A NEW HOME AT SALVE

AFGHAN STUDENTS JOIN THE CAMPUS COMMUNITY TO CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEYS.

Four Afghan students who have been displaced from their native country since being evacuated from Kabul in August 2021 joined the campus community in January. ey are among 250 students attending universities across the United States as they resettle as part of a new program for students from Afghanistan.

Salve Regina is participating as a rst step toward becoming a leading partner in the developing national initiative to create higher education pathways for refugee students from around the world.

Barin Bahrami, a business administration major; Aqila Haidari, a business administration major; Ahmad Sulaiman Waziri, a nance major; and Bilal Omar Omari, a political science major, met with Dr. Kelli J. Armstrong, president, before participating in the University’s spring semester transfer orientation together with their student mentors.

“Our new students from Afghanistan inspire us with their courage and perseverance,” Armstrong said. “We hope to o er them as much support as possible in their educational journeys, and our community is truly blessed by their presence.”

“Here it is totally di erent,” said Omari, re ecting on the di erences attending universities in Afghanistan and Iraq. “You can nd new friends, you can build a solid and strong network. And for my major, networking and communication is vital, so thank you so much.” ey arrived in the U.S. on Jan. 3 and were assisted by the resettlement agency Dorcas International while residing in temporary housing in Providence, Rhode Island.

Each of the students had been attending classes at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) before being evacuated to Iraq, where they continued their studies at the American University of Iraq (AUIS) in the Kurdistan region.

Erin FitzGerald, director of the Center for Global Education and Fellowships and coordinator for the initiative at Salve, said she believes the majority of the students’ needs, including being placed with jobs on campus, have been met through the support of multiple University o ces and external resources.

As an active member of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Salve Regina is among universities collaborating on the e ort to enroll refugee students. e Alliance is working in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency to achieve the ambitious goal of providing 15 percent of eligible refugees with access to higher education by 2030.

“ ese are such talented students whose educations and futures have been dramatically impacted by the crisis in their country,” said FitzGerald. “I am con dent that our community will bene t as much from their presence and their perspectives as they bene t from the support o ered them from Salve and other partners.”.