First Graduating Class in Nursing, 1908
The Training School for Nurses at the American University of Beirut was established to provide young women with professional nursing education. The program initially consisted of a three-year course—each year comprising approximately forty weeks—combining practical training in hospital wards and operating rooms with lectures and recitations.
The early development of the school was shaped by the dedication of Mary Bliss Dale and Jane Elizabeth van Zandt. The first full academic year began on October 6, 1905, with an inaugural class of three students. Instruction was largely hands-on, with Van Zandt even using her own room as a classroom.
Initially offering a certificate in nursing with modest admission requirements to encourage enrollment, the program evolved into a diploma-granting program in 1925, with progressively higher admission standards. A major milestone followed in 1926 with the construction of Dale Home, which provided student housing, classrooms, and administrative space.
The first group graduated in 1908 and included students such as Adele Kassab and Rosa Kulunjian, as well as Ossana Maksoudian, who worked at college hospital then went on to serve in hospitals across Marash, Hama, and Aleppo as a nurse and midwife.