Introducing....TEAM MOROCCO!

Sameera "No Child Left Behind" Anwar: Prior to HGSE, Sameera worked at an all boys boarding school just outside of Boston, teaching 4th grade. Through the constant bustle and craziness, her year at the school affirmed her desire to work with kids longterm. Her other teaching experiences involve working with street children and immigrant children, populations she hopes to continue working with after graduation. Sameera loves travelling and one of her most memorable experiences was watching the 2000 World Cup final from a rooftop restaurant in McLeod Gung with Buddhist monks. Sameera is excited about the gastronomical Moroccan adventure she is embarking upon. While in northern Chile, Sameera once had to eat llamas three meals a day for an entire week. Llama is not her favorite food.

 Marisa "The French Resistance" Conway: Before coming to HGSE, Marisa was a public health volunteer in Guinea and Mali. While working in health centers and in classrooms teaching preventative health courses, she discovered the critical link between health and education and was inspired to dedicate her career to improving education in these regions., After HGSE she hopes to return to MAli to open schoools that deliver quality and equitable education to children living in rural communities. While in Morocco, she hopes to gain a comparative perspective of the challenges and strenghts facing their education system in order to inform her work in Mali. Her most recent international experience was working on farms in northern and southern France, where she learned to make both cow and goat cheese. Fun fact: Marisa was once the the voice of a Japanese anime character  in a short film.

Afi "Madonna" Daitey:  Before starting her life as a graduate student at HGSE, Afi  was a 2009 Teach for America corps member in Las Vegas where she taught secondary English at the Andre Agassi College  Preparatory Academy. While her experience in LVV allowed her to be impactful in the American education reform movement, it solidified her desire to make a difference in international education. Afi is looking to combine her interests in international education, social entrepreneurship and higher education but hasn't quite figured out exact plans post graduation. One of her favorite experiences abroad was celebrating President Barack Obama's election while studying in Ghana during 2008!!! While in Morocco she is excited to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between the North and Sub-Saharan education systems of Africa. Exploring the tasty goodies and culture of Morocco are also top priorities! Fun fact: When Afi was in high school, she hosted a radio show for Seton Hall University.

Rita "The Interpreter " El Kadiri: Rita spent the years before HGSE working as the president of a NGO that worked to educate students about human rights issues, and recruiting students for a political science school in Morocco. After graduating, she hopes to return to Morocco and gain more experience with international education organizations before eventually working for the Moroccan ministry of education. Some of Rita's favorite experiences have been travelling as a representative of Morocco to work with organizations promoting human rights. Rita is looking forward to introducing the team to her home country, and hopes that we will have an amazing experience (WE ALREADY ARE!) as we become experts in Moroccan education. 

Mike "Mr. Smith" Holland: Before enrolling at HGSE Mike worked for a Swedish-based company that arranges cultural exchange experiences for students and teachers.  His first international experience came after graduating from Providence College, when he lived and worked as an English teacher at a public school in Inner Mongolia, China.  Mike is very interested in improving education for global citizenship, and hopes top find work at a college of education that is working to Internationale the teacher training experience.  Mike's most memorble travel experience was staying at a monastery for Kung fu students at the Shaolin Temple or visiting the Angkor Temples in Cambodia.  During his time in Morocco, Mike hopes to learn more about the system of higher education and students' path to career readiness.  When Mike is not spending time traveling he likes to support the best basketball organization of all time, the Boston Celtics.

Jane "The Polyglot" Hsu: Since graduating from NYU in 2005, Jane has taught in Taiwan and Ghana, managed international student programs in San Diego, coordinated American interns in Beijing, and worked a longer than expected stint at a San Fransisco ad agency which helped her realize international education is ten billion times cooler than ads. After HGSE, Jane is exploring M&E as a career path, that or a travel show host. Jane's most memorable stories abroad are from Ghana and involve being peed on by goats and being mistaken for Bruce Lee. She is beyond excited for her second trip to Africa and most intrigued by the complex and evolving role bilingualism plays in Morocco's educational system. When weather permits, Jane loves dragonboating (sorta like crew but there's a dragon head at the front of the boat!) and has paddled in Boston, Taipei, SF, Sydney, and Beijing. Maybe Casa has a team...or maybe she'll start one?

Mark "Big Essence" Huelsman: Mark rejoined the ranks of studenthood at Harvard, after four or so years in Washington, DC at two think-tanks, researching, writing, and generally howling at the moon about college access/affordability and broad anti-poverty reforms in the United States. Mark  is a proud graduate of the University of Maryland and a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, which makes this trip to Morocco part of an unintentional plan to continually move eastward. Mark is particularly excited to visit Morocco at a time of great dynamism in North Africa and the Middle East, and cannot wait to listen to and discuss the role of quality education in transforming and enhancing Moroccan society broadly. Mark's favorite travel experiences involve climbing a Mayan pyramid in an unnerving thunderstorm while his mother looked on, scuba diving with about 30 minutes of prior training, and leaving Great Britain to spend one St. Patrick's Day in Rome. As you may have guessed from the photo above, Mark spent a portion of his youth in a boy band called Since Sliced Bread.

Sophia "Master Key" Kwong: Sophia graduated from The University of Texas at Austin (Hook 'em!!) with degrees in English and Spanish. After working as a student advisor for two years, she spent a year teaching English as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in Argentina. After HGSE, she plans to return to Texas to undo some of the damage Rick Perry has wrought on public education. One of her favorite travel experiences was taking a tour through a Mayan sacrificial burial ground in Cayo, Belize. In order to reach the tomb, you had to swim, climb, and boulder through an underground cave. As a foodie and aspiring Food Network Star, Sophia is excited to enjoy the mouthwatering smells and spices of authentic Moroccan cuisine. Fun fact: Sophia is a comic book geek whose crowning moment was shaking hands with Marvel Comic's Stan Lee.

Veronika "The Black Widow" Rozhenkova: Before she came to HGSE, Veronika was an assistant professor at a Russian university, teaching business English. After she graduates, Veronika plans to complete doctoral work researching international education...and become a model. Veronika has been to the Maldives three times, where she went scuba diving, dolphin watching, and spent some time enjoying the beach. While in Moroco, Veronika is excited to try new foods and learn about the Moroccan system of education.

Meaghan "The Stenographer" Shanahan: Meaghan is a teacher by trade, and after teaching special education in the US for two years, she spent the last two years in Seoul, South Korea teaching English in a public elementary school. After she earns her master's, Meaghan hopes to either continue studying at the doctoral level or work abroad. One of Meaghan's favorite travel experiences was seeing the tens of thousands of fireflies that gather on the banks of the river in Kuala Selangor, Malaysia. She's looking forward to learning about educational opportunities for traditionally underserved students in Morocco, including students with special needs, girls, and students speaking minority languages. One fun fact about Meaghan: She is part of the less than 1% of people who have ever lived that has actually circumnavigated the globe. Proud to be a Semester at Sea alumna!

Kana "The Mime" Shiota: After college, Kana returned to her homeland (Japan) to work for a giant household consumer goods company for 3 years, where she designed and implemented employee training programs.  But deciding that Japanese corporate culture was not for her, she worked as an English teacher in Japan for 6 months prior to arriving at HGSE.  Kana's interest area is in understanding how young people around the world learn about different cultures and people, and the role education can play in forming compassionate youth who are capable of solving tomorrow's global problems.  During this Morocco trip, Kana is especially excited to learn about the higher education system in Morocco and their plans to address the unique challenges it faces in improving quality.  Morocco has always been one of Kana's dream destinations, but she recently has also had the opportunity to visit Peru!  Watching the sunset at the majestic and mysterious Machu Picchu was one of the most breathtaking experiences of her life (or it might have been because of the strenuous hike getting there).  Kana's hobbies include visiting museums, reading Japanese comic books, "eating, chatting with friends and traveling! Bon Voyage!

Julia "Moroccan Sausage" Smith:

Julia is our resident Aussie who has a background in international development with stints in the Philippines, Swaziland and South Africa with AusAID, CHAI (Clinton Health Access Initiative) and Monash University. She also helped establish a small education access nonprofit with projects focused in India and advocacy and fundraising initiatives in Australia. After HGSE she hopes to work for AusAID in project management and evaluation in Southeast Asia, and is looking forward to incorporating learnings about education challenges and successes on-ground in Morocco. Meeting former President Clinton in New York and watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat in Cambodia have been big highlights so far. One day when she was younger, Julia spent a day working as a trapeze artist in a Sydney zoo.

Asumi "Angel Face" Suzuki: Asumi spent the past eight years working in Bangladesh and Burma in microfiance for professionals and grassroots education for marginalized children. In Bangladesh, she worked as a researcher and project manger for a UN affiliated NGO and developed a training program with BRAC University for professionals working in microfinance. In Burma, she has been working with a local monastery school in Mandalay where she develped a non-profit organization that creates teacher training programs for young teachers. These experiences inspired Asumi to learn more about how to leverage the work of grassroots initaitives and how to develop effective partnerships with the government to build better policies. One of her favorite travel experiences was seeing the beautiful fields of old pagodas (buddhist temples) in Bagan, Burma. In her free time, Asumi likes cooking and taking walks and observing trees!

Rachel "Bad Cop" Weiner: With a degree in political communications, Rachel moved to Washington, DC in 2005. There, she worked to advance the interests of cities all over the US on issues ranging from education to economic strategy. She gradually made her way to the Institute of International Education, where she conducted informational campaigns for legislators on the benefits of international exchange. Rachel is thrilled to return to Morocco, which she considers to be her second home since 2008, when she moved to a rural town in southern Morocco to work as a community developer with the United States Peace Corps. After graduate school, Rachel wants to continue working in Northern Africa and the Sahel,  focusing on educational opportunities for underserved populations. In her free time, Rachel likes to cook, dance, beat friends in arm wrestling, and memorize as many words as she can in multiple languanges all at once. Fun fact: Rachel once got caught in quicksand in northern Morocco. Luckily, she escaped.

Brian "Sleeping Beauty" Wiehr: Prior to HGSE, Brian worked as a study abroad coordinator and taught high school English in Japan.  Most recently, he coordinated an exchange program for Japanese professionals at a D.C. patent law firm, where he will likely return post-HGSE to expand the program and launch an ESL component.  Eventually, Brian hopes to work in higher education study abroad or with government exchange programs and the internationalization of K-12 public schools.  One of Brian's favorite travel memories was on an overnight train ride through rural China looking out the window at the countryside and sharing life stories with a businessman via sketches because neither of us spoke each other's languages.  On this trip, Brian looks forward to experiencing the culture of Morocco and North Africa and hopes to learn more about how Moroccans learn about the rest of the world and how cultural and linguistic diversity are addressed.  Brian is an avid coin collector and enjoys running, the arts, learning languages, and of course travel!