Undergrads are used to gathering in classrooms, but this one is a little different. Off campus and based out of Providence’s Refugee Dream Center, students are observing an English class in full swing. Engaging with the organization’s clients and helping them practice their English, undergrads hear stories from recent refugees relocated to the United States, including their background, how long they’ve been in the country, and why they came.
“Hearing their stories, you gain a deeper understanding of what they are going through,” says Psychology major Rylie Lane ’27.
This semester, students in History, Literature, and the Arts Lecturer Jennifer Horan, Ph.D.’s “General Education Capstone” course partnered with the Refugee Dream Center, an organization that engages in the reception, placement, and post-resettlement of refugees. The nonprofit offers direct services to refugees and fills gaps in refugee resettlement while ensuring refugee self-reliance and self-sufficiency through youth support services; English language courses; employment, legal, case management services; financial literacy; and more.
After organizing the on-site pantry, taking inventories of food donations, and organizing books for adults and children, undergrads met with Founder and Executive Director Omar Bah and learned about the organization’s goals and how students could assist the nonprofit.
We are hardwired to coexist
Throughout Horan’s course, students familiarize themselves with topics, including refuge, trauma, resilience, hybridity, belonging, citizenship, and borders. Gaining awareness of the historic, economic, political, and environmental factors contributing to migration, undergrads dive into current immigration topics as well as factors forcing people to flee.
Students visited Bryant’s Data Visualization Lab to virtually follow someone's journey as a refugee, heard from classroom visitors — including a lawyer and musician — and selected a migration-based memoir to share with the rest of the class. Each class, students read excerpts from their book and explain how it made them think differently.
“Stories are a great way to connect people and learn about one’s experience because that may not be something we know firsthand,” says Horan.
Horan notes that the class’s final project is to take the information they learn from the Refugee Dream Center and migrant culture from their in-class sessions and create recommendations to help improve the Refugee Dream Center’s operations. Whether this means developing a communication campaign that brings awareness to the realities of refugees or a substantive product that assists the center in its mission and services, students talk through ideas by implementing systems thinking, design thinking, and relating their work to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals — which serves as the basis of Bryant’s Impact Core general education curriculum.
Empowering students to find a bridge between good character and goodwill, a significant portion of the course involves conversations on ethics. From Aristotle to Immanuel Kant, Horan says these thinkers and others show how we can pivot from the focus on a good character to caring for others.
“I feel that today, the governing narrative students are hearing in terms of philosophy is one of war, ideological impasse, and fundamental discord,” Horan says. “The other narrative these is the idea that we are hardwired to co-exist, interact with one another, and share our experiences.”
Furthering refugee assistance
Back on campus following their visit to the Refugee Dream Center, students group up around the room and start brainstorming how they would like to assist the nonprofit.
Knowing that some degrees and certifications do not transfer from a refugee’s home country, Lane, Carter Beland ’27, Jennifer Chen ’26, and Rhea Kohli ’27 chat about the job search process and finding a way to curate a list of suitable roles that align with their area of expertise.
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In Kyle Bertucci-Bissonnette ’27’s group, he and his peers agree that they want to create some kind of pamphlet. Wanting a product that is cheap to produce, can consistently be reprinted, and is available in multiple languages, they talk through whether the pamphlet should focus on common U.S. workplace rules and norms, interview prep tips, or a list of transportation options to navigate the state.
“My favorite part is that this course is hands-on,” says Bertucci-Bissonnette, a Marketing major. “You’re immersing yourself in different cultures and what's going on.”
All the while, Horan floats around the room, going from group to group to answer questions and offering advice. After today, students will ideate, test, and prototype their projects before finalizing them and ultimately presenting them before the Refugee Dream Center’s leadership at the conclusion of their course.
