“I chose to intern as a journalist at Misapress, a media aggregate consisting of both online and printed parts. Every day I go to the office and usually start off the morning with some coffee and discuss the day's news with the director in Arabic. I say Arabic because we usually speak in Fusha(as opposed to Darija, the Moroccan dialect), which is one benefit of working in a formal setting where we write, read, and interact mainly in Modern Standard Arabic. During a normal day, I'll read over some articles or discuss the news (both local and world), and receive an assignment. Sometimes I'll need to interview Moroccans on the street about local issues, or attend a specific event and give a summary of the newsworthy points. I've also worked to establish a relationship between Misapress and Arab-American newspapers in order to facilitate the exchange of ideas and perspectives. Overall it has been a great opportunity to practice my Arabic in a formal, professional setting, and an experience that I will value from Morocco.”
J. G.
“My internship is fantastic – the time I spend at my internship is the best part of my week! I started working at the artisanal craft cooperative learning traditional Moroccan painting, we have since moved to a private company to work on a bigger project. My internship has offered a lot of unique opportunities; for example, in the fall semester I prepared a project, along with a lot of help from the guys in my workshop, to participate in a television competition show for promoting traditional crafts. One of my favorite aspects of my internship is that I am able to focus on Moroccan Arabic, but in a context very different than class. Linguistically, the primary benefit is a lot of practice with Moroccan Arabic. Over time, I have developed a strong relationship with the painters, and now we talk about everything, from everyday things to politics and religion.”
M. F.
"Working at the law office of Ismai'liMoulay Hafiz has been a very rewarding experience and I would recommend it to those who have an interest in law and using Standard Arabic. It is also a challenging internship as al-Ustad expects diligent work from me. My duties consisted of reading case files and writing case summaries for him. When I submit the written summary, he expects a short oral summary as well and wants me to activate the new legal terms that I have learned from the cases and law.
D. W.
“Working at the music conservatory in Meknes was one of my favorite experiences from the capstone program, because I was able to cross over my interests and piano skills, and use my Arabic at the same time. While learning musical terms in Moroccan dialect was somewhat difficult, the entire experience was extremely rewarding, because I was able to further my understanding of Moroccan culture by interacting with locals.”
A. R.
