Growing up in Tangiers, Morocco, Hiba Elabbassi was interested and invested in American culture. Elabbassi is now spending her senior year at Parker thanks to the American Field Service (AFS) program, which brings students all over the world to different schools as a means of connecting global cultures.

“AFS Intercultural Programs is a global not-for-profit Network that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world,” the AFS website says. AFS was founded by ambulance drivers from World War I who saw atrocities and wanted to build connections between countries to promote peace.

Elabbassi said that in Morocco, not only was she interested in American culture, but her interest was a vehicle for becoming more fluent in English. As a 10 or 11-year-old, Elabbassi would listen to American pop music videos which built up her knowledge of the language.

Elabbassi’s first language is Arabic, the official language of Morocco. In Moroccan schools, students learn French. Now at Parker, Elabbassi has decided to take Mandarin, meaning that including English, she has some level of fluency in four languages.

When Elabbassi heard about the prospect of going to the United States through AFS, she was both intrigued and intimidated. “It sounded very scary to be alone,” she said, “but a part of me was like you have to be in that situation once in your life, so why not now?”

Elabbassi did not know where she would be studying abroad until a couple of weeks before August 23 when she got on her first ever plane and took her first ever trip out of Morocco. The plane took her to Washington where she stayed the night with other AFS students and then arrived in Chicago on August 24. “Since I’m here now, I get to really live here and experience here, and I really love it,” she said.

Upper School French teacher and AFS faculty sponsor Lorin Pritikin estimated that Parker has been welcoming AFS students for at least 30 years. She said that by bringing in an AFS student, the community can become more conscious of other cultures and more conscious of how other cultures are not that different from our own.

Pritikin also said that a main value of the AFS program at Parker are the casual conversations that can occur with teens from very different places that help them recognize their similarities. Pritikin has found that music is a universal and equalizing topic.

Muhammad Reza (Eja) Hamid was the AFS student at Parker during the 2019-2020 school year but was sent home by AFS in March of 2020 due to COVID-19. Hamid is now a Freshman at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

After a year with no AFS student, the 2020-2021 school year, Pritikin got permission from Principal Dan Frank to host a student for the 2021-2022 school year. “I cried, I was so excited that he said yes,” she said.

Elabbassi is also coming through the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program which is focused on bringing students form Muslim countries into American classrooms. YES was established in 2002 in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

A factor of getting Elabbassi set up to come to Parker this year was her coronavirus vaccination status. When she was leaving Morocco, the vaccination eligibility age range was 17 years or older so Elabbassi could not get vaccinated. However, upon arriving in Chicago, she was able to get her vaccine.

In Chicago, Elabbassi is currently staying with sophomore Alex Fidler’s family and next semester she will live with senior Yaleigh Harris’s family. Elabbassi said she was “grateful” for the couple of weeks she had before Parker to get used to life in Chicago and spend time with her host family. 

On her fifth day of school, Elabbassi reported she had started to get used to Parker despite sometimes getting a little “lost.”

Elabbassi has appreciated the communal activities at Parker with the senior class or with many grades all together. “I had the opportunity to meet people, even if they don’t take the same classes as me,” she said. She looks forward to more traditions and social events that have yet to come this year at Parker.

On Monday, November 22, the AFS committee will host a Morning Exercise where Elabbassi will share about her journey with AFS as well as teaching about the culture of Morocco.

Each year, the AFS committee hosts a few events relating to the AFS student including a luncheon, a food night, and two MX’s. The MX’s will still be happening according to AFS Committee Head and senior Elsie Rattner, but the food related events will likely need to be replaced.

“We have to be creative,” Rattner said about the AFS Committee, “we came up with going to Zoo Lights as a group, sledding and stuff, and doing fun things with snow.” They were specifically interested in doing a snow related event because although Elabbassi has seen snow before, it is not such a regular sight for her.

Rattner was an AFS Committee Head last year when not only did events have to be online, but there was also no AFS student to have events about. The committee came up with the idea of reconnecting over Zoom with past AFS students which Rattner says AFS Committee is planning to do again.

Rattner is hoping that the AFS committee will have more innovative ideas for events and other programming this year so that more people can get involved and Parker can take advantage of the great opportunities that come with welcoming AFS students into the community.

Elabbassi said her favorite food from Morocco is Tajine, a slow cooked seasoned meat and vegetable dish. She said she enjoyed the Mexican and Indian food that she has tried in Chicago as well as her excitement to try deep dish pizza.

Elabbassi is taking “Science and Fiction” at Parker with Upper School English teacher Mike Mahany and Upper School science teacher Xiao Zhang, her favorite class. She is interested in possibly being a psychologist or something in the medical field for her career but noted that her interests are likely to change over time.

“She has exuded confidence, courage, kindness, enthusiasm, and open mindedness,” Pritikin said about Elabbassi at Parker so far. “She’s the perfect global citizen.”