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Beyond Self, A Snapshot of What Invested People Achieve

Saad, Hugo, and Our Tour Guide, Mehdi, the Center's Coordinator
Saad, Hugo, and Our Tour Guide, Mehdi, the Center’s Coordinator

AUI (Women's) Center in Azrou

AUI Center in Azrou

Today I returned to AUI’s Center in Azrou, accompanied by Hugo and Saad. Hugo and I wanted to explore the opportunity of the Director of the Center speaking to the Leadership Development Institute’s participants and Saad supported the French and Arabic language needs during this Moroccan journey.

Upon leaving the Center, I knew without a doubt that Mrs. Malika would serve as an excellent model of leadership. She has accomplished much for thousands of people–a statistic validated by the published reports one sees upon entering the community. The Center is a progressive contribution to the people of Azrou and beyond, serving 7 additional villages with extension sites.

*The Center started in 2002 with the Support of AUI in Ifrane and some 11 years later

*Provides health checkups and medication for women in the area who prior to 2002 did not have such access

*Provides informal education for children who have no access to education or who have been expelled from public education

*Allows students who test well to return to public education or to persue a professional trade

*Supports high school students with a one-year intensive program, eventually leading to an intership and employment in high need industries

*Promotes Arabic literacy in reading, writing, and mathematics for women and men

Moroccan Women Learning--the Laughter and Joy in the Room Was the Sound of Appreciated Literacy
Moroccan Women Learning–the Laughter and Joy in the Room Was the Sound of Appreciated Literacy

Our tour guide noted that 400 women and about 50 men were taking literacy classes.

*Teaches women to sew and weave, ultimately leading to employment or self-employment

Sewing Classes are Coupled with Literacy Classes
The Center Celebrates Women's History Month
The Center Celebrates Women’s History Month

*Hosts after-school activities for children

*Provides housing for children and teens who live too far away to communte the city’s public school on a daily basis

*Offers classes in English

*Offers basic computer training to anyone interested

LDI Site Visits 1&2 with Salim 018

By Avis Winifred Rupert, Ph.D.

Dr. Rupert has a 20-year teaching/leadership track-record in education. She is a native of Texas but has relocated to the East Coast where she is the Associate Dean of Arts & Humanities at Bristol Community College. Her background includes both teaching and administrative positions in the university and community college, international contexts, and secondary and dual credit experience in both the rural and urban high school setting. Rupert has traveled to 21 countries to-date, partnered with populations from diverse ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds; and achieved an 8-year management career complemented by four levels of management with the largest retailer in the world. Dr. Rupert’s education is complementary to her professional and personal growth and interests. She has a BBA in Business Administration with a minor in Marketing, an MA in Composition Studies, an MA in Organizational Management with an International Focus, a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing, and she is presently working on an MA in Biblical Studies and Theology. Rupert’s profile gives her a unique way of at looking at opportunities in education and beyond that often escape others. She contributes her success to self-awareness, an unparalleled drive to grow and develop in varying ways, and a tenacity for leadership. Finally, her dissertation which required the exploration of ethnography requires mention, for it too has added to her unique perspectives and accomplishments.