Congratulations to ILI Executive Director Caroline Gear, who has been selected as a U.S. Department of State professional fellow! Caroline travels to Morocco in mid-March as part of the Department’s professional fellows program. She joins four other representatives from western Massachusetts in this exchange venture among Israel, Jordan, Morocco, and the U.S.
Amherst-based Institute for Training and Development administers the program through a grant from the Department of State.
“I look forward to this outstanding opportunity to represent ILI and western Mass,” Caroline said. “And I’m especially excited to reunite with Sana Lamtara, the Moroccan teacher trainer who spent six weeks with us last fall. It will be great to see how she is putting the teaching plan she developed while here to use in her Moroccan classes at the Ministère De L’éducation Nationale in Casablanca. Sana’s plan emphasizes civic engagement, civil society, and government transparency, the focus of the professional fellows program.”
Caroline’s action-packed schedule includes meeting with representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Morocco and with Sana, her colleagues, family, and friends. She will prepare a presentation on civic engagement for presentation at workshops, cultural events, and meetings with various Moroccan organizations. She and the other western Massachusetts fellows will maintain a blog to document their experiences in Morocco and create a PowerPoint photo essay on what civic engagement looks like in Morocco to share with various audiences back home. The requirements also include a program report due within a month after returning to the U.S.
We look forward to seeing the results of Caroline’s Moroccan experience when we welcome her back.