Inspiration

Two of my MUN students who will
be attending the conference in
Virginia with me in October.

Often it is easy for me to get frustrated with my students here, with their lack of knowledge or effort.  They are so different from my students in Turkey, and while I try not to compare them, some days that is harder than others. The daily struggles make it difficult to see myself staying in Morocco longer than my two-year commitment, but yesterday I caught a glimpse of the bigger picture and felt inspired.

Our school has been invited to attend a leadership conference in America next fall. My principal asked me would I like to chaperone this trip. I didn't have to think twice about chaperoning four of our best students in my home state. After nine students turned in essays, we narrowed our choices down to seven and then conducted interviews.  During the interviews I was reminded of how great some of our students are.  Five of the seven students participated in MUN.  During their interviews several of them mentioned how much MUN had impacted them. I was reminded of how much trips like that can influence students. I caught a glimpse of how I could be a small part of influencing these children's lives.  It was inspiring to hear  them talk about how meeting students from other countries in Italy had been such a great experience.  One is even considering a major in International Relations as a result of the MUN trip.  When I first came to the school I was saddened to hear that the majority of our students were interested in majoring in the sciences or business. At Oasis the students predominately were interested in teaching, the humanities or arts. It is exciting to see the students here opening themselves up to new areas of interests.