From conflict zones to summer school

by Eleanor Rousseau Oxholm

High school student Sing Pau assists Tsering, a student from Tibet, on a Summer Academy group project. / Courtesy of IRC

Many American students spend their last weeks of summer dreading the beginning of another grueling semester of research papers and final exams—but when fall rolls around, at least we know what to expect. For newly arrived refugee youths in New York City, many of whom have spent years in refugee camps without any formal schooling, the start of a new school year in the United States presents an entirely new set of worries.

Fortunately, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is there to help ease the transition. As part of its annual refugee youth summer academy, approximately 120 refugee students, ages 5-18, spent six weeks this past summer preparing to enter the New York City public school system.

The student body, representing 20 different countries and speaking 16 different languages, is anything but a typical American public school class. However, the day-to-day operation of the summer school, complete with organized class periods, school assemblies, field trips, and even a student government election, is consistent with the structure of a public school to help better acclimate the students to the U.S. education system.

“These students are from conflict zones, and even if they had a school, it is often closed, so that sense of routine is taken away,” says Academy principal, Elizabeth Demchak, speaking with the New York Times.

Helen Samuels, a 17-year old refugee from Thailand, attended the school two years ago and then worked as a peer counselor this past summer. After having spent two years in refugee camps along the Burma-Thailand border before coming to the U.S. in 2008, she was nervous about starting school in a new country, but the summer academy eased her fears. “We had to learn all the basics of how to be a student, starting from you had to come to class on time,” Samuels told USA Today. “It helped me, to prepare me to see school is not something scary.”

An integral component to the academy is the availability of an experienced counseling staff that works with students in small groups and one-on-one guidance sessions to address their individual psychological and social development needs.

Many of the students are pleasantly surprised by the academy’s student-centric approach to education. For Basserou Kaba, a 16-year old from the Ivory Coast, the encouragement he received from the IRC teaching staff was a welcome change from school in his home country. He told the Associated Press, “In my country, the teacher (teaches) what he wants. You don’t understand, it’s your problem.”

The students’ academic progress throughout the summer is impressive, but perhaps even more important are the friends made and the confidence gained over the course of the program.

As Samuels told WNYC radio, “It has helped me to be myself, to know who I am, to know what I am doing and what I want to do.”

The IRC Refugee Youth Program continues throughout the school year with afterschool tutoring and a Saturday tutoring program. To get involved, contact: Khadijah Abdul-Nabi, Refugee Youth Program Manager, khadijahqabdul1nabiztheircqorg.

Published in RightsNews Volume 29, no. 1, October, 2010.
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