Last month, the teams at L’Orient Today and the American University of Beirut’s independent gazette, ‘Outlook,’ teamed up to launch the first step in a joint initiative spotlighting the next generation of budding journalists and future change-makers.
For young people in Lebanon, the map of their future is constantly changing, yet rarely are they invited to help draw it themselves. This competition aimed to change that by amplifying their voices and giving them a platform to be heard.
On April 11, 2025 we issued an open call for Outlook students to submit an original piece of writing on the theme of “Cultural preservation in the face of modernization.” Participants were invited to explore how communities across the Middle East are striving to protect their cultural heritage amid rapid modernization and globalization – a topic that directly affects the forthcoming generations.
We were thrilled by the number of responses we received, reflecting the zest and enthusiasm of these young individuals. The standard of their writing was full of promise, demonstrating real creativity and thoughtful engagement with the theme.
From the array of excellent submissions we received and after a careful review process, we have selected the following three winners that will be published on L’Orient Today. These pieces stood out to us not just for their eloquence and astute reflections, but also for the distinct individual voices that came through in their writing.
- When the song stops echoing by Ghassan Haddad
- Preserving the looking glass: A senstory study of Lebanese culture by Sabine Bakhsh
- Roots in the Rubble by Caren Khaddaj