Summer Experiences in the Middle East and North Africa
October 28, 2009, 12:30PM
Fares Center Conference Room
Speakers: Stephen Allen, Rachel Brown, Robert Berry, Elsa Palanza, and Maggie Williams
Moderator: Ibrahim Warde

Summary

Professor of International Business Ibrahim Warde introduced four student panelists who discussed their activities during the summer of 2009 in the Middle East and North Africa. The second year-students had a wide variety of experiences, including language study, independent research, and work at non-governmental organizations.

Rachel Brown (MALD ’10) worked as an Advocacy Project Peace Fellow at a Washington-D.C. based organization that sends Peace Fellows into the field to learn about the work of various non-profit organizations. Brown's fellowship took her to the Alternative Information Center (AIC) in Jerusalem, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization that provides analysis of the conflict from both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. While at the AIC, Brown researched and wrote about issues of educational equity within Israel, women's roles in the peace movement, gay rights, Israel's policy towards refugees, migrant workers, and political asylum seekers coming to Israel from Darfur. She also had the opportunity to attend conferences, interview local Israelis and Palestinians about their work, and create blogs and v-logs about her experiences. Brown felt that the opportunity to travel that her summer internship afforded her was especially useful, as it allowed her to see first-hand the impact of non-profit work.

Stephen Allen (MALD ’10) spent the summer undertaking a Critical Language Scholarship from the United States Department of State in Tangier, Morocco. Allen studied Modern Standard Arabic in an intensive language program that is sponsored and paid for by the U.S. government. Allen had initially expected to study elsewhere in the Arabic-speaking world, and was hesitant at first due to the difference in Arabic dialects between Morocco and the rest of the Middle East. However, he found that Tangier was an excellent place to experience Moroccan culture, and that the intensity of the language program was very effective. Allen recommended this course of study to other American students hoping to improve their language skills dramatically in a relatively short time, but cautioned that the stringent nature of the language classes and associated field trips make it difficult to undertake independent research or travel during the program.

Elsa Palanza (MALD ’10) conducted independent research for her thesis and undertook Turkish language study in Istanbul, Turkey. She moved at her own pace and adapted her schedule as needed to fit the interviews she conducted with Turkish academics and policymakers on education in Turkey. Palanza felt the unstructured nature of her schedule forced her to become an adept manager of her time in Istanbul. While having a rewarding experience in which she improved her proficiency in Turkish and made important headway in her thesis research, Palanza cautioned that independent research and study would have been difficult had she not resided in Istanbul prior to coming to Fletcher, and thus possessed connections and knowledge of the city that allowed her to optimize her time in the city. Using Turkish on a daily basis provided her with the most ideal circumstances in which to learn the language.

Margaret Williams (MALD ’10) worked with a youth and community development non-profit, Tomorrow's Youth Organization (TYO), in the West Bank city of Nablus. At TYO, Williams interacted with kids and their mothers primarily from the three refugee camps in Nablus. Her chief responsibilities included organizing and leading classes on various subjects all of which were geared towards reaching healthy forms of self-expression, increasing self-confidence, increasing sociability, and improving health for the women and children in question, along with having fun in general. The three classes Williams led included a dance class for girls ages 8 to 14, an aerobics and nutrition class for adult women, and a summer camp for boys and girls ages 9 to 12. Williams learned of this opportunity from a Fletcher student who had interned with the organization in 2008, and recommends TYO to other students interested in youth, education, and developing a better understanding of life for women and children in Palestinian refugee camps.

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