Shine Space

I’m Nora from Morocco, a crazy passionate about social entrepreneurship. I started running my first company from my university’s dormitory at the age of 19. Now I’m 22 years old, CEO and founder of Shine Space: An Educational social enterprise that gives opportunities for young students to acquire skills beyond what the schools provide. I’m a 2019 MEPI Student Leaders program Alumni (Montana State University). Also, I was one of 6 Moroccans to selected at the biggest foundation for Entrepreneurs in Africa. 

My daily job and focus are creating value and opportunities for under-served people, people who have no one to believe in them and no one to fight for them. 

Today, I’m just glad because I’m still on the same path, heading towards the same vision, with different hats and responsibilities.

In Morocco, 80% of students between the age of 15 – 18 are uncertain about their future. As a result, they graduate without the personal and professional skills needed for the world of work.

To tackle this growing silent crisis, Shine Space is born.

Shine space offers opportunities to students to prepare early and acquire technical and interpersonal skills, beyond what the schools provide, to meet the demands of today’s world of work. Through:

 1-Offline trainings: Through a continuous experimental sessions and personal, mental and professional development workshops and programs. 

2-Online follow-up: Through an interactive learning platform that has all complementary resources. 

Thereof, our team is aware that we cannot change an entire system but we believe we can impose an innovative educational approach to bridge the knowledge gap of the student, with guidance on how to take the right career path.

80% of students (from 15 to 18 years old) in Morocco are uncertain about their future career paths. Instead of pursuing an area of interest, they pursue expectations of society and parents, in fields where they don't have aspirations. They graduate without the personal and professional skills needed for the world of work. 

In addition to that, education in Morocco -and most Arab countries- is not given a great importance either in terms of human resources or financial aids. Plus the unemployment rate that is in the highest among Moroccan youth and it has slightly increased due to the crisis. 

At Shine Space, we are aware that we don't have the power to change an entire system but we truly believe on the impact we are making, it is real and we are imposing a new innovative educational system here.

 Shine Space, a youth-empowerment organization focused on educational and career development in the outskirts of Tangier, Morocco. Shine Space is a place where “students can go to share their thoughts, their fears, and gain guidance from mentors".

Shine Space serves mainly students between 15 and 18 years old but also university students (18-25) and their parents.

We conduct surveys to better understand our communities, we create focused groups and sharing spaces in order to improve our propositions for them, and we also organize evaluation sessions to help us develop Shine Space the right way.

When I first got my high school degree, my parents wanted me to be a Doctor, my English teacher on the other hand advised me to study English but my uncle somehow managed to convince me to be enrolled in an Engineering university like my cousins. I had no purpose so I followed the rat race.

5 months of studying, somewhere along the way, I forgot why I chose it in the first place, I forgot who I am and I was afraid that I rushed to a decision. So, I decided to let it go and spend the rest of the year figuring out what I really want to do with my life. 

I reflected on this experience and realized that at school, we were always asked to memorize information, to use our time wisely... but never taught the time management skills, learning skills, communication skills...  and I received hundreds of texts and emails from students claiming they have faced the same situation, only 20% of them had the courage to pursue their dreams, 80% couldn't. So why Shine Space? To help the 80% of the students Shine! 

Aspiration drove me then, and still continues to pilot me now. 

I'm 23 years old and I already have kids! Well, 82 actually, and they are all around my age, some even older, they all look older than me though! I was born in the south of Morocco, raised in the North until 2004 when we had to move back to the south and start over again; because of a strong earthquake. Thus, we lost everything we had, including our house, everything was interrupted for several months: electricity, public services, telecommunications and school, that was my best part then! 

As a student, I had to face many challenges in my journey but mostly the gap between the knowledge taught at school and the skills needed in today's world. The true purpose of education is to stimulate creativity and the passion of the student body. We don’t need high grades for that, we don't need fancy schools, we just need students with the desire to SHINE and better themselves. That's what we got covered at Shine Space!

Shine Space for me is more than a project, it's a belief, a life commitment.

There is a lot I can write that would give you context but the most important word to take away is “Portfolio”. I’m a portfolio person; my identity is formed by a diverse set of interests.
Page #1 is about my crazy passion to dig into social problems and solve them with an entrepreneurial mindset, innovation and technology. My journey has started as an earthquake survivor when I was a child. I’ve got to live, study, and grow up surrounded by my community, hearing the voices of under-served people every day. School volunteering wasn’t fulfilling so I founded my 1st company from my university’s dormitory. 

I’ve enjoyed many executive positions in team management, marketing, technical sales, auditing, and strategy. I create, scale and optimize projects, the customer is always placed at the center.

My companies are awarded +30 prizes including the Best Social Enterprise trophy, and recognized by the British Council, Ford Motor and Tony Elumelu.

In general, I have a calm attitude when it comes to work under-pressure. My experience as consultant and my exchanges abroad have taught me to listen actively and use my eye for detail to invite dialogue which improves team chemistry.

A big part of my job is to lift people up, inspire and tell stories that motivate. I use psychology to evoke a neurological team response and increase its productivity.
My portfolio pages are still being built, that’s what keeps me up at night, a never-ending thirst to create.

Before the crisis, we had more than 20 workshops to conduct, leadership trips to organize and a national forum that was supposed to gather 1000 participants to discover the world of technology. But due to the unforeseen circumstances, we had to cancel most of them.

I've had setbacks that have disrupted what I thought was the way but the crisis is my biggest, it affected me:

•  As citizen: I felt the responsibility and the national duty to step up during this time, so I've collaborated with the health ministry to fight the negative social impact of Covid-19 
• As a person: To make the lock-down more bearable, we’ve launched series of online workshops on the art of Mandala, a drawing art often used as a therapeutic meditation tool to relieve the mind.
• As a business owner: We planned a strategic pivot in our mentoring services, and therefore we offer one-to-one sessions where we support our students mentally and professionally to successfully pass their exams.We also launched the first interactive platform in Morocco that improves the conversational skills in foreign languages using talk-rooms. The aim of this concept is not only improve our communication skills but also keep us socially engaged.

There was a time when I was angry at God because he chose the hard way to introduce me to the word “earthquake”; I had to see our household goods crashing to the floor and our house rocking violently to understand it!

My classroom building is a tent, my teachers are my neighbors and my brothers are my tent mates. I got to grow up surrounded by my community so I learnt valuable life skills as a result of doing life together.

I remember I was walking around the village when I heard a French dialogue. Chantal was struggling: Nobody understood French. So I needed to switch to a challenging role, Chantal’s.

I put a lot of effort as I knew that I was going to be underestimated because of my age; a ritual that I always see coming (sometimes I wish I were taller so that I wouldn’t have to deal with this)! 

Using 2 ALs: Adaptive Leadership&Active Listening, I learnt to guide others by harnessing my observations and to control the momentum of everything.

Surviving earthquake is the reason why I decided that creating opportunities for underserved people was what I want to do in my life

We are a social enterprise.  Most of our programs are paid but 10 to 20% of our benefits go to people who cannot afford to pay for our services.

Since our start in 2019, we have trained +250 students, organized 50 training sessions and impacted more than 10 000 participants through a regional forum, leadership trips and other events offline and online.

We also have created 2 full-time jobs and 9 part-time jobs

We have 2 partnerships:

The first is with an NGO (Ultra Distribution) that provides guidance to university.

The second is a partnership with the Health Ministry of Morocco in order to provide services in under-served villages in Morocco during this difficult time of Coronavirus.

We work with individuals (students / parents), NGOs and institutions. We provide continuous programs conducted by coaches and professionals.

For example, by offering mental and professional support workshops for students, they are regularly placed in an assessment posture that aims to empower them.

Secondly, leadership trips or as we like to call them; Trips with purpose. A concept through which we offer a range of experiences, ranging from community service and immersive learning to exploratory trips and adventure. With individual and group initiatives, students' leadership styles and strengths are explored through the lens of thinking, team work, communication, problem solving and strategic decision making.

The third is a complementary programme through which we introduce our beneficiaries to the use of new information technologies in order to contribute to quality education adapted to the changing world. So, either online or offline, we are always open and ready to adopt new methods in our various programs!

Regarding our financial model, it is hybrid where 10% of our revenue is invested in people who cannot pay for our programs. We organize free workshops and mentoring programs for the under served community. 

The cost of our pack of programs is flexible, we adapt to the economic situation of our target audience. 

When we started, we were combining between B to B and B to C, and results proved that the first one was more financially sustainable than the second. For example, we have partnered with OCP Group to provide workshops for the students of Mohammed 6 Polytechnic University in Ben Guerir over a period of 12 months. So, this year, we are trying to focus more on partnerships with big businesses like OCP. 

We were able to raise $8000 funds through our participation in the Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneurship program and FORD Motor Company.

We are planning to expand in Tunisia (we have already confirmed a needs assessment), also we are planning to create the first interactive co-working space in Morocco, where we can have our indoor activities and train the students who can’t afford to pay for our services and include students with disabilities in our offers. For that we are seeking a funding of $100 000.

Sometimes I feel that it’s getting bigger than me and scary but it’s also getting real and true. Maybe because I wasn’t really expecting that many people and organizations would believe and especially invest in Shine Space, with that being said, sometimes I can sleep 3 hours and then aspiration would drive and pilot me to wake up and rush out the door in order to get a jump on the day! Having to manage the company, studies and home responsibilities is challenging! 

I expect that the Elevate Prize would be a great addition and push me to withstand the upcoming challenges and make the most of the knowledge gained to accomplish bigger things in my community and beyond. Better together!

I feel that Shine Space is more present offline than online.