George Meghabghab, computer science professor at Roane State Community College was born in Lebanon and lived in France and Georgia before coming to teach at Roane State Community College.
“I rode on many people’s waves. Many people opened the door for me, and many people wanted to shut the door. Sometimes I say whatever happened happened,” he told a crowd at Roane State Community College’s Oak Ridge branch campus as part of a lecture he gave about his life.
“I’m a believer. Allow me to say that. I hope you don’t feel offended that I’m sharing my faith. So, I believe the voice that spoke to me was God’s voice in my life,” he said.
Meghabghab said he was raised Roman Catholic but was “born again” and currently attends Knoxville Praise Tabernacle Church. During his talk he credited a “voice” with leading to specific career decisions.
“I pray, whatever I said, you will find God’s voice in your life,” he told the audience.
Roane State officials are planning talks by other faculty members who immigrated or spent significant time outside the United States, according to C. Casey Cobb, the college’s director of international education.
In response to a question from the audience, Meghabghab said he did have trouble, as someone from the Middle East, after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He said a man at a conference did not want to sit next to him because Middle Easterners had attacked the United States.
His talk focused not just on being an immigrant to the United States, but also on his life, family and career in general.
He called life “a series of dynamic processes.”
Meghabghab said he was born in Qab-Elias in the Bekaa Valley in 1957. Describing the area, he said grain was farmed there for the Roman Empire.
He left Lebanon when he was 19, studied in Paris at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie. He said he got a temporary H1 Visa, a type of permission to come to the United States for technical work or studies, in 1984.
He later became a U.S. citizen, he said.
“I’m proud of that,” Meghabghab told the audience.
He said he was “happily” married, having wed in 2001, and has two children. When asked about what he likes to do in his spare time, he said he likes to spend it with his family and is involved at his church.
He said his sister still lives in Lebanon and the two of them video chat at times. One of his brothers lives in France, while another, like him, immigrated to the USA.
‘More brave than I am’
He referred to his family members who stayed in Lebanon during the 1975 through 1990 conflict as “more brave than I am.” He spoke about Lebanon’s difficulties with, and invasions by, its neighbors Syria and Israel. He compared the situation to Ukraine’s current invasion by its neighbor, Russia. He said people should s “support” for the people going through war right now in Ukraine.
After coming to the United States, according to his talk and a Roane State news release, Meghabghab obtained his doctorate in computer science from Florida State and taught for 11 years at Valdosta State in Georgia.
When he came to Roane State in 1999, the college didn’t have a stand-alone computer science program, and that field of study was relegated to the business degree curriculum.
The Tennessee Board of Regents later directed all community colleges to offer a computer science major. Meghabghab said he had the honor of launching that field of study at Roane State in 2015.
Initially, only six students were enrolled in the program. Today, there are 128 students, and the program has attained national recognition, the release stated. A cyber defense curriculum has also been added, and the college has been named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense.
“We have great resources in the great United States of America, but we don’t know sometimes how to hide those resources,” Meghabghab said regarding cyber security breaches.
At this point, he told The Oak Ridger, he is happy to live in Knoxville and work in Oak Ridge.
“It’s not good for your career, moving, jumping around,” he told The Oak Ridger after his talk.
“I like quiet towns,” he said regarding Oak Ridge and why he’s felt like spending time in it.
Ben Pounds is a staff reporter for The Oak Ridger. Call him at (865) 441-2317, follow him on Twitter @Bpoundsjournal and email him at [email protected].
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