The Governor’s School Foundation was proud to offset the cost of Mrs. Cross’s Middle East & North Africa Senior Seminar trip to Morocco.  Mrs. Cross has lived and studied in Morocco for several years and was very pleased to be able to show her students the country as the culminating experience of their year of intensive study.  The students visited the capital city of Rabat (pictured above, photo by Dana Slayton ’17), where among many other things, they met with Foreign Service Officer Brandon Pierce (’04) at the American Embassy. The class also visited Fez and the mountainous city of Chefchaouen (pictured above, photo by Dana Slayton ’17).  For almost half of the 15 students on the trip, this was the first time they’d left the United States.  This was also the first ever school-sponsored class trip to the continent of Africa.  The Foundation is thrilled to be an integral part of helping the school fulfill its mission to enhance students’ understanding of our global society.  We were also proud to cover all travel costs for three students in financial need.

Dana Slayton (’17), who is deferring admission to Cornell in order to live in Morocco next year on a State Department-funded grant, had this to say about the trip:

“A week is too short to fully understand a place, any place. But in our time in Morocco, we witnessed the value of the attempt, of reaching out for the first time. We reached out from classroom lectures; we reached towards the host families who welcomed up with open arms. We learned from each other what it means to travel – and we came to define that word, the journey, as reaching out. I can always reach farther. But I can only begin that journey once – as I did, here at Maggie Walker, by taking this class – and for that opportunity I am incredibly grateful.”
Mrs. Cross plans to take her seminar students next year as well.