McGill University graduate, Chama Laassassy applied to the Pathy Foundation Fellowship to prevent school abandonment and promote youth success in the rural outskirts of Nador, Morocco. While spending summers with family in Nador, Chama built relationships across the community, and developed an awareness of the issue of school abandonment among youth in the area.  

“I had no idea about the generational dropout phenomenon in Nador until I had a conversation with some ladies one evening after dinner.  A ten-year-old boy named Marwane came in and said, ‘I’m never going back to school,’” Chama shares. “I was really flabbergasted because it was the first time I saw somebody so young wanting to leave school. I thought to myself, ‘ten years old is way too young to drop out.’” 

As an educator with a Master of Arts in Second Language Education and experience as a youth mentor, Chama was approached by Marwane’s mother who asked her to convince him to stay in school.  For the remainder of her time in the douar (small rural community in Moroccan), Chama decided to utilize her background in alternative education to support the youth in the community who might be considering school abandonment. “I led a summer camp focused on play-based learning with about eight kids where we would be outside doing multiplication tables and other competitions. By the end of the month, the kids’ math had improved, and nobody wanted to leave school anymore,” Chama explains.  

Inspired by the tangible impact that this short summer camp had on youth confidence and academic success, Chama returned each summer to continue her work with youth at risk of dropping out of school. As the summer program grew more successful, Chama and the community began exploring ways to establish a year-round presence, leading her to apply to the Pathy Foundation Fellowship.  

Pathy Fellows are supported in designing and implementing an innovative project with a community where they have a meaningful connection. Over the course of one year, Fellows work with their communities to bring their visions to life while benefiting from a rich support network, generous funding, state-of-the-art training, and a committed cohort of likeminded changemakers. 

“The Pathy Fellowship was the right opportunity for my community and myself because it was so community centric,” Chama shares. “Most leadership programs for young graduates are focused on the individual, but the Fellowship appealed to me because of its focus on the community itself as a leader. The work of the initiative is with the community and this approach of collective leadership feels aligned to my grassroots story.”  

Chama’s Pathy Fellowship initiative, ⵉⵙⵡⵉ | ISWI : is a youth success and dropout prevention program working to reignite purpose and ambition, supporting youth to achieve their goals. “Iswi” is a Moroccan Tamazight word describing the intersection of goals and purpose, it’s use in Chama’s initiative title demonstrates its alignment with the collective vision of her community. Chama’s initiative has a holistic approach to youth success by engaging with youth and the broader community.  

“After speaking with the community, we decided to focus on youth transitioning between primary school and high school,” Chama explains. “There’s a huge gap for students through these years because of multiple systemic issues related to transition between primary and high school for youth in rural areas. This leaves many of them more vulnerable to dropping out.” Currently, Chama’s initiative is supporting 25 students in an afterschool program implemented in partnership with a local non-profit and primary school while also working with 4 students individually every two days. Chama’s approach is grounded in play-based pedagogy, enabling youth to experience joyful interactions with learning and moments of success. Building on and celebrating success is critical in developing confidence, self-efficacy, and a love of learning.  

Changing the narrative about youth and their performance in school is at the foundation of Chama’s initiative. While Chama’s initiative’s programing focuses on academic support, there is also an embedded emphasis on shifting young peoples’ perceptions of themselves as learners and youth mentors. “When I got the first report cards of the kids since beginning the program, the progress was incredible! Marwane had a 350% improvement in Math, and some kids doubled or tripled their grades… If you take the time to work with young people, help them change their mindsets, encourage, and follow up with them, they will achieve their goals,” Chama shares.  

The narrative about youth and their performance in school extends beyond the students and reaches into the community. “We notice a lot of community members saying, ‘they’re never going to graduate,’ which obviously affects kids’ self-esteem,” Chama shares. “When a child is working to improve their grades, the community often doesn’t know and still assumes they are going to be a future drop out which counteracts all the work we are doing with them. When youth hear such comments, it can have massive negative impacts on their self-confidence.”  

After receiving the most recent report cards, Chama printed them out and shared the positive results with members of the community to shift the narrative about the youth. To further reinforce this, Chama is developing Community Support Circles to create a space to build up a culture of highlighting the progress of youth, celebrating and uplifting them.  

“At Eid after Ramadan, the whole community gathered, and I heard one of the youth we have been mentoring and was previously considering leaving school, share with another community member he hadn’t seen in a while that he now has the goal of graduating high school, when, at the start of the ⵉⵙⵡⵉ | ISWI mentorship journey, he was not aiming to.” Chama shares. “It was really beautiful to hear how he had shifted his own mindset about his future and goals.” 

Planning for beyond the Fellowship year, Chama is working to equip parents and teachers with the tools to continue supporting youth to experience success.  “We’re designing situations where success is attainable through an individualized approach,” Chama shares. “There are not many programs that exist for youth considering leaving school. It is so important to work on their mindset and build resilience before they are in that situation.” 

Chama defines success as building something from the ground up with her community. “We worked hand-in-hand, and everyone contributed with their strengths for the sake of our youth. I grew into my role as an educator and youth mentor here,” Chama shares. “Figuring out ways, daily, to reach teens that have lost all hope in following their dreams has been the most important part of my work. Getting them to believe in themselves again and see the worth in pursuing their dreams again has been the most rewarding part.  

To learn more about Chama’s Pathy Fellowship initiative, or the Pathy Foundation Fellowship, please visit www.PathyFellowship.com.