When:   June 13-15 Pre-departure Orientation Washington DC, June 16 to July 27 Morocco

Where:  Marrakesh, Rabat, Fes, Casablanca, and other sites in Morocco

Who: 20 U.S. high school students of Arabic (beginning to intermediate) and 2 adult staff escorts

Formal language instruction plus cultural immersion: Stay with a Moroccan family -- Travel throughout the country - Deepen your understanding of Arabic language as well as Moroccan culture.

This program offers 20 students and two adult escorts the opportunity to explore new cultures, develop friendships, and increase knowledge of Arabic language and Islamic culture. The program will be intensive, academic, and highly interactive.

We are seeking energetic applicants who are ready to advance their linguistic skills and broaden their understanding of the Islamic world.
Legacy International, a 29-year old non-governmental educational organization In Virginia, USA, is working with the American Language Center in Marrakesh to design and deliver an outstanding program.

The Arabic Language Institute Program has a two-fold purpose: one linguistic, and the other cultural. The linguistic element provides intensive formal language instruction in Modern Standard Arabic to U.S. high school students at the beginning and intermediate levels. The program is a cultural and linguistic immersion in the Arabic-speaking world, including home stays, site visits, student roundtables, and lectures. Travel experiences take students through the geographically varied Moroccan countryside, and include visits to the royal cities of Rabat, Fes, Casablanca, and others. Students will experience the ethnic groups and cultural differences that comprise the rich patchwork of Morocco's cultural heritage! The academic program is comprehensive in its presentation of the foundations of a predominantly Muslim
society.

Participants will:

• Improve their Arabic language skills, and their ability to communicate with people from Arabic cultures.
• Learn about the bases and sources of Islamic thought
• Gain tools and skills to potentially advance future career goals.
• Increase appreciation for the cultures, lifestyles, and social systems of the Islamic world.
• Gain necessary tools with which to understand the elements of modern
  Moroccan society, and by extension, other Muslim societies worldwide.
  

Events for 2008 program:
Pre-Departure Orientation in Washington, DC for all participants, led by Legacy staff, J.E. Rash, President Legacy International, author of Islam & Democracy, Mitra Nafissian Rash, Program Coordinator, and Dr. Kenneth Honerkamp, Professor of Arabic Language, University of Georgia - Athens. June 13-15
June 16 to July 27 Moroccan Adventure. Academic program includes17 hours of intensive instruction in Moroccan colloquial Arabic (MA), and 5 weeks (93 hours) of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).

The faculty in Morocco:
Mr. Brahim Zoubairi has more than 10 years of experience as a TAFL instructor (Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language).

Ms. Mouna Kamaoui is a graduate of Mohamed V University in Rabat and holds a Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics and TEFL. She has been teaching at the ALC Marrakesh for 4 years and has participated as observer and assistant in the 2007 Arabic Language Institute Program.

Mr. Abdelkbir Rahim is a graduate of Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh and has worked as a full-time teacher with the ALC Marrakesh for 8 years. 

The homestays in Morocco: Students will stay in private homes of Moroccan families for 30 days.  The majority of homestays will be spent in Marrakesh, and an additional five nights with families in Rabat planned by American Language Center Rabat.  The students will have the opportunity for language practice and immersion into the daily lives of Moroccans observing social activities, family relationships, work habits, religious observances, and educational backgrounds.  Daily debriefs will be held individually or as a group to monitor the experience. 

Guest speakers, educators and local government officials, will give insights into a range of subjects:  historical perspectives, racism/regionalism, issues particular to Moroccan women, some of the social challenges found in Morocco, and solutions that are being applied.  Most lectures on social and historical issues will be given in English or translated into English.

Side trips include:  Zagora, the Sahara desert, Rabat, and Casablanca. Students will stay for 10 nights in a nice hotel in Essaouira, a fishing port.  Side trips will be made to Fes, traditionally considered the spiritual capital of the country .

Series of roundtable discussions and three sessions of intercultural dialogue between Legacy participants and Moroccan high school and university-aged students.

Community Service: Students will plan and run an activity “fun and learning day” for children from a Marrakesh NGO, Aftaluna Home (which provides room and board for homeless street children of Marrakeh) combined with some of the participants who study English at the ALC Marrakesh as part of the Access Program (part of US Government MEPI program). 

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Program Partners

Legacy International is a non-profit educational organization with offices in Virginia. Since 1979, Legacy International's leadership development and civic education programs have enriched the lives of thousands of high school students and educators. The Global Youth Village has been in continuous operation since 1979. Other training programs and exchanges have served teenagers from all over the United States, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods of Belfast, Northern Ireland; youths from Israel and the West Bank; various tribal nations within Nigeria. Legacy has been conducting State Department Exchange programs since 1989.

Your Host in Morocco: The American Language Center is one of ten language schools which form part of the American Cultural Association of Morocco (ACA), a not-for-profit, cultural, educational association which has been in existence since the mid-seventies. The ACA is overseen by a bi-national board which includes the Cultural Affairs Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Morocco. Their goal is to promote understanding between the peoples of Morocco and the United States.