Joel Hage

About Joel

(updated 6/2015) Joël Hage graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he majored in global studies and minored in the Arabic language. As Morehead-Cain Scholar, Joël had the opportunity to combine his university education with field experience across the world.  He conducted ethnographic research across the Mediterranean, traveled to various countries for language study, and spent summers interning with a community development organization in South Africa and a global impact-investing firm in Washington, D.C.  
While at UNC, as a member of the executive board of the Campus Y—the university’s center for social justice—Joël worked closely with passionate students and community organizations on issues ranging from immigration inequality, access to education, and youth empowerment. Also at UNC, Joël organized workshops and orientations on global engagement, founded an organization to provide scholarships for South African children of color, and designed and taught a seminar course on Lebanese politics. In addition to conducting and presenting his own research on electoral reform in Lebanon, Joël is currently co-authoring a textbook chapter comparing immigration policy in the U.S. and Europe.
Committed to a community-based approach to international development, Joël values learning foreign languages as well as spending time living and working in communities across the globe. He has had opportunities to immerse himself in rural and urban communities in Guatemala, Lebanon, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, and China. As an avid language learner, Joël is currently working on improving his fluency in Mandarin while simultaneously maintaining proficiency in several other languages. Joël hopes to assist marginalized communities both in the U.S. and internationally through a career at the crossroads of urban planning and international development.
As a Luce Scholar in  Kunming, China , Joël worked at the  Rural Development Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences .  His tasks included translating research publications from Mandarin into English, assisting lead researchers collect and organize research data, and preparing a series of research writing workshops. This placement has provided Joël with insight into the strengths and challenges of the Chinese government’s approach to development issues in rural China. Also while in Kunming, Joël extensively studied Mandarin, began studying Chinese calligraphy, and came close to mastering the ancient game of Mahjong. In his free time, Joël enjoys hiking, swimming, biking, play and watching soccer, and cooking.