Mar Elias High School

In September 1982 the first 80 students of Mar Elias High School assembled with their four teachers to begin a wonderful story of excellence in education for the youth of Galilee. The high school has grown to 1,160 students in 2007, with a waiting list of many more students who would enroll if MEEI had the space to house more classes.

As a result, Mar Elias High School is planning to add 14 more classrooms in new construction added above a current Technical College building.  Funding from friends of MEEI will be an important factor in moving these additional classrooms toward completion during 2008 and 2009.

Every day at Mar Elias High School, students arrive by buses and private automobiles from 70 villages in a 50 mile radius of Ibillin. They travel such a distance because of the high quality of education the students receive at Mar Elias. 

The students gather in the parking lot at 8:15 every morning.  One of the High School Staff Members speaks to the gathered students for fifteen minutes about their common values and aspirations as well as about their distinctive traditions. As a result of these daily presentations the students are inspired to believe and live by very basic truths. "God does not kill. All are born as babies created in the image of God. Christians, Muslims, and Jews are blood brothers, children of Abraham. Peace with justice is the dream and the right of all human beings." Such truths provide the students with guiding principles that will last a life time.