{"id":1238,"date":"2021-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:3000\/global-crisis-global-solutions-moving-the-needle-on-education-for-displaced-students\/"},"modified":"2022-05-04T20:54:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T20:54:06","slug":"global-crisis-global-solutions-moving-the-needle-on-education-for-displaced-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.interfaithamerica.org\/article\/global-crisis-global-solutions-moving-the-needle-on-education-for-displaced-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Crisis, Global Solutions: Moving the Needle on Education for Displaced Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Higher Education<\/span>\n

Global Crisis, Global Solutions: Moving the Needle on Education for Displaced Students<\/h1>\n
\n By
Silma Suba <\/address>\n <\/div>\n

May 5, 2021<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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For three days and two nights in the summer of 2005, nine-year-old Shabnam Fayyaz and her family rode in a truck from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Fayyaz recalls sitting with her two older brothers at the back of the open truck with all their belongings – with the vivid traditional Pakistani art that adorned the truck, the sound of the wheels hitting gravel on the road, the flying dust clouding the sky, and the mountains passing by in a blur.<\/p>\n

Fayyaz and her family had been living in Quetta, Pakistan as refugees since 1996, after fleeing Afghanistan as the Taliban came to power. <\/p>\n

“When my father heard that they were opening schools for girls in Kabul, he wanted to go back, he wanted his daughters to be educated as well as his sons,” says Fayyaz. “Women’s rights and education were very important to him, and he encouraged us to follow our dreams.”<\/p>\n

Today, Fayyaz is pursuing a master’s degree in human rights with a focus on refugee rights and women’s rights at Columbia University. In 2020, she received the Columbia University Scholarship for Displaced Students (CUSDS)<\/a> — a first of its kind Columbia-wide scholarship that offers full funding to refugees and displaced students from across the world. <\/p>\n

The CUSDS program launched in December 2019 and is administered by the Columbia Global Centers<\/a>, which are a network of global hubs that create opportunities in research, scholarship, teaching, and service in nine international locations. Columbia University has committed up to $6 million in support for up to 30 displaced students every year. The scholarship covers the students’ tuition, as well as housing and living assistance while they pursue undergraduate or graduate degrees across all 18 of Columbia’s schools and affiliates.<\/p>\n

Fayyaz is one of 18 students in the 2019-2020 cohort – the inaugural class of the program.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I remind myself every day what an incredible opportunity this is and how lucky I am to be here in New York, running in Central Park, being surrounded by students who are so smart and from all over the world,” says Fayyaz. “I don’t want to take any of this for granted, and I want to give back to the community.” <\/p>\n

Linda Amrou, Program Officer at Columbia University Global Centers (and IFYC alumna), was an integral part of the team that designed and launched the CUSDS program. In conversation with IFYC, she shares the behind-the-scenes of the program, the application process, and how she envisions the program impacting higher education. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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