SIT Journalism and New Media students visited former SIT participant Perry DeMarche (Spring 2017) at Dar Si Hmad for Development, Education and Culture in Agadir on February 20th. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology, DeMarche worked as an English teacher in France before she began working at Dar Si Hmad as the Ethnographic Field School manager. In this role, DeMarche manages field programs in environmental anthropology for university students. SIT students were also given the opportunity to hear about Dar Si Hmad’s fog harvesting project. This project uses revolutionary technology to capture the water from fog, so Moroccan women no longer have to spend up to four hours a day collecting water.
alumni
A reporter for Boston’s unheard voices: Spotlight on MOJ alum Paris Alston
Photo: WBUR
Paris Alston nearly studied abroad in Paris out of obligation to her first name. Instead, she was drawn to the SIT: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media program in Morocco because, journalist that she is, she had a sneaking feeling that whatever she had heard about Morocco was not the whole truth. “There was something about Morocco because it was a Middle Eastern Muslim country and the narrative we hear about countries in that region is not always the full scoop,” Alston said. “That was important to see for myself what was really going on there.” So in the spring semester of 2015, Alston, now 25, went to study in Morocco, a decision that would shape her career in public radio.
Alumni Spotlight: Jeanette Lam
By Lexi Reich
Unsure of which study abroad program to choose, Jeanette Lam, 21, left the decision to a coin toss. Through that chance and the SIT journalism program in Morocco, she found herself in Paris last summer working as a cinematographer and editing assistant on a feature documentary.
“France’s Children,” directed by Aida Alami, advisor to the SIT program, follows the story of an immigration activist in France, and other activists who, fueled by the desire to empower their community, reject victimhood.
“This experience was one of the most unique opportunities I’ve ever had,” Lam said.
Alumni Spotlight: Maddy Crowell
by Erika Riley
Maddy Crowell had never considered journalism before attending SIT’s program in Morocco in the Fall of 2013. Now she spends her days freelancing around the world, covering everything from France’s colonial legacy in Guadaloupe to white supremacists in the United States.
“It was all very transformative for me,” the 26 year-old alum said. “I came back to Carleton after the semester and switched [my major] from philosophy to politics and was very very restless and ready to get out of school.”
She originally applied to the SIT Morocco: Field Studies in New Media and Journalism program because she wanted to study outside the Western world and wanted to learn Arabic.
Alumni Spotlight: Kayla Dwyer
by Erika Riley
For Kayla Dwyer, the decision to study abroad during her junior year was a given. She knew she wanted to go abroad, and decided on the SIT Morocco: Field Studies in New Media and Journalism program after one of her friends who had recently finished the program recommended it to her.
“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I applied, was accepted, and I would never go back on that,” Dwyer said. “I wouldn’t change my decision.”
Dwyer wanted a program that would allow her to improve her French skills, while also going outside her comfort zone.
