Haverford in Morocco

In June 2019, I lead a cohort of 7 Haverford students to Morocco to explore the geography and culture of this beautiful country through the lens of the UN Sustainability Goals. I had lived in Morocco from 2014-2017 and I was very excited to return. We had prepared for the experience by meeting every Friday during the clubs period (check out my clubs page to learn more) and then departed the day after graduation to join up with other students from Hotchkiss from CT, Wilbraham Monson from MA, and Holy Innocence from GA. We landed in Casablanca and after a short visit at the enormous Hasan II mosque, traveled to the capital of Rabat to participate in culture, religion and language training. After a few days we drove to Fes with a small stop over at Volubilis, the ancient Roman City, to meet with a local organic farmer and to explore the famous Fes medina and meet with artisans and shopkeepers. We returned to Rabat for another few days to meet university students and to discuss with them how young people in Morocco were thinking about such important topics as Climate Change and the environment, Women's rights, and Education. Our last leg of the trip took us to Marrakech where we visited an NGO that worked with rural indigenous communities in the High Atlas Mountains and then the next day traveled to one such community to learn about how the women of a village were forming a cooperative to economically empower then in the selling of their handcrafted rugs. The experience was the memory of a lifetime and all the students returned to Haverford saying that it would have a lasting impact on their lives.