written by Lubna Zeidan, iACT for Refugees Program Coordinator

The iLearn Refugee Summer Program began on June 24th and is expected to continue until August 8th, 2013. The program targets newly arrived refugee school aged children who have been in the US a year or less to help teach them academic English, some math skills and school skills expected in American schools. They will also have the opportunity to go on field trips designed to teacher them more about Austin. The children, between 6 and 18, come from several different countries and their parents are students in iACT’s adult English as a Second Language classes.

After the summer program ends, iACT will follow up with connecting the children to their various after school programs, provide homework help at designated spots near where they live and help them get tutoring assistance during the school year. The long run purpose is to raise the rate of graduation of refugee children in Austin schools – which is now significantly lower than any minority group.

Three parent classes in conjunction with AISD’s Refugee School Impact Program will help guide the parents on what is expected from them and their children in the next school year and will answer their questions
iLearn program is led by two AISD teachers who are assisted by a number of trained volunteers. Many of the volunteers are parent/child teams (all the children are over 12) or high school students over 15 years of age.

The students so far are from: Iraq, Iran, Russia, Burma and Bhutan. The children are excited about learning English and about the field trips – to many their first ventures since they have come to the US. We so far have 36 students in the program, we hope to have 50 by the end of summer.