A Privilege to Present Morocco
Exchange student from Morocco poses in American classroom with a Moroccan flag and his Arkansas classmates

Louay leans in for an extra special week

International Education Week was one of the busiest and most exciting weeks that I have had during my exchange year so far. Sharing my culture and history was a privilege and I felt proud to interact with not only my classmates but with other students as well.

First, I organized an International Day on Wednesday alongside my Filipino English teacher. We brought our national dishes, and I did a presentation about Morocco while wearing my traditional clothes (jabador and slippers known as balgha). I very much enjoyed sharing my culture with my AP English and Composition classmates, and believe it or not, I learned a lot of fun facts about my country myself.

I didn't get the chance to organize events on Monday and Tuesday at school, because the teachers were busy. That said, I made sure to prepare a Moroccan dish for my family called maakouda.

Believe it or not, I learned a lot of fun facts about my country myself.

On Thursday, I dedicated the whole day to making presentations for kindergarten and elementary school kids. I made some games for them, and I brought them a Moroccan tea set, so that they could see what it looks like. It was by far the best day of IEW. I very much enjoyed answering their questions and seeing them reacting to our food and discovering a whole new culture at an early age—something I didn't get to do.

On the weekend, I invited YES and FLEX students and some other exchange students from different countries, and I organized a Zoom meeting. We spent more than three hours sharing our cultures and talking about our traditions whilst wearing our traditional clothes. It was a really good experience since I got the opportunity to talk to people from all around the world, from Africa to Europe to Asia. We agreed to organize more events like this.

I just want to say thank you YES for giving me the opportunity to participate in this exchange program, because I had the chance to meet a lot of people and learn about their cultures and share mine through this unique week called IEW.

—Louay (YES, Morocco), hosted by the Weinfurtner family (AR)