It’s amazing how quickly a year passes. I remember this time last April when I had first arrived to site, I had met a teenage girl in town who had impecable English skills. She became a really close friend over time and my quick connection to other girls in town. She was in her last year of high school and was studying hard for her Baccalaureate (BAC) Exam.
Side note: The Baccalaureate (BAC) Exam is similar to exit exams in the United States, where students need to pass certain marks on subject tests in order to graduate or exit high school and continue to the workforce or continue their studies. However, in Morocco, the BAC Exam holds more weight in terms of deciding the future course of study for students. The subject areas with the highest marks are what you are able to study in university, setting forth a path that is determined by your skill set rather than where your passion may lie.
My friend was really excited about the possibility of studying computer engineering in college. She wanted to be a software developer like her older sister. She studied rigorously for her exams. At the end of the BAC exams she received her results. Her highest marks were in English and that is the course of study and career field that she would be allowed to enter. It was hard to watch her excitement for going to university dissipate as she found that her skills did not necessarily meet her passion.
It was interesting to witness the difference in the educational structure of Morocco versus the United States, where autonomy is valued alongside standardized tests to determine what course of study/career field that you may enter.
With statistics stacked against girls in the STEM fields (particularly that UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics, recording that less than 30% of the STEM careers in Morocco are held by women), the “leaky pipeline” with the lack of encouragement for young girls and women to pursue their interests in STEM fields does not go unrecognized. By observation, there are limited resources for students in general to discover their skill sets and passions in order to properly prepare a trajectory for studying and their careers. Things such as personality tests (Myers Briggs, True Colors, etc), goal setting, guidance counseling are few and far in between.
Thus stemmed the idea of putting together a team to develop a week-long camp for girls across Morocco, to give them the platform to discover their love of STEM fields through alternative programming and service learning projects and to merge their skill set with their passion.
The Girls’ Adventures in Mathematics, Engineering and Science (GAMES) Camp was a week long spring camp held in my site with the help of several Peace Corps Volunteers and Host Country Nationals. Structured around exploring issues of environmentalism and sustainability through STEM lenses, we completed a mural, built a tire playground, constructed KidWind solar panels and wind turbine kits from Vernier and participated in a video exchange with STEM undergraduate students from Philander Smith Collegein the United States. In addition, some campers participated in a land auction game that required them to think critically about how land is used, conserved and the consequences behind the decisions that we make. On top of the programmatic activities, we held a host of activities centered around leadership style identification through True Colors, team building and goal setting.
Over 60 girls, ages 14 – 18, participated in the camp and adopted several new technologies such as understanding how solar and wind energy can be harnessed and subsequently building solar panel and wind turbine kits, geo-mapping and engineering concepts through constructing a tire playground. The campers analyzed their personal waste generation, health and safety as well as creating Public Service Announcements about environmental issues.
My favorite part of the week (besides the random dance parties), was the day that we hiked up a mountain and prepared tajines for lunch. Note to self; guiding over 90 people and their expectations up the side of a mountain on a hot day is no easy task and it isn’t the wisest decision to prepare tajines for that large group of people (pre-made sandwiches would be advisable for the future). However, we paired our hike and picnic with a few activities on the mountain like a scavenger hunt with facts about climate change and desertification, trash pickup and taking the girls to the edge of the mountain to see the beautiful panoramic view of our town. Hearing the gasps and silence in awe of the view made the whole day worth it! Also, on the climb down the mountain to return to the camp, we crossed the river and had an impromptu water fight.
The level of gratitude for the numerous individuals who put in effort to make this camp a success cannot be surmised into a short ‘thank you’. However, deep appreciation and gratitude must be made to Vernier and KidWind for donating the solar panel and wind turbine kits that will be made accessible to Peace Corps Morocco volunteers to use for future programming. Philander Smith College, specifically Dr. Nastassia Jones and the Social Justice Institute, for arranging undergraduate students video projects on environmental pollutant cycles for the video exchange with the female camp participants. Also, M’Hamed Kadi, the Peace Corps Morocco Librarian, for the long list of resources that he provided to us and lastly, the real movers and shakers of the camp; Peace Corps Volunteers and Host Country Nationals who worked every day of the camp, from sunrise to sunset, and rolled with the punches to assure that every camper had an unforgettable time.
What an awesome week!
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