A new academic year brings new opportunities, ambitions, responsibilities, and, for many students, the uncertainty of stepping into an entirely new chapter of life.

Drawing on the theme of Welcome Week 2026: Fuel Your Power: Drive, Strive, Rise, Antonine University (UA) Rector Fr. Michel Saghbiny addressed students across UA’s three campuses with a message centered on taking ownership of their university journey, persevering through challenges, and growing into people capable of making a difference.

The Rector delivered his address on September 9 at the Hadat–Baabda Campus, September 10 at the Mejdlaya–Zgharta Campus, and September 11 at the Nabi Ayla–Zahle Campus.

Take the Wheel, and Keep Moving Forward

Turning the driving theme of Welcome Week into a metaphor for university life, Fr. Saghbiny reminded students that UA can provide them with dedicated instructors, opportunities, resources, and support, but ultimately, “in your university journey, you are not passengers. You are the drivers.”

He encouraged students not to spend their university years on “autopilot,” but to take initiative, ask questions, explore, experiment, connect with their instructors and peers, and engage in social, cultural, and athletic activities. More importantly, he invited them to look beyond the profession they hope to pursue and ask themselves: What impact do I want to leave? What kind of person do I want to be when I graduate?

The journey, he acknowledged, will not always be easy. Drawing another parallel with rallying, he noted that victory does not necessarily belong to whoever starts at the greatest speed, but to those who know how to continue until the end.

“Failure is not falling; failure is deciding not to get back up,” he told students, emphasizing that success requires not only intelligence, but also perseverance, discipline, and the ability to rise again after making a mistake.

Fr. Saghbiny also reminded students that perseverance does not mean facing difficulties alone. Asking instructors, advisors, administrative staff, or University support services for help is not a sign of weakness, but an expression of the determination to continue. He encouraged them not to compare their pace with that of others and to preserve balance across their studies, health, relationships, family life, and human growth.

Rise, and Help Others Rise With You

The Rector then turned to the deeper meaning of Rise. UA’s ambition, he explained, extends beyond preparing graduates who are professionally capable and competitive. It is also about forming people in whom freedom grows alongside responsibility, ambition alongside humility, knowledge alongside wisdom, and achievement alongside service to others.

“The true rise is not to rise alone, but to help others rise with you,” he said.

This responsibility, he stressed, extends beyond the University. Lebanon needs more than young people searching for a place for themselves in its future; it needs young people willing to help build that future through their knowledge, courage, ethics, creativity, and refusal to surrender.

“You may not be able to change everything, but each one of you can certainly change something.”

Returning to Fuel Your Power, Fr. Saghbiny invited students to identify what will sustain them throughout their journey, whether a dream, an ambition, passion for their field, their families’ sacrifices, the hope of building a better future, or the desire to serve their community and country.

As he concluded, he left students with a question that reaches beyond graduation. Rather than asking only what Antonine University gave them, he encouraged them to one day ask what they had given in return to their University, their peers, their community, and their country.

His hope was that UA would become not simply a place they passed through, but an experience that passed through them and changed them.

As students begin the 2026–27 academic year, the message carried across all three campuses is clear: choose your direction, persevere through the difficult stretches, know what fuels you, and measure how far you rise not only by what you achieve, but also by what you contribute along the way.

The engines are ready. The road is ahead. The steering wheel is in your hands.

Drive. Strive. Rise.

Read the Rector’s full address in Arabic [here].