Event report

Hmemsa team at WMC 20/20 Gala

HMEMSA, Home of Moroccan educators and Moroccan Students in America organized it's in honor of the Washington Moroccan Club's Celebration of its 20th Anniversary. All the Moroccan students and the local community from the greater Washington DC area were invited. Ambassador Mr. Mekouar, Charge de Mission Mme Zailachi, as well as Consul Mr. Kassimi attended the event. There were numerous students, professors, as well as many Moroccan and American professionals from various fields. Members of the press were also in Attendance.

The event took place on Thursday, March 4, 2010 from 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM. It was organized in collaboration with the Center for Global Education at George Mason University in Virginia at the Johnson Center, 3rd Floor, in Meeting Room G. The following program was closely followed:

2:00 - 2:05 PM: Prof. Nadia Duchelle welcomed everyone
2:05-2:10 PM Ambassador Mr. Mekouar, welcomed all and stressed the importance of Education and emphasized the fact that his office was very supportive of the initiative that HMEMSA was taking.

2:05 - 2:25 PM: Introduction to HMEMSA - Amine Chigani
2:25 - 2:35 PM: Ongoing Educational Exchange Programs - Yasmine Hasnaoui
2:35 - 3:45 PM: Energy and ASEE Conference in Morocco- Dr. Mohamed Belkhayat
3:45 - 3:55 PM: Health Care Education Initiatives -Wafae Bennis 
Break for 15 min
3:10 - 4:00 PM: Open Discussion
4:00 PM: Workshop ends.

 Mr. Amine Chigani introduced HMEMSA and its educational goals in the US and Morocco including supporting projects ranging from energy to healthcare. Mr. Chigani explained that HMEMSA's main purpose was to ease the transition to the US system and to provide relevant information to the Moroccan educators and students. HMEMSA also planned to play an important role in networking between the Moroccan American Educators in the US and Morocco. The feedback from the audience was generally very positive and very supportive. There were many Moroccan green card holders in attendance and they were very interested in the initiative. Some of them did not have the English level required by colleges yet and some of them were already pursuing their degrees. HMEMSA collected their contact info so that more information can be shared with them. Finally most of the discussion revolved around the topics that HMEMSA planned to covers in its workshop. Since this first event, HMEMSA has conducted two other workshops: one regarding successful enrollment in Colleges [1] and the other one was regarding renewable energy in Morocco [2].

[1] http://www.hmemsa.org/sites/default/files/Flyer.pdf

[2] http://www.hmemsa.org/sites/default/files/environment_flyer.pdf