Gallaudet charms Moroccan princess and delegation during strategic learning visit

When Moroccan Princess Lalla Asmaa visited campus last month, a child at the Clerc Center had a very important question.

“Where is your crown?”

She laughed and admitted she left it at home. But the princess brought something more important: her commitment to Deaf education, which she has supported through her foundation for decades. She came to Gallaudet as part of a Moroccan delegation researching how to create a university for Deaf students that would primarily serve the continent of Africa. 

Representatives from her foundation, the Lalla Asmaa Foundation, heads of the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation, Ministers in the Moroccan government, and the Moroccan Ambassador to the United States made up this high-level delegation during a two-day Strategic Learning Visit. Princess Asmaa joined the delegation and toured the campus on the second day.

First, she observed student presentations in a senior seminar led by History Professor Dr. Billy Ennis, ’01. That was followed by a visit to Motion Light Lab (ML2) with Melissa Malzkuhn ’04, G-’08, Founder and Director of ML2, Project Manager Tayla Newman, and Creative Designer Yiqiao Wang, ’09, to learn about its visual bilingual storybooks and important connections between literacy and sign language. She learned about more neuroscience research in The Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) from Drs. Lorna Quandt and Ilaria Berteletti, VL2 Professors, and VL2 Co-Director Malzkuhn.

In the Student Activity Center, Princess Asmaa watched the swearing in of the new Student Body Government President and Vice President, and made a call at a video relay service booth. She was at the Clerc Center when she was asked about her crown’s location, and another spirited child evaluated President Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano’s regional sign for GRADE with skepticism.  

These interactions helped the delegation learn what makes Gallaudet unique, and what could potentially be applied in Morocco, including the nuances of higher education for Deaf students and the importance of the foundations created by family environment and K-12 education. Provost Dr. Khadijat K. Rashid, ’90, shared about her time as a Nigerian student at Gallaudet, emphasizing that at its heart, Gallaudet feels like home to its students.

“Because of our shared language and cultural access, students feel like a whole, full human being here. We have direct access to everything; visitors are the ones who need interpreters here,” Rashid explained.

Cordano situated Gallaudet through the lens of history and affirmed that progress would be accelerated as they invited Deaf leaders into important roles in the creation of a future university for deaf people in Morocco. Dean of Faculty Dr. Caroline Solomon outlined Gallaudet’s various undergraduate and graduate academic pathways and the depth of expertise on Deaf populations and culture, as well as American Sign Language (ASL). 

The connections between early intervention with educational outcomes throughout a deaf student’s life were taught to the delegation in another session. The Clerc Center’s Joan “JV” Bippus, ’97, Manager of Early Childhood Education, and Tammy Burns, ’99, Senior Project Manager for K-12 National Programs & Outreach, outlined how deaf babies develop and acquire language. They stressed the importance of implementing language planning models with intention in order to create language-rich environments. 

Richard Dougherty, Executive Director of Architecture and Facilities Management, shared DeafSpace and human-centered design principles for the Moroccan delegation to consider when envisioning the building of a physical space for its future university.

In that spirit, Rashid closed with the group by pointing out who the true experts are. “We can’t tell you what you need in your country — ask your Deaf Moroccan communities what they need,” she said.

Also hosting the delegation were Moroccan students, Zakaria El Kantaoui, a student in Gallaudet’s English Language Institute, and Zahra Ketoun, a PhD candidate in Critical Studies in the Education of Deaf Learners. El Kantaoui shared his journey with the group, from attending the Lalla Asmann Foundation school for deaf children to joining Gallaudet last fall. Both Ketoun and El Kantaoui emphasized the importance of valuing Moroccan Sign Language and protecting native and regional signed language variations in Morocco.

President Delegate of the Lalla Asmaa Foundation, Karim Essakalli, and President Cordano then signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) in the National Deaf Life Museum. In his remarks, Essakalli said a closer relationship with Gallaudet is an important step in creating a university in Morocco – the first of its kind – dedicated to deaf education and professions related to working with deaf communities in Africa and the Middle East. The LOI affirms the foundation’s and the university’s shared goals to enhance education, training, and opportunities for Deaf individuals in Morocco and to explore areas of potential collaboration grounded in values of inclusivity, accessibility, bilingual learning, and academic excellence. 

The day concluded with an exchange of gifts made by Deaf artists in Morocco and the United States. Gallaudet gave the delegation a piece depicting College Hall by Wang, which the artist says is a symbol of how Gallaudet serves as a “central beacon” for Deaf communities.

The organizing team from Global Gallaudet, headed up by Senda Benaissa, E-’05, and Amanda Mueller, extends a heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in the visit, both formally and informally. “The entire Gallaudet University and Clerc Center communities were incredibly welcoming and truly shone throughout the visit,” they said.