This is the second in a series of spotlights on our spring 2018 student interns. Learning Life’s students this spring are assisting with research, outreach, fundraising, and international family-to-family projects focused on community photography and food culture as part of our Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI). FZ Kassidi, interviewed below, is helping with event fundraising, food culture research transcriptions into French and English, and the family food culture project.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born and raised in Morocco between Rabat, the country’s capital, and Agadir, a coastal city. I am Moroccan as are both my parents.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
I attend the George Washington University as a junior majoring in International Affairs with a concentration in International Economics and a minor in Business Administration.
What do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I love to read any type of book, draw people or cartoons, and if my free time is longer than a weekend, to travel, discover new places and meet new people. Also, I’m a huge world soccer and American basketball fan, so I watch a lot of games in my free time, especially Real Madrid and the Golden State Warriors. Finally, I love to go to the movies as much as I can!
Is there a life experience you have had that has particularly shaped you thus far? If so, what is it, and how has it shaped you?
I would say interning in Geneva, Switzerland in summer 2017 for the diplomatic mission of Morocco to the United Nations and other international organizations. I spent one month with the Moroccan human rights delegation representing Moroccan interests during the 35th United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2017. The second month I spent with the economics delegation, representing Moroccan interests at the World Trade Organization. Being assigned to make speeches in front of diplomats coming from all over the world, and writing detailed reports about meetings I attended shows the great responsibility I was entrusted with, which allowed me to discover for the first time a new, professional side of myself. This internship also gave me the opportunity to travel as much as I could in Europe, so I got to visit cities like Geneva, Lausanne, and Zurich, Switzerland, Brussels and Lieges, Belgium, Monaco, as well as Cannes, France, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Holland, and Zagreb and Split, Croatia. Through all these travels and work-related opportunities that summer I got to not only discover new places, experiences and people but also to discover myself.
What are your career plans?
My career goal is to ultimately work for/with the World Bank to help build more economically and socially prosperous societies that are currently struggling to achieve higher and sustainable growth.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
Learning Life is an honorable non-profit organization that works to give global educational opportunities to children and families in lower-income communities in Washington DC and abroad. That is something that I wish to achieve in my home country of Morocco in the future, so interning with Learning Life greatly and undeniably helps me build up my skills and knowledge for my future endeavors.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
This is a really hard question. I’m what you can call a “travelaholic.” I love to visit new beautiful places as often as I can. To narrow it down, I thought of Maui, Hawaii, which was one of the most amazing places I got to visit. The beaches, the people, the culture, the mountain hiking, waterfalls and all its beautiful nature made me fall in love with the place. But Split, Croatia was such a beautiful place too. The city has many unforgettable islands around it, and mesmerizing caves.
Intern Spotlight: Arielle Mobayen
This is the first in a series of spotlights on our spring 2018 student interns. Learning Life’s students this spring are assisting with research, outreach, fundraising, and international family-to-family projects focused on community photography and food culture as part of our Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI). Arielle Mobayen, interviewed below, is helping with outreach to international organizations, fundraising, food culture research transcriptions into French and English, and the family food culture project.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Scottsdale, Arizona of Iranian parents, but I was raised mainly in Paris. Most of my family lives in California, so we visited them during the summers, but otherwise I lived in Paris with my family until age 16. Then at 16 onward, I lived mostly in California until college.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
I attended the American University of Paris for my freshman year of college. I transferred to George Washington University in my sophomore year, and will be graduating in 2020 with a major in International Affairs and Criminal Justice.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I spend most of my free time reading, especially during the summer. I love reading different kind of fiction and non-fiction books that help me learn new things. I also enjoy playing the piano and improving my piano skills.
Is there a life experience you have had that has particularly shaped you thus far? If so, what is it, and how has it shaped you?
One life experience which has shaped me thus far is the move my family and I made from Paris, France to Orange County, California when I was 16 years old. Living in a European country is very different from living in southern California. Most of my friends were in Paris and as I was used to the French education system, so a lot changed when my family moved to California. Still it was an amazing experience which made the multi-cultural person I am today. If I did not move to California, I probably would not be at George Washington University now, so I am very thankful for this cross-cultural opportunity.
What are your career plans?
My professional goal is in the long run is to work with the U.S. Government or with any international government agency to expand my experience and skills in International Affairs and Criminal Justice. A dream of mine would be to use my language skills (I speak Farsi/Persian, English and French fluently) to work with the FBI or the CIA.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
I chose to intern at Learning Life as a way for me to expand my global experiences. I do this by working with different Learning Life families in Washington DC and Dakar, Senegal. I am able to help spread learning with children and work on international projects, which I love.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
The most beautiful place I have seen on earth is the Amalfi Coast of Italy. The landscape is just amazing — sandy beaches, clear blue sea water, homes of different colors, mountains, etc. It looks like the beautiful photos one sees on tourist postcards. There are a few islands where you can spend a day touring if you take a boat. On top of that, the Italian people and their food are incredible!
Let’s Build a DC World Affairs Pipeline
Learning Life is now seeking individuals and organizations interested in helping to build a “World Affairs Pipeline” connecting lower-income metro DC children to opportunities and careers in international relations.
The Challenge
Washington DC is a world city divided. On one hand, DC is home to thousands of individuals and organizations daily engaged in international affairs. On the other hand, DC is also home to thousands of lower-income youth that have traveled little if at all outside DC, and are largely disconnected from the wider world as well as their own community. These two groups are in some ways worlds apart, yet often live just blocks apart, and may cross paths daily, strangers to each other. Nonetheless, both groups are inescapably part of a wider world increasingly connected in at once exciting and frightful ways. Those disengaged from an early age may not only be left behind, but become the resentful rather than caring global citizens we need.
The Proposed Pipeline
There is much that caring individuals and organizations in metro DC can do to help bridge the divide between these two groups, but it takes vision, collaborative planning, and follow-through. It also takes a pipeline. Committed groups already build steel and plastic pipelines to deliver oil and gas to homes and businesses across the world. So can they build social pipelines that nurture, in coordinating ways, caring global citizens from kindergarten to after-school, weekend and summer youth and family programs, to internships and volunteer opportunities, to higher education programs and apprenticeships, to jobs and careers in world affairs.
This is what we propose. We are Learning Life, an educational nonprofit based in Ward 8 of Washington DC. Our flagship program, the Citizen Diplomacy Initiative (CDI), engages lower-income Ward 8 families in live dialogues and project collaborations with lower-income families in other nations to help democratize diplomacy, and nurture more caring and capable global citizens. We are small but innovative. We know that nurturing caring global citizens is not easy, but committed groups can transform people, cities and the world. It takes more than one organization though. It takes a city.
Get Involved
To get involved, join our Facebook group to share news and resources, and to engage our growing community. We will notify you via the Facebook group of pipeline-planning meetings when they start. Questions, suggestions, or want to get involved as a pipeline organizer? Contact Learning Life’s Director, Paul Lachelier, at paul@learninglife.info or 202-910-6966.
International Project Comparing Family Food Cultures Launches
Learning Life, a Washington DC-based educational nonprofit, is launching a new international family-t0-family project to explore family food cultures across the world.
Learning Life’s flagship program, the Citizen Diplomacy Initiative(CDI), engages lower-income American families, starting in Ward 8 of Washington DC, in live internet dialogues and project collaborations with lower-income families in other countries of the world to nurture more caring, capable global citizens. Last year, eight families in DC, Dakar, Senegal, and Jerash, Jordan engaged in an international community photo project. That project revealed intriguing differences in the foods the families eat, so this year, participating families will explore their own and another country’s food culture through interviews with our diverse volunteers, an immigrant or foreign guest, and a family in another country.
The project will unfold through five meetings, typically on weekends mornings or afternoons, with Learning Life volunteers at the participating families’ homes or online via Skype. The project culminates with a live internet dialogue between selected American families in the USA, and families in El Salvador, Senegal and Jordan.
Benefits of participation in CDI:
Provides children and their parents/guardians the chance to bond by learning together.
Helps participants learn more about themselves, their community, their country, and the world
Gives families access to language interpreters and other volunteers who can help families learn better and access resources
Offers an international experience that can help open doors to better schools and jobs.
May boost children’s interest, confidence and performance in school and everyday life by increasing their knowledge, skill and engagement with the world.
To be eligible, families must have:
Residence in selected locations in Washington DC, San Salvador, El Salvador, Dakar, Senegal and Jerash, Jordan.
At least one parent or guardian and one or more children 10-18 willing to participate.
Household income of less than their country’s annual median household income.
Parents with less than a bachelor’s or four-year university degree.
Traveled little or not at all outside their country, and have few if any contacts in other countries.
To learn more, contact us at email@learninglife.info.
What school do you attend, and what is your year and major there?
