Fulbright scholar refuses to let a pandemic end her fellowship in Western Pennsylvania

Loubna Zohra Aissioui was excited when she learned she had been selected to come to the U.S. in a Fulbright international teaching exchange program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Studying in the U.S. was the fulfillment of a dream for the married mother of three who has taught high school English in Morocco for the last 15 years. The chance to experience American culture and teach in public schools in Indiana, Pa. and Pittsburgh while studying at IUP for five months was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

And she wasn’t about to let a global pandemic take that away.

When the coronavirus shutdown hit three months into her scholarship, Aissioui faced a decision: Get on a plane for Morocco immediately, or stay at IUP and hope she would be able to get home at the end of the semester.

Aissioui, one of 16 Fulbright scholars from 11 countries at IUP this year, was among eight who decided to stay.

Michele Petrucci, IUP’s associate vice president for international education and global engagement, said members of the group were in New York on spring break when word of an international shutdown began to break.

“We were on spring break in Manhattan, in mid-March a few days before everything closed, when they started getting requests from their home countries,” Petrucci said. “It was during that first big wave of panic.”

Some students were ordered to return home, others were given a choice.

Aissioui said it wasn’t a hard choice for her. Her husband and mother have been supportive of her studies, and she talks with her children, aged 2, 9 and 12, every day.

But she had yet to finish a project that would help teachers back in Morocco reach students struggling with a second language.

“I came here with a goal,” she said. “And since I hadn’t achieved what I came here for, I decided I am not going to go back empty-handed.”

The Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching program, now in its fifth year at IUP, is one of three programs in the U.S. designed to increase international understanding by offering primary and secondary teachers a window on another world. The other two are at Arizona State University and Syracuse University.

Assioui, 37, had already completed her teaching experience at Indiana High School and was getting ready to transition to Brashear High School in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood when public schools and colleges across the state closed their campuses and transitioned to online instruction for the remainder of the year.

Devin Brown, who teaches French and Russian at Brashear, is one of the volunteer coordinators with the IUP program.

He’s hosted French-speaking teachers from Morocco and Senegal. He said his students are thrilled to hear from their international visitors.

“These teachers are pretty skilled in delivering their native language in a way my kids can understand,” he said. “We usually set up presentations to be 20-25 minutes long. They can mill around. The bulk of our kids get this really rich linguistic and cultural experience from folks who are smart and intelligent and traveling all the way around the world to see them. My kids are really honored to have them.”

Since face-to-face instruction was halted before the Fulbright scholars transitioned to Brashear, Brown said the experience was limited this year. But Brashear tried to make up for it by hosting online Q&A sessions with its faculty and their international visitors.

Although the experience wasn’t quite what she had expected, Aissioui said she’s glad she stuck it out.

She came away with a new perspective on education and learning.

“What I liked here was the feeling that the student is your priority,” she said. “No one told me that, but I could see that everything is done for the student and that the students are the hope for the future.”

Aissioui should have been able to head home nearly a month ago, but with international travel at a virtual standstill, she’s not sure exactly when she’ll be able to get a flight home. But she’s comfortable at IUP and said she has the satisfaction of knowing she completed her work.

She’ll have new perspectives to offer her fellow teachers and students when she returns.

And then there is the role she is modeling for her own children.

“Implicitly, there are messages going to my children and my community,” she said.

For the woman who had to struggle against cultural expectations that she would set aside her career when she had children, challenging herself to reach this new goal has been a learning experience.

“I’ve learned a lot about myself,” she said.