- Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project.
My STEP project was to explore and learn about the history of both France and Morocco and we focused on how these two countries, one largely Catholic and the other largely Muslim have approached the challenges of practicing inclusivity and respecting diversity in the past and today. During this trip, some of our major topics were about how Muslims, especially Muslim women,are treated in France, how women are treated in Morocco, how LGBTQ+ rights are in both countries, the diversity in both countries, how secularism also known as laicite is in France, racism, Islamophobia, and politics in both France and Morocco.
- What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project?
My view of the world has changed so much now that I have been able to go see two completely different continents and how they are similar and different to the United States. Before studying abroad in France and Morocco I constantly kept hearing that “Everybody hates Americans” or “People are going to hate you because you’re American and Black” and things along this line. In my experience, a lot of people in these countries simply just don’t care about that. Most of the people that I met on this trip were so welcoming and kindhearted people. When learning about the history of both places they were so excited to teach us and answered literally every question that we had. Even though building structures were a lot different than America, both places reminded me a lot of America especially when coming together as a community. Even thought I was extremely nervous before attending this trip, what I learned about myself is that I can adapt to any situation even if it’s completely out of my comfort zone.
- What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you?
In my global education trip “Between France and Morocco” we visited a lot of places but the two places that changed my mindset the most was this NGO program called Fondation Orient-Occident and the other one was called IDMAJ Foundation which is also a NGO. Both of these places are stationed in Morocco, Fondation Orient-Occident is in Rabat and IDMAJ Foundation is in Casablanca. Both of these organizations focus on helping the people in their communities achieve success and try to provide them options for a better life. I felt like these two really assured me that I am heading in the right career path with being a social work major. My passion is to help my community and others around that may not be as privileged to achieve goals that they never thought were possible and that’s exactly what these two organizations do for their community. At each organization we got to hear testimonies on how the organization literally changed their lives.
Fondation Orient-Occident is a Non-Governmental Organization that provides shelter to many immigrants all across Africa who are seeking a better life for them and their children if they have one. A look of people who utilize this organization are there because they are escaping from danger, whether that’s war, abuse, lgbtq+ hate, and many more. A goal for many people in this program is to make it to America for a chance for a better life and some of them even would like to make it to France. However, while at this site, we learned that this program is severely underfunded and they often have to turn people away because they do not have enough funding to expect them. This was very disheartening and it had me thinking about things that I can, or my social work community, can do to help out organizations like this who are trying to do good in their communities but can’t.
IDMAJ Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization that provides alternative options to children and teens who dropped out of school because of many different reasons. They also provide multiple language classes that all children can use, even if they didn’t drop out, like English and French. The main alternative classes that they provide to these children are cooking, sewing, and hairdressing classes. By doing this, they are learning skills that they can use to make a career out of. Just like the last organization, they can only accept so many students so spots are very limited and are only offered to those who live in that community. We got to hear a couple powerful testimonies about how this program literally saved their lives and how they are achieving things they never even dreamed of. It reminded me of what my scholarship program, Young Scholars Program, and other programs like STEP has done for me. I come from a very underprivileged community and I never thought I would go to college, let alone go out the country, but I did because somebody believed in me andI want to be able to do this for others. This organization follows a quote “ believe in what you do, lead by example, and never give up” and it’s so simple but so powerful.
- Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life?
As I mentioned in the previous section, programs like IDMAJ and Fondation Orient-Occident are literally changing lives everyday to better the situations in their communities and country. I thought I was already motivated before this study abroad trip but this experience has motivated me in so many more ways that I didn’t even think was possible. It has affirmed me that I am on the right track and it has given me ideas about how I can help my community as well as other communities even all the way across the world. This change matters because without change we cannot make the world a better place. It took for me to go across the world to realize everybody is striving to make their world a better place, when there are laws and other challenges set in place to hold people back. It made me realize that change is only going to happen when people stand up for what they believe is right and this is actually what I am going to do with my career.