Career Center USAID celebration

23 September 2019 we attended the USAID congratulatory closing ceremony for the Career Center program: JT & Barbara, along with Fellows Turner and Mishra.

We arrived at the Sofitel soon after 9am, mingled with guests: I had a long chat with Monica Carlson, Director Program Management Office USAID.

I also briefly met with the Technical Director of the Career Center (en francais), but again I did not catch his name.

The event proper started at 9:30, with the arrival of Education Minister Amzazi and DCM Green. It was well-run, almost completely in French, with a chipper Frenchwoman MC and her male Moroccan sidekick (the woman spoke very quickly, while his speech was more intelligible).

Minister Amzazi spoke about 10 minutes, completely from prepared notes, very polished and sincere and intelligible French. He made particular note of the importance of teaching English (he named no other language), and of course applauded the success of Career Center and its upcoming expansion to all 12 regions.

Chargé d’Affaires David Green spoke about 10 minutes in French, mostly from prepared remarks with a pronounced American accent, but later off-the-cuff genuine but hesitant comments, noting that he arrived only a few weeks ago! No mention of administration names or ambassador names.

Then several speakers, leaders of some of the program centers, businesspeople who hired CareerCenter grads, and actual students -- a nice spread of 3 students’ speeches: French, Arabic, English!

Then the awards and certificates to all of the managers of the various centers and related offices, nicely and efficiently presented; Amzazi and Green departed at 10:30 precisely, during the awards ceremony. Then a final gathering onstage of all involved with Career Center, including students -- most of the audience went onstage.

Then I chatted with several of the student “Career Center Ambassadors” who were quite cheery and happy to speak English with us.

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