Soft-spoken and of a mild temperament, Sanaa Ghanem ’82 is clearly comfortable in her role as a leading innovator in the typically male dominated e-business industry. A woman of few, but well thought out words, Ghanem is by all accounts a pioneer who brought Arabic language instruction to the online world. 

Ghanem had the unique experience of teaching Arabic at the University of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and English at the African Development Bank.  "This is where I realized the severe shortage of technologically advanced Arabic teaching materials as compared to English”, explained Ghanem. “And I felt committed to contribute to the field of teaching Arabic."

Inspired to revolutionize Arabic language instruction, Ghanem returned to Cairo as a faculty member at the Arabic Language Institute, AUC in 1994.  She knew that the use of computers would be an integral part and enrolled in a two-year professional computer certificate program at the Center for Adult and Continuing Education at AUC. While completing the certificate, Ghanem began developing the software she would use to teach Arabic to her students.

Simultaneously, Ghanem approached a commercial software company with the idea of creating online courses to teach Arabic. The company rejected the idea. Even academic institutions were not interested in her proposition. But as fate would prove, this was a blessing in disguise.

Determined not take no for an answer, Ghanem took the initiative to turn her vision into a reality.  “When our courses went online, I was really moved when I saw many of my students volunteering their time and effort to help out,” said Ghanem. 

The Arabic courses were first put on CDs and tested under real classroom conditions by teachers and students. Ghanem’s next challenge was in finding a viable market for her product. The answer came in the form of a dot com. In 2000, Ghanem officially launched Arab Academy, an online Arabic language program with the registration of 2000 students from 69 countries. Today, the website provides Arabic language training to students of all ages from more than 127 countries.  Arab Academy also delivers an online Arabic language proficiency test (ALPT).

“Arab Academy has succeeded in being the world’s leading provider of online Arabic language courses and proficiency tests," said Ghanem of a vision finally realized.