By Kay A. Izumihara
Peer Reviewed by REAL Members
On March 27, 2024, Refugee Education Advancement Lab (REAL) and No Lost Generation (NLG) of the George Washington University (GWU) partnered with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to host 23 teenagers and young adults ages 16-24 with refugee backgrounds to a day of college mentorship. The event aimed to bring high school students, youth, and out-of-school youth who have resettled in the United States from other countries to navigate educational and career trajectories. This blog captures the reflections from different perspectives from planning to execution, and provides implications for further action by students and the wider educational institution.
The planning and execution of the event involved undergraduate and graduate students, staff, alumni, and faculty, as well as their connected networks. Megan Ward applied her unique positions as a GWU graduate student, REAL co-lab leader, and a Youth Success Specialist at the IRC as the lead organizer of the event. With the concept of merging research and action in mind, Megan took advantage of IRC’s season of college tours to add GWU to the list and engage students to initiate a mentorship event. Within a month of the event, REAL leaders, alumni and new members rapidly assembled an agenda, solidified roles and responsibilities, and finalized the itinerary for the big day. Guidance on various needs such as linguistic, social, and cultural awareness were provided to all volunteers. Event worksheets were translated into Swahili, Turkish, Pashto, Dari, Haitian Creole, Kirundi, and Shona to accommodate students’ linguistic diversity. Many participants were also observing Ramadan, which required mindfulness of planning energy conservation activities.
On the day of the event, IRC participants met REAL volunteers at GWU’s Admissions Office and toured the campus which concluded at the Elliott School of International Affairs. There, participants engaged in a stand-up-sit-down icebreaker activity, a video presentation of professionals from refugee backgrounds in the U.S., Imagining Your Future small group session with REAL facilitators, Finding Your Place on Campus presentation by NLG and Closing Remarks by REAL Faculty members. As a concluding event, students participated in a Career Fair made up of 12 professionals from various career fields from engineering to social work. “The vision was allowing them the opportunity to step out of their comfort zones, have access, and envision themselves in these places of higher education….Looking around (the career fair), they are talking to strangers about their goals, (and) they don’t know it, but they are networking!…My heart is full,” said Megan.
Another volunteer reflected on the career fair, “Everyone was so engaged and interested (in the activities)! I was surprised how many students went straight to the IT table during the career fair and stayed there the entire time!” Some feedback for areas of improvement included a greater planning timeline to generate more options regarding career fair participants, room reservations and planning outside major holidays. Second, a better understanding of participants’ interests to tailor recruiting professionals from targeted career fields would be more beneficial for the career fair. Last, space infrastructure may have impacted small group sessions which could be mitigated in the future.
Photos from top left clockwise: 1. Campus tour, 2. Imagine your Future Activity led by members of REAL 3. Small group activity, 4 & 5. Participants at the career fair.
Reflections
As a first-year graduate student at The George Washington University’s M.A. in International Education Program, I volunteered to arrange the campus tour which gave me a chance to connect with resources and explore the university myself. I was also new to the field of international education and the REAL, so I felt this was a great way to get involved and start networking with like-minded people within the university and in my local community. Although I have experience working with many people from across the globe throughout my life, this was my first event engaging with resettled youth from refugee backgrounds in an educational setting. Having enrolled in GWU’s Education in Emergencies course and learning about refugee education from multiple perspectives, guest lectures, and assigned readings for class, this event brought to life the human-centered aspect of all the aforementioned didactic coursework. To me, it transformed the term “refugee” into real people, not a subject or case study. Participants were eager to ask questions, engage in all the activities, take photos and videos, and have fun. Some required prompting while others had their goals set. A young participant shared he wants to start his own clothing and shoe brand business, another participant stated he wants to become a software engineer, and another participant stated she wants to be a lawyer. I realized they are just like me in some ways and unique in other ways. I look forward to contributing more to REAL and exploring my interests in the field of international education throughout my studies.
Implications for future advocacy in higher education for refugee students
The Day of College Mentorship event has greater implications for advocating for access to higher education for people from refugee backgrounds.
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2023), at mid-2023, approximately 110 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, out of which only 463,500 refugees were resettled or repatriated. In 2022, about 25,519 refugees were admitted to the U.S., out of which 44% were children under 18 years old (Gibson, 2023). The process of resettlement for refugees is lengthy and takes about two years from the time a refugee is recommended to arrival to the U.S. Once in the U.S., the refugee receives 3 months of governmental support before being expected to integrate and be fully “self-sufficient” (UNHCR, 2024). Globally, only about 37% of all refugee children are enrolled in secondary school, and only 7% are enrolled in a college or university (UNHCR, 2024).
In the U.S. most refugees who pursue postsecondary education arrive as international students and obtain a F-1 visas, which makes it difficult to differentiate from other types of international students. Open Doors estimated approximately 5% of all international students in the U.S. during the 2022-2023 academic year were made up of refugee or students facing displacement (Bhandari et al., 2023). Research studies show that higher education can benefit refugee students in many ways, including better access to labor market, better jobs, increased social integration, and increased psychological health and well-being (Berg et al., 2021).
At the higher education level, efforts to support students with refugee backgrounds are gaining momentum. The Welcome Corps on Campus is a recent initiative calling on campus communities to help refugees seek resettlement in the U.S. while pursuing higher education. Launched by the U.S. Department of State in 2023 and implemented by a consortium of organizations with expertise in higher education and refugee resettlement, partners include Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR), National Association of System Heads (NASH), Presidents’ Alliance, World University Service of Canada (WUSC), and Institute of International Education.
NASH Refugee Resettlement Initiative Program Lead, Olivia Issa, who is also a founding member and alum of REAL, contributed to Dr. Bernhard Streitwieser, Katharine Summers, and Jessica Crist’s recent book, “Accessing Quality Education: Local and Global Perspectives from Refugees,” highlighting the resettlement experiences of refugees in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. She has been working with current REAL leaders, the George Washington University campus community, and larger Washington D.C. community to garner support to join other universities within the consortium of universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area who have pledged support toward Welcome Corps. Having GWU join this sustainable movement to welcome newcomers while leveraging its campus ecosystems would bring the REAL mission to a full circle from its inception to current dialogue on bridging research and action efforts.
References
United Nations Refugee Agency. (2023, October 24). Refugee Data Finder. unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/
Gibson, I. (2023). Annual Flow Report: Refugees and Asylees: 2022. Office of Homeland Security Statistics, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 2023_0818_plcy_refugees_and_asylees_fy2022.pdf (dhs.gov)
USA for United Nations Refugee Agency. (2024). Refugee Facts: Refugees in America. Refugees in America | USA for UNHCR (unrefugees.org)
USA for United Nations Refugee Agency. (2024). Refugee Facts: Refugee Statistics. Refugee Statistics | USA for UNHCR (unrefugees.org)
United Nations Refugee Agency (2023, October 13). UNHCR reports progress in refugee education; tertiary enrolment rate hits 7 percent. UNHCR reports progress in refugee education; tertiary enrolment rate hits 7 per cent | UNHCR
Bhandari, R., Esaki-Smith, A., Wagner, L., & Feldblum, M. (2023). Do you know who your refugee students are? Mapping and understanding displaced students on U.S. campuses. Do you know who your refugee students are? Mapping and understanding displaced students on U.S. campuses. – Presidents’ Alliance (higheredimmigrationportal.org)
Berg, J., Grüttner, M., Streitwieser, B. (2021). Introduction: Refugees in Higher Education—Questioning the Notion of Integration. In: Berg, J., Grüttner, M., Streitwieser, B. (Eds.) Refugees in Higher Education. Higher Education Research and Science Studies. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-33338-6_1
Every Campus a Refuge (2024). Home – EVERY CAMPUS A REFUGE®
President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. (2023, September 6). Welcome Corps on Campus: Building Sustainable Pathways for Refugee Students. Welcome Corps on Campus: Building Sustainable Pathways for Refugee Students – Presidents’ Alliance (presidentsalliance.org)
National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH) (2024). Welcome Corps on Campus. Welcome Corps on Campus – NASH
Welcome Corps on Campus (2023). The Welcome Corps expands to Facilitate Sponsorship of Refugee Students by Campus Communities and Higher Education Institutions. Announcement_Welcome-Corps-on-Campus.pdf (welcomecorps.org)