BRATTLEBORO-More than 80 adults ages 19 to 26 have come to town from Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Iraq, and Ethiopia to engage in college prep.
Through Welcome Corps on Campus, a U.S. Department of State program that empowers U.S. colleges and universities to enroll and support refugee students through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, the School for International Training (SIT) opened its classrooms and dorms to welcome these students chosen to participate from among several thousand WCC applicants.
At SIT's Brattleboro campus, the new arrivals - in the country legally and unaffected by recent presidential administration decrees freezing refugee resettlement - will spend several months engaged in intensive academic preparation for college, including English language and conversation, digital literacy skills acquisition, and intercultural skills development in an immersive environment.
They will then spin off to campuses around the country to commence studies this fall.
Launched in 2023, WCC was able then to facilitate the welcoming of its first cohort of 31 refugee students approved for resettlement through private sponsorship to U.S. universities and colleges from Arizona State to Bard College; Indiana University and Eastern Michigan University to Georgetown University and James Madison University.
Those students went directly to their campuses where support teams had formed for each student - as they will for those now studying at SIT - to ensure successful cultural, social, and academic acclimation. This year, though, marks the first time that there's a learning layover opportunity in Brattleboro.
The local effort, which organizers hope will continue, is led by the U.S. State Department, facilitated by SIT, and organized and managed by the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) with support from private philanthropy, including the Community Sponsorship Hub.
Beyond SIT staff and volunteers, local hands-on support is provided primarily by the Refugee Ministry of St. Michael's Episcopal Church.
The project engages volunteers from both within and outside its parish, with most having had experience working with refugees through St. Michael's, ministry co-leader Paul Gallagher explains.
For the SIT program, Gallagher reports that nine leaders formed teams of volunteers called private sponsor groups, responsible for some nine students each "to assure all milestones established by the State Department are achieved," and to ensure students can meet performance standards as required by welcoming campuses.
This latest volunteer opportunity arose when St. Michael's, an area leader in refugee resettlement volunteerism, was contacted in the fall with an offer to take the lead on organizing local sponsor groups. Gallagher and the refugee ministry were asked, "Can you get enough [participation] to handle this number of kids?"
"And we did," he says. "The volunteers managed to pull it off."
The overall mission behind ushering refugee students through this introductory phase of life and learning in the U.S for Gallagher and the private sponsor groups is to "help refugees become self-sufficient, productive citizens in this great country of ours."
The SIT program, Gallagher adds, is unique in the U.S. in its offering such preparation for young refugees entering the country's higher education system. He praises the team at SIT, and the philanthropic foundation supporting the students, for their leadership, their organizing strengths, their thinking, and their creative solutions.
Alex Beck, a private sponsor for the Welcome Corps on Campus program, is welcoming communities manager at Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) by day. He explains that BDCC "helped open the ECDC offices four years ago. And our organization provides all of the employment support for the refugee population."
He describes the students as "a very different group of folks."
"And my role in supporting these new arrivals, these students [all conversant in English], is different also," he says.
As a private sponsor, he's called to ensure students receive important documents and benefits such as Social Security cards and Medicaid, with help and support from ECDC.
But Beck and fellow volunteers "are really there to facilitate the students' connection to the community and, of course, to serve as mentors and leaders as they prepare for their college experience."
Also leader of a student life working group for the program, Beck adds that recently he, other volunteers, and the students all did a tour of downtown, which included a welcome from Town Manager John Potter and an orientation by Carol Lolatte, director of recreation and parks, on what that entity offers.
Among other stops, "we went to the Stone Church, to the museum, to BCTV [...] so students can get a feel for what Brattleboro is all about while they're here." he says. The Harris Hill Ski Jump will donate some tickets to the annual competition on Sunday, Feb. 16.
Of his experience with the students, Beck says, "what a remarkable and brave group of young people."
"I'm a workforce development professional, and I know all too well what happens when an American college student goes to an American college and leaves their family for the first time. And maybe they're not even leaving the state," he says. "And so for these students to leave their families and arrive in a place like Brattleboro, of all places, to start their journey, it's a testament to their resilience. They're resilient, they're curious. They are becoming self-sufficient as needs arise.
"We're talking about young folks who maybe were born in the refugee camps that they left," Beck continues. "And so, talk about tenacity and grit - it's with a smile on their faces that they're going through this. So it's really remarkable."
'They are legally in this country no matter what'
"It was a highly competitive process to become part of this Welcome Corps on campus program" through which a variety of factors were considered, Beck says.
"First and foremost, though," he adds, "these students entered our country through the Refugee Resettlement Program" and went through intensive vetting before they left their home countries.
This week, the Welcome Corps on Campus program's website included a bright yellow banner that references the presidential order and announces that "refugee travel to the United States and all U.S. Refugee Admissions Program refugee case processing activities are suspended until further notice. This includes intake of new applications for the Welcome Corps, as well as processing of all active or previously submitted applications."
But WCC students who are already in the program receive the same status as other refugees from the U.S. government, and that cannot be revoked.
"The college component is the cherry on top [of a student's resettlement]," Beck says. "It's a promise of opportunity once they've been here" and once private sponsorship has provided the legal pathway for a refugee to arrive.
"All these students will only be living here in Brattleboro until they have been placed and go to attend their final institutions," he adds. "It is abundantly clear to them that Brattleboro is not their final destination."
He also notes that the refugee students' housing, board, and college prep programming at SIT "are all being funded 100% by private donors."
That means with no federal funds involved in the on-campus part of the program, "these students aren't accessing any sort of extra public benefit or support that ordinary Vermonters or refugees wouldn't be able to access in general," Beck says.
Donations and volunteers needed
Essential financial support is ultimately to be covered by host colleges and universities after a Boston-based philanthropic foundation anonymously funds students' study and residence on the SIT campus.
The program welcomes donations of new or gently used winter clothing: sweatpants, scarves, gloves, hats, sweaters, wool socks, and (especially) winter boots can be dropped off at the Ethiopian Community Development Council's Multicultural Community Center in Bliss House on SIT's campus.
To make a financial contribution online, visit graduate.sit.edu/donate (select "Other" under the Designation dropdown menu and write "Refugee Support" in the Designation box).
Alternatively, checks with "Refugee Support" on the memo line can be mailed to: School for International Training/Philanthropy, P.O. Box 676, Brattleboro, VT 05302-0676.
Volunteers are also needed to ensure that students feel welcome in Brattleboro and have enriching opportunities to build deeper relationships with the community.
Opportunities will soon include serving as a conversation partner, convening study halls, leading a movie night, or starting an activity club. "Anybody who wants to help," Gallagher adds, "should contact Jenn Mapescouture at ECDC [email protected]."
Beck adds that friendly faces are needed, too. Surmising, based on recent presidential election results that "60% of the country may be unwelcoming to these folks, it's even more important that people who are welcoming identify themselves as such. [...] For them to feel safe, it is important for them to be safe."
"Frankly, these students do not look like your average Brattleboro resident. You will see them and you can smile and wave and say "hello" or "welcome" and that might be it. It's worth it, though." Someday, he adds, when they become doctors, nurses, teachers, they might want to return and "we'd want to welcome them back."
This News item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.