Le mois dernier, un groupe d’étudiants américains de SIT Study Abroad ont visité Connect Institute et ont travaillé, en groupes, avec nos participants pour rédiger des articles sur des sujets qui reflètent la réalité de la société marocaine.
Le dimanche 25 mars, six de nos participants se sont déplacés à Rabat pour continuer le travail avec les étudiants américains.
La participante Asma Achmahou témoigne de son expérience :
The travel to Rabat is one of my best experiences so far. I’ve learned a lot of new different things, starting by the long journey from Agadir to Rabat, people we have encountered.. , and the streets and buildings we have visited.
Monday March 26th, me and some Connect participants had the pleasure to attend a workshop organized by the Center For Cross Cultural Learning.
We left the Hotel early at 8:00 o’clock, and followed Hind with a GPS in her phone to find the centre we are headed for. We were so excited to discover that new place. we were surprised when we’ve found that the centre is located inside the Medina “old city”. The building is a traditional Moroccan Riad. Classes are held in a large Andalusian-style rooms, it gives out the feeling of Moroccan vibes. We had a nice welcoming by the staff and SIT students. The session started at 10:00 O’clock. First, Ursula Lindsey explained the whole program and working plan for us and provided us with precious advice. Then we had the chance to meet Mary Stucky who is the founder of Round Earth Media and a lead journalist who has a broad media experience. It was such an honor to listen to her talking about her stories and achievements. She also revealed the way she met Aida Alami who was present as well. “Aida is my best friend in the world, because we worked together.” Mary said. In addition to that, she talked about reciprocity being an important value in our work with the American students, which is mainly based on exchanging ideas and helping each other in order to come up with good stories. After that, Aida Alami asked us to present ourselves, and it was nice knowing all the people in the class. Furthermore, she provided us with many informations concerning our pitch stories. I felt very proud and appreciated being there listening to these three figures and interacting with them.
After the session, we had two hours to prepare our stories working with American partners before presenting them. I found it very interesting to work with Carrie who is my partner, as we exchanged our ideas and express our opinions about different topics. She knows more about Journalism but I know much about the Moroccan society, And that is how it is supposed to be; collaborating with each other to make the best.
I always ask myself at the end of the day, “what did I learn today?” and I certainly have a lot of answers; I got to know new people and talk to them. I wrote down numerous precious advice on my notebook told by people I have never imagined I would get the chance to meet. And I expressed myself and listened to others’ opinions.
I can’t thank enough the Connect Institute for giving me such a chance to be a part of this.
By Asma Achmahou
[:]
