Sami Jalloul, a broadcaster at the Lebanese Radio and Al Mayadeen TV, started his school life defying all difficulties, as he told Diversity Guide, at the Lebanese School for the Blind in Baabda, a boarding school. “When I reached high school, the school administration decided that I could continue my education in a regular school where integration could be achieved,” he said, adding that it was Achrafieh Public High School.

“When I finished high school in 1997, I was as confused as any other young man about choosing a university major,” Jalloul recalls, adding that he then “decided to major in history.”

“I was looking for a job for two years. “I was thinking about education and still am, but now my ambition is to practice university education.

“After that, I worked in the field of radio programs and joined the Basair Radio of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council, and at the same time I worked at the government hospital as a communications officer (centraliste),” he explains, noting that “I stayed for a long time working in both places.”

After a while, Jalloul learned that the Civil Service Council was looking for broadcasters for the Lebanese Radio, and “that’s where I ran into trouble. And what I specifically meant was issues in the form of clarifications or inquiries and questions of the type: Can you really do this job?”

“I took the written exam using a computer with the other candidates in the same room, underwent the same observation, and passed,” he said.

“Radio for me was a dream because I love it very much since I was young, when I used to participate in school activities related to theater and radio,” he said.