The American University of Beirut (AUB) was founded a century and a half ago and is the oldest university in Lebanon.It was established in December 1866 as the Syrian Protestant College. Since then, almost 65,000 students from around a hundred countries have graduated from AUB. This year, some 8,000 Arab men and women will study there.This film explores AUB, one of the leading academic institutions in the Middle East, and some of the ways its history has been interwoven with that of Lebanon itself. We explore the history of the American University of Beirut and whether it has played a role in US interests in Lebanon and the Middle East since its founding nearly 150 years ago.