as an example that many people don’t realize that there is a Christian population in Palestine. “I’m hoping this program helps to shatter negative false stereotypes and gives our students a hands-on direct experience of a culture and a people that they will then make their own decisions on what is fact and what is fiction. We want to provide these students with a wonderful, unique opportunity to get a factual education.”
Buehler has traveled extensively in the Middle East over the past two decades. In preparing for the first year of the program he met with about a dozen UT alumni in Amman, Jordan.
“I want each student to be paired with a local alumni family that can host them for dinner and get to know them on a one-on-one basis,” he said. “I think that will really help to enhance the cultural experience.”
Immersive International Experience
In the spring of 2025 Buehler taught a new First-Year Studies course, Careers in World Politics, centered on how to prepare for a job at organizations such as the U.S. State Department, World Bank, and the United Nations.
The program UT Experiences Palestine in Jordan: Exploring Careers in International Aid and Peacebuilding will help students prepare professional pathways, such as learning how to secure international internships and to prepare for graduate school admissions and the foreign service exam. Their assignments will include writing a 10-year career roadmap, preparing for futures in a global community.
While in Jordan, they will visit US, Israeli, and Palestinian embassies to talk with diplomats about their careers and gain a more sophisticated understanding of the peace process, explained Buehler.
Visiting international relief organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, they will network with other professionals and learn about their career pathways too, gaining a greater understanding that with an arts and sciences degree they can do more than they may have imagined.
“The students are going to go to the Jordan office of the United Nations and see the different programs that it implements in the Palestinian refugee camps,” Buehler explained. “They’ll visit an educational facility, they’ll visit a medical facility, they’ll see micro loans for small business development for refugees’ economic self-sufficiency, and then we’ll look at refugee shelter enhancement and maintenance programs.”
At the Madaba Palestinian refugee camp the Volunteers will install a new sports field and mural at a girls school, working with two nonprofit organizations, Knoxville-based The Athletes’ Table (TAT) and the Amman-based Finaa Organization, led by Zein Twal, a former member of the Jordanian women’s national soccer team.
TAT focuses on what role sports can play in community development and works to create access to sports in under-resourced areas, including training coaches to become what Founder and CEO Jonah German calls “hope-inducing mentors.”
The Madaba camp is home to more than 10,000 refugees, with narrow roads and concrete buildings with few windows. The UN girls school currently has a concrete slab with a basketball backboard that has no rim.
UT students will work with community members and students at the school to install a sports floor and goals, as well as paint a mural on the U-shaped building walls around it. Afterward there will be a celebration, with a DJ and opportunities for the girls to play.
“It’s hard to humanize people who live so far away from you,” German said. After learning about the history of the region, the experience of connecting with people can be life-changing, he said.
“For me, studying abroad is the most important thing that ever happened to me, so I’m always trying to give back to students and help them have similar experiences,” Buehler said.
“I’m very proud of my university, particularly with the outstanding leadership,” Roger Harb said. “We’re possibly in the golden era of the University of Tennessee growing opportunities for students that are unique and immersive.”
By Amy Beth Miller