Two students use unique college prep course, U.S. State Department program to come to Virginia Tech

Growing up in remote and beautiful Indian Valley, just a short drive outside of Radford, Deirdre Hand ’08, ’12 never really imagined impacting lives well beyond the periphery of Southwest Virginia.

She earned a degree in history from Virginia Tech and only pursued that because of her love of the subject. She never planned on becoming a teacher, and in general, was unclear on a career path.

But a volunteer experience at Virginia Tech changed her world – and led to changing the world for others.

Hand found a calling while teaching English to resettled Somali refugees as part of the Pilot Street Project in Roanoke, and now she has teamed with three others to form Elimisha Kakuma, a college preparatory gap year program designed specifically to provide higher education opportunities to select high school graduates living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. Elimisha Kakuma – which means “Educate Kakuma” in Swahili – annually provides a small group of students in the 300,000-person camp an avenue to get a degree, experience college life, and ultimately pursue their dreams.

The program, founded in 2021, is the culmination of hard work and a lofty goal.

“A lot of it came because of the Pilot Street Project in Roanoke,” Hand said. “Going in and teaching English there, I didn’t know what I was doing. I had never taught. … In that volunteer experience, just working with that community and all the volunteers there, something just clicked, and it was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Today, in part because of Elimisha Kakuma and a multi-pronged effort that included Virginia Tech’s Center for Refugee, Migrant and Displacement Studies, Virginia Tech’s participation in a unique U.S. State Department program called Welcome Corps on Campus, intense collaborative fundraising efforts, and involvement from several Blacksburg stakeholders, two South Sudanese students from Kakuma Refugee Camp have enrolled at Virginia Tech for the fall semester.

Ajier Ajuong and Nyanlueth Mayom became the first students from the Elimisha Kakuma program to attend Virginia Tech. They are, in most ways, like typical Virginia Tech students. These two women seek an education, dream big dreams, and nobly yearn to make the world a better place.

Theirs is a journey with many turns and a dream that has involved many people. Now, at a place with a mission of making a global impact, they aspire to create a generational one.

“When people back home see the incredible things we’re about to do at Virginia Tech, it gives them hope,” Mayom said. “I feel like it’s an inspiration to them. We’re the mentors right now, and they are looking up to us, and I’m sure we’re going to rock it here.”

The genesis of Elimisha Kakuma

Hand’s original work with refugee issues in the local community ignited a career that has taken her all over the world.

Literally.

After she earned her undergraduate degree in 2008, Hand embarked on a career teaching English as a foreign language and has spent time in the Czech Republic, Spain, Indonesia, Rwanda, Guatemala, and Ireland. Following her time in Spain, she returned to Virginia Tech to work on her master’s in education to teach English as a second or foreign language (TESOL).

While in Rwanda, she taught three students from Kakuma Refugee Camp as the lead teacher at Bridge2Rwanda, an academic preparation program for high-achieving Rwandan students based in Kigali, Rwanda. Dudi Miabok, Diing Manyang, and Mary Maker all grew up in Kakuma Refugee Camp, and all graduated from American universities. Today, Miabok is pursuing a master’s of business administration/business analytics degree from Virginia Tech.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hand, who was teaching English as a second language at a middle school in Washington, D.C., and the three of them – all of whom were still in college – teamed to form Elimisha Kakuma. Students from the camp apply to be a part of the program, and a committee chooses approximately 15 based on academic performance, but also community service, placing an importance on how they serve others within the camp. According to Hand, students learn basic digital literacy skills, reading comprehension skills, writing skills, and critical thinking skills, along with coursework that focuses on original thinking and making personal connections instead of regurgitating words from a textbook.

“Refugees in Kenya go through the Kenyan system, but they face a dead end in education after high school,” said Hand, who today works as a community engagement specialist for the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Students and the Center for Rural Education at Virginia Tech. “They’re not able to get scholarships. The Kenyan government does not permit refugees to work, so refugees can’t take out loans. To get to a university, you’re kind of stuck because you can’t take out a loan to go, and you can’t afford to go, and you can’t work to pay for it. … So, we created this access program that not only helps them through the complex process of applying to a university, but also helps them succeed once they’re there.”

In the beginning, the four of them handled all the teaching through online courses, doing so voluntarily while going to school, or in Hand’s case, working a full-time job. The program generates a lot of interest in the camp mainly because the success stories of Miabok, Manyang, and Maker give it credibility.

“The three of them have the real-world experience and the understanding of what it means to be stuck, to finish high school and be waiting year after year and applying for any opportunity,” Hand said. “It’s important to us that they’re informing all the decisions that we’re making in how this program works.”

Two years ago, a committee chose Ajuong and Mayom to enroll in Elimisha Kakuma, and they accepted. The decision ultimately marked their first step toward enrollment at Virginia Tech.

Jumping in to help

Brett Shadle, a history professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and the associate director for the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, has been researching refugees in East Africa for a decade. He has been to Kakuma several times, and in addition, he stays involved with refugee issues in the local community through the center.

When Shadle heard of the work being done by his former student and her team with Elimisha Kakuma, he saw an opportunity to help – and to get Virginia Tech students involved. In addition, he became a member of the Board of Directors with Elimisha Kakuma, creating a symmetry between the center and Elimisha Kakuma.

“They are never as good as they need to be about bragging about founding this,” Shadle said of Hand and her team. “They decided from the U.S. to create this program in Kenya, in Kakuma. They had no money. They had no idea, really, how to do it. They just had a passion.”

The center offered resources to Elimisha Kakuma, mostly in the form of volunteers.

Approximately 70 Virginia Tech students volunteer for the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies. Some of the center’s projects include teaching English in local classrooms, mentoring Latinx students in Galax City Public Schools through a student group called Primeros Pasos, and creating the Afghan Conversation Project, which assists Afghan resettled refugees in the U.S.

Seven of those students work in conjunction with Shadle, helping Hand’s team teach the students enrolled in Elimisha Kakuma. Mostly, they assist with papers and with college applications.

Their work starts at 8 a.m. on most days because of the time difference (Kenya is seven hours ahead) and conflicts with their own courses.

“None of the things that students do within the center are required,” Shadle said. “A few of the students working with Elimisha have done it for internship credit, but only a couple of them have done that. All the rest are entirely volunteers, which has been one of the most impressive things. We’ve had, over the past few years, hundreds of students engaged in volunteering. A lot of them have gone through similar experiences as immigrants or children of immigrants, so they view it as a chance to give back.”

Aida Shakeri falls into that category. Shakeri ’23, who graduated with a degree in biology from the College of Science and now works as a medical assistant in Northern Virginia, volunteered her final three years at Virginia Tech. A Vienna, Virginia, native, her parents immigrated from Iran and attended the University of Maryland, so she knows Farsi, which made her a valuable asset when she volunteered to help resettled Afghan refugees as part of the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership.

Shadle invited Shakeri to help with Elimisha Kakuma, and after accepting, she taught chemistry, biology, and physics courses, in addition to helping students navigate financial aid applications. Her final two years, she oversaw Virginia Tech’s volunteer students within Elimisha Kakuma.

“Volunteering with the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership was deeply personal, and Elimisha has been exactly the same way,” Shakeri said. “Although it was not personal to my parents or my background ethnically, it became deeply personal to me because now I’ve formed a passion for Kenyan culture and South Sudanese culture because of these students. Colleges are spaces to grow, and I feel like I did exactly that through Elimisha.

“I have no plans of leaving the program. It’s a great program, and I’ve learned a lot about how to teach and lead," she said. "I’ve made so many new friends as well, and I’m excited for what’s next.”

That sentiment is probably echoed by many of the Virginia Tech student volunteers, including a few who know both Ajuong and Mayom through Elimisha Kakuma. Those relationships that started through the program now have morphed into friendships.

“It’s like I have a sibling here,” Mayom said. “If I need something, I can actually go to them.”

Welcome Corps on Campus

While they were students with Elimisha Kakuma, Ajuong and Mayom applied to be part of a U.S. Department of State program called Welcome Corps on Campus, which enables colleges and universities to sponsor and resettle academically qualified refugee students who have not, until now, had a pathway through which they could resettle in the U.S. to pursue their higher education.  

In 2018, Katrina Powell, the director of the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, asked Virginia Tech President Tim Sands to join the Presidents’ Alliance for Higher Education and Immigration, so that the center could be in conversations about issues related to higher education, refugees, and immigration.

“We’ve been able to hear what other colleges and universities are doing to support refugee and immigrant students,” Powell said. “We were then alerted to this new U.S. State Department program, Welcome Corps on Campus, and we were asked to be part of a group of people to help design that program.”

After navigating a lengthy application process, Powell and several other units across the university helped Virginia Tech become one of just 17 schools nationally in the first cohort. The process involved creating a sponsor group to support the students once they arrive. This built-in community helps students secure housing, enroll in classes, access social services, and integrate as new members of their campus communities.

The first program of its kind, Welcome Corps on Campus provides students who are refugees an opportunity to pursue higher education while also creating a pathway to citizenship.

“This program offers a unique visa designation for students,” Powell said. “For students coming from a refugee camp, there’s no place to return to, so we helped design Welcome Corps on Campus to include a pathway to citizenship.”

Ajuong and Mayom were accepted into Virginia Tech and into the Welcome Corps on Campus program. The center secured funds to cover tuition costs, assuring the students of the ability to remain in Blacksburg for four years.

In particular, with a long history of supporting international students at Virginia Tech, the Cranwell family made a significant donation to the efforts. Namesakes of the Cranwell International Center on campus, the family’s efforts help to support more than 4,000 international students from more than 100 countries.

“The Cranwell Foundation is proud to support Elimisha Kakuma and Virginia Tech’s Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies as they work together to provide access to higher education for refugees like Ajier and Nyanlueth,” said David Clubb, executive director of the Cranwell Foundation. “To be able to do so through the Welcome Corps on Campus program is an historic opportunity that we want to fully leverage through our giving. That’s why we not only provided an initial gift but have also committed to an ongoing gift over the next five years that will help create a pipeline of refugee students coming to Virginia Tech. We can’t wait to see how individuals and communities, both locally and globally, are transformed over the next five years.”

In addition, Laura Belmonte, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, secured funding from a variety of sources, including the Pamplin College of Business and the College of Science to help with tuition costs. Last spring, Belmonte visited Kakuma Refugee Camp and notified the two students of their acceptance into Virginia Tech. Shadle, two Cranwell family members, and Clubb were a part of that delegation.

“This story exemplifies Virginia Tech at its best,” Belmonte said. “I am incredibly moved by how my colleagues helped these students realize their dreams without hesitation. Being able to visit Kakuma and to share the news of these scholarships with Ajier and Nyanlueth with their Elimisha Kakuma classmates in the room, as their Hokie tutors and our amazing Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies team and others watched on Zoom was an unforgettable highlight of my career.”

Planning for the future

A little more than a month into their college journeys now, both Ajuong and Mayom are settling into their routines.

Ajuong plans on studying business, with an eye toward entrepreneurship. She wants to help others formulate business plans and create employment opportunities, particularly for women and particularly for those in Kakuma and all of Africa, so they can support themselves and their children without solely relying on males. Similarly, Mayom wants to pursue a degree in economics, with a focus on international trade, and she wants to address the refugee crisis in a productive way.

Those goals resemble those within Virginia Tech’s global distinction effort, which aspires to find solutions to complex challenges at home and abroad. Those efforts symmetrically fall in line with the university’s Ut Prosim motto – “That I May Serve.”

That is largely why Ajuong and Mayom strove specifically to come to Virginia Tech. They say they relate to Virginia Tech’s ambitions. Their culture and experiences have taught them that prosperity often comes through the help of others.

“There is this African proverb that says, ‘One hand cannot clap itself,’” Ajuong said. “You can’t become something without others backing you up. In our education journey and our personal journey, we had someone backing us up.

Mary Maker, one of the founders of Elimisha Kakuma, will speak at Virginia Tech on Nov. 14 during International Education Week. Read more.