Bennett College News July 7, 2023 The Bennett College Global Studies Team is leading a month-long research excursion in Morocco, a country in the Maghreb region of Northwestern Africa. Bennett College wrote and received the college's first-ever Fulbright-Hays Short Term Group Project Abroad (GPA) grant for the project titled, "Women and Democracy in Morocco." The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills. Anne C. Hayes, PhD, Executive Director of Global & Interdisciplinary Programs at Bennett College says, "We are pleased to have earned this phenomenal opportunity. Bennett's mission and history as a women's HBCU committed to civic engagement and social justice contributed to the strength of our detailed submission. This grant continues to elevate and enhance the global standing of Bennett's faculty and administrators and our knowledge of women, civic engagement, and democracy around the world." The twelve-member team includes Bennett College faculty and partner representatives from the faculty of Guilford County Schools' Early/Middle College. The team will spend one month traveling in Morocco, learning about the culture, history, language, and meeting with women leaders and women's cooperatives and NGOs. They will compare and contrast the American Civil Rights Movement with Moroccan women's work to participate in democracy. While in-country, participants will engage in interactive activities including: * Instruction in basic Arabic to improve language and communication. * Special guided tours of significant Moroccan historic sites to develop an understanding for cultural context and landscape; visits to urban and rural areas within Morocco. * Meetings with leaders of women's NGOs to understand Moroccan women's civic engagement and conduct meetings with rural women's cooperatives. * Meetings with University faculty and students. * Intentional time for reflection and journal writing and facilitated discussions. All participants will work on a project that will be presented upon their return. The team will chronicle their experiences and lessons learned, then share them with students and the community in October when Bennett College will host a "Women and Democracy Symposium" as part of Founders Weekend activities. Follow the Bennett College Instagram account @Bennett_College to see photos from their excursion. Bennett College is a Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leader<https://us.fulbrightonline.org/fulbright-program-hbcu-institutional-leaders>. The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) named 19 institutions of higher education as Fulbright Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Institutional Leaders for 2022. ECA established the Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leaders Initiative to recognize and commend the strong partnership between the Fulbright Program and HBCUs and to encourage all HBCUs to increase their engagement with Fulbright to help their students, faculty and staff to study, teach or conduct research abroad and access valuable international experiences and perspectives. LaTasha Denard Executive Assistant at HBCU Library Alliance<http://hbculibraries.org/> Phone: (678) 210-5801 ext. 102 Web: hbculibraries.org<http://hbculibraries.org/> Email: ldenard@hbculibraries.org<http://mailto:ldenard@hbculibraries.org/> Follow us on our social media: [cid:image001.png@01D9B40C.207D2560] [cid:image002.png@01D9B40C.207D2560] [cid:image003.png@01D9B40C.207D2560] [cid:image004.png@01D9B40C.207D2560] Sandra Phoenix Executive Director at HBCU Library Alliance<http://hbculibraries.org/> Office: (678) 210-5801 ext. 101 Mobile: (404) 702-5854 Web: hbculibraries.org<http://hbculibraries.org/> Email: sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> Seek justice, honor the ancestors, honor the children and those yet to come. [cid:image005.gif@01D9B412.2C07CCE0]<https://www.facebook.com/hbculibraryalliance1/> [cid:image006.gif@01D9B412.2C07CCE0] <https://twitter.com/HBCULibAlliance> [cid:image007.png@01D9B412.2C07CCE0] <https://www.instagram.com/hbcu_library_alliance/> [cid:image008.gif@01D9B412.2C07CCE0] <https://hbculibraryalliance.wordpress.com/>