Central College is one of the main pillars of the Lebanese Maronite Order, which has in its historical background three hundred years of educational traditions for the service of the Lebanese citizens. CCJ is an institution that is inspired by the teachings of Jesus Christ and the principles of His Disciples. It has a noble mission: making a difference in Lebanese society and preparing students to face the challenges of a highly interconnected world.
Central College of the Lebanese Monks aims at fostering and maintaining a positive, supportive, warm, safe, and effective environment conducive to both teaching and learning, one which promotes human values, tolerance, respect, understanding of the other, and love. Such an environment creates an engaging learning community that helps our students achieve and become efficient members of their society and, hopefully, the world.
Central College of the Lebanese Monks is a Christian institution. Through our Christian education, we aim at influencing the lives of our students to become strong “Christian Men and Women” who know how to pray, how to grow in Jesus, how to be enlightened by the Gospel, and how to love God by loving their fellowmen. Charity, humility, and solidarity make up the behavior of our students, who witness the high values of the Christian spiritual teachings.
We aim at creating a climate that helps our students develop “coherent values and ethical standards”. When our students develop respect for ethical concepts, they can distinguish between right and wrong and learn the value of sharing, trust, honesty, beneficence, truth, justice, and peace.
Through our educational program, we also work towards developing the “Real and Loyal Citizen” who loves his/ her country, appreciates its cultural traditions, shows respect for its history, and is conscious of his/her duties toward his/her country. Acceptance and understanding of one’s culture foster understanding of other cultures (tolerance). Therefore, we aim at developing a true Lebanese citizen who can also be a successful global citizen.
Moreover, through our engaging and enriching programs and curriculum, we aim at developing the “Intellectual Men and Women” that our society needs. For this reason, we provide our students with a solid education, scientific know-how, and multi-language skills. The intellectual student knows how to think constructively and how to be creative and innovative.
It is of high importance for us to encourage and maintain an adequate social environment that fosters healthy relationships amongst all members of the CCJ family. Through this coherent social climate, we aim at developing our “students’ social skills” so that they would mingle successfully in modern society, understand differences not as a source of conflict but as an occasion for reciprocal gain, and be capable of understanding others in such a way as to serve the common good of society and the nation.
One of the major goals of our educational program is to help develop the “Real Men and Women of Action” who can make a difference in their country and are capable of confronting, with confidence, the rapid social, cultural, and technological changes in the modern world.
Finally, we aim at promoting appreciation of the gifts and resources of Mother Nature and working towards preserving them (the green and nature-friendly student). Our mission statement can be summarized in the following words: Central College of the Lebanese Monks aims at developing active, positive, productive, cultured, responsible, and intellectual young men and women who can creatively build their future in a highly interconnected world and successfully contribute in making the world a better place to live.
Our vision, as a community, is to develop a fully student-centered learning environment that inspires the students of today to become the responsible, creative, and productive leaders of tomorrow. Collaboratively, we aim at helping our students reach their fullest potential, empowering our students’ leadership skills and promoting passion for learning, progress, and achievement to ensure that all our students succeed and excel in a rapidly changing and highly interconnected world, achieve personal success and growth, and contribute to a better global society. Achieving this vision requires commitment from all parties involved in students’ learning: school, parents, and the community.
Having established most of its schools in rural areas, the Lebanese Maronite Order felt the need, in the early 60s, to establish schools in urban areas to widen the scope of its educational mission. The opportunity arose when, in 1966, the Marist Brothers presented their prestigious institution in Jounieh, founded in 1903, for sale.
CCJ has not stopped renovating its buildings and adding annexes and facilities to create the most suitable workspace and environment-physical, educational, and social for our students to achieve and succeed. In addition to the renovation of the old building, a preschool building, a sports center, a technical school, new buildings with the same architectural structure and arcades of the original one, a music institute, a studio, a radio station, underground parking, a daycare center, laboratories, libraries, exam halls, and a driving school were all added.
In 1982, the LMO constructed a spacious house in Hrajel, with a whole floor specified for CCJ students. Spiritual retreats and weekends are organized by the teachers for our students, during which they can spend enjoyable and memorable moments together in the monks’ house and the green land surrounding it.
