Today started with me waking up and getting to the CCCL by 9:00. Once we got there, we had a talk with Farah, the head of the CCCL. She told us about her journey into entrepreneurship and how growing up in Morocco, she still felt the effects of colonization in everyday life. I thought that was really interesting because it showed how entrepreneurship is not always just about making money or starting a business. Sometimes it is about responding to problems that already exist in a society and creating something that helps people move forward. Her talk helped me think about our entrepreneurship exercise in a more grounded way. Instead of just trying to come up with a cool idea, I started thinking more about what problem we were actually trying to solve and who it would help.
After the talk, we got to meet the Moroccan students, and it was honestly really cool getting to know them. At first, I did not know what to expect, but it was surprising how quickly we realized that we were not that different. We all had similar school struggles, similar jokes, and similar ways of thinking through problems. The cross-cultural team exercise was interesting because it forced us to listen first instead of just jumping straight into ideas. One of the Moroccan students in our group talked about how they had to take the train every day to get to school, and on bad days, delays could make the trip take up to two hours. That really stood out to me because it is one thing to talk about student housing as a general issue, but it is another thing to hear directly from someone dealing with it every day.
That conversation led us to our pitch idea: Scholars House, a temporary and cheaper on-campus housing option for commuting students. The idea was to give students a place to stay when commuting becomes too difficult, especially during exam weeks, long class days, or major delays. We also connected it to the larger issue of expanding student housing overall. The biggest challenge was trying to take everyone’s ideas and turn them into one clear pitch in only an hour. Since we all came from different backgrounds, we had slightly different ways of looking at the problem, but that also made the idea stronger. The Moroccan students helped us understand the real transportation issue, while we helped shape it into a pitch with a clear problem, solution, and audience.
The best part of the exercise was seeing how quickly our group came together. Even though we had just met, everyone contributed something, and the pitch felt like it came from an actual need instead of just a random brainstorm. I think the biggest success was that we created something practical and student-focused. Farah’s talk definitely influenced that because it made me think more about entrepreneurship as something rooted in lived experience. Scholars House was not just an idea about housing. It was about making school less stressful and more accessible for students who are already working hard just to get there.
After we presented, I headed home and spent the afternoon relaxing at a cafe on the beach. Later, I went shopping for gifts since this was basically my final attempt to get everything done before leaving. That ended up taking about five hours, but I was glad I got it finished. After dinner, I went salsa dancing in the evening, which was a really fun way to end the day. The salsa club was in the new city, and it was gorgeous to see a different side of Rabat at night. Overall, the day had a little bit of everything: learning, teamwork, entrepreneurship, shopping, and finally getting to enjoy the city just for fun.