The Refugee Leadership Program harnesses the intellectual vitality, authentic curiosity and boundless passion of young people to make a difference in their own communities.
We are now recruiting students for our upcoming Spring cohort!
The Refugees in Schools (RIS) Leadership Program is a student-led, inquiry-based eight-week program. Cohorts are selected through an application and interview process. Once selected, we gather weekly on Saturdays for one-hour meetings (on Zoom) where you will meet with global experts in refugee work and humanitarian efforts, refugees from East Africa and NGO leaders. At the same time, our team will provide mentorship and support as you develop your own personal inquiry project. These may include activities like researching local legislation and policies, interviewing local immigrants and refugees, creating a refugee awareness club at your school, or any other idea that you have!
“Learning about refugee issues with Ann and The Refugee Leadership team was so eye-opening! Not only did the experience change the way I think about U.S. policy, it made me more interested in and able to discuss foreign policy work as a potential major in college.“
- Alex French, participant, Roosevelt High School, Washington (now at Oberlin College)
“Wow! I learned SO much through this program. Not only am I better able to facilitate meetings, I understand what it means for refugees to access educational support in and outside of their camps. This program has motivated me and my friends more than any class I’ve taken!”
- Ara Traina, participant, Stevenson School, California (now at Middlebury College)
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. You can apply any time.
Students in the RIS Club at UWC Waterford in Eswatini, Southern Africa
The Leadership Program addresses three major challenges:
Challenge #1:
There are huge threats to a peaceful planet and future that youth want the opportunity to better understand and address: poverty, extremism, climate change, gender inequity, child labor, human trafficking and more. Refugees are at the nexus of so many of these issues.
Solution:
Provide students with the courage and know-how to connect with existing, high-impact non-profit organizations (locally and globally). Give students themselves the tools they need to listen to and work with refugee and asylum-seeking communities around the world..
Challenge #2:
Students are too often left to figure out how to fulfill community service requirements on their own, resulting in ad hoc, one-off engagements. This is a missed opportunity to build key leadership skills. Students deserve real-world challenges worthy of their time, attention and intelligence and most U.S. high schools are too overwhelmed to provide this.
Solution:
Offer students guidance on a complex issue (refugees) and help them learn more about what their local community does to support this issue. Expose them to global leaders and NGOs. Set personal goals and recognize their accomplishments.
Challenge #3:
Many community service projects assign tasks that a) don’t provide contextual background to inequalities, b) actually take work away from local people and c) can be harmful to the planet.
Solution:
Provide students with a curriculum that is comprehensive and nuanced about refugee issues. Focus students on what is already out there and how funds are distributed and used. We work with students to seek to understand before being understood.