The University of Michigan-Dearborn?s (UM-Dearborn) Henry Patton Center for Engineering Education and Practice (HP-CEEP), together with its partners the Center for Entrepreneurship (CFE) at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and the Arab American Women?s Business Council (AAWBC), will design and manage a program to provide fellowship opportunities to young and/or female entrepreneurs,
social entrepreneurs, small business owners, business development activists and business educators from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The main objective of this program is to expose entrepreneurs, small business owners, private sector development specialists and business educators from the MENA
region to best practices in entrepreneurial innovation and small business growth in the United States, with an emphasis on the role of women and youth. Participants will increase their understanding of the links between entrepreneurial activity, free markets, and job creation. The main goals of the program include
promoting mutual understanding and lasting partnerships between individuals and organizations in the US and MENA, providing foreign participants with the opportunity to gain knowledge of US practices in their fields of expertise, and providing Americans with the opportunity to share their expertise.

The program will provide a comprehensive set of strategies to promote women and young entrepreneurs and small business owners, primarily in high technology fields, in the MENA region. Thirtytwo participants (16 per session, 4 per country) from the four target countries ? Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Israel/Palestinian Territories, will be placed one-month fellowships in Michigan and will attend the
Professional Fellows Congress in Washington D.C. There will be a classroom component, co-developed and run by the CFE. The fellowship placements will be mostly in small local businesses, many of which will be Arab-American owned. Two groups of eight American participants will subsequently travel to the MENA
region to share their expertise with the MENA fellows that they hosted in Michigan and provide consulting advice to local organizations, thus sustaining the network created. The travel to the U.S. by foreign participants is planned for April and October 2013, while American participant travel to MENA is scheduled for September 2013 and in the Spring of 2014.