A Future Defined by Hope

对这些难民学生来说，人身安全仍然是一个问题. To ensure their safety, names and other identifying features have been kept private.

Nothing in the students’ appearance reveals the long and challenging journey they began two years ago — the one that has brought them from Afghanistan to Hickory, North Carolina. 他们五个人背着背包，穿着牛仔裤, T-shirts, leggings, sneakers and reserved smiles as they walk through the door of the International House. They hug and clasp hands with unexpected friends who have arrived through different resettlement agencies.

Eric Brandon, LR国际和特殊项目总监, offers a warm greeting and welcome before moving into the business of college — paperwork, dorm room assignments, student IDs. Brandon has played a key role in helping students navigate the logistics of their journey and will continue as a mentor and advisor for as long as they are on campus.

“全球网赌十大网站的第一批六名学生于2023年1月抵达, 我每天至少见到他们中的一个. 2023年8月，全球网赌十大网站又迎来了两组游客。”布兰登分享道. “他们已经很好地融入了校园和社区, 正在工作和实习吗, doing well in their academics, but it takes time. 我是来帮助他们的.”

August 2021

When United States military forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, the government collapsed, and the Taliban forces ousted 20 years prior took control of the country. Citizens seen as collaborating with the American presence faced immediate danger, 引发了大规模混乱的疏散.

Among those under threat were students and alumni of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), 成立于2006年的独立机构, developed with U.S. funding on the U.S. model of higher education. For 15 years, students enrolled, seeking a prestigious education and a promising future that was suddenly plunged into uncertainty.

“In Afghanistan, 美利坚大学受到高度尊重, 至少对那些更自由的人来说是这样,LR第一批的一名男生解释道. “在意识形态更受限制的人群中, there were also a lot of baseless rumors about what we were taught there. 事实上，AUAF是一个没有偏见的地方. 在全球网赌十大网站大学里，每个人都是平等的.”

That dedication to equality, especially equality for women, made the AUAF campus in Kabul a target. The university closed for seven months after a bombing and siege in August 2016 killed 15 and injured more than 50 students and AUAF personnel. Five years later, the campus was one of the first locations seized by the returning regime that called AUAF students and alumni “wolves trained to corrupt Muslims’ minds” on social media.

“I saw what was happening and knew what would happen to the Afghan women — and the men who were helping them — as the Taliban assumed control. 我问自己我能做些什么。 Leah Beth Hubbard他是负责使命、参与和创新的助理副总裁. “Then I thought, we have an institution, what if we could bring some of the refugees here?”

哈伯德把这个想法告诉了大学校长弗雷德·惠特.D., and the board of trustees, all of whom embraced the idea right away.

“These students had their educations and futures dramatically impacted by the crisis in their country and being given the opportunity to offer a helping hand, we had to extend it,” said Fred Whitt, Ed.D., university president. “Our community benefits as much from their presence and their perspectives as they benefit from the support offered here in Hickory.”

然而，行政审批只是第一道障碍. Throughout the fall of 2021, 数百名AUAF学生被疏散到伊拉克的校园, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar, and LR was one of several universities in the United States navigating the logistics of opening their doors to the refugees.

“It was much more complicated than just putting out a call saying we have space at LR,” said Hubbard. She consulted with Mindy Makant, Th.D., 宗教研究副教授, who connected Hubbard with an immigration lawyer working with Afghan refugees, and Brandon, whose decades of experience with international students became indispensable.

From there, LR的团队与多个组织合作, including the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, 全球赌博十大网站协会(IIE), the Qatar Scholarship for Afghans Project and the Afghan Future Fund. Even with ample assistance, it took more than a year for the first five-student cohort to receive their visas to travel to the United States.

“So many American universities have stepped forward to help Afghan students, 我很自豪全球网赌十大网站是第一批,” said Hubbard. “This is the heart of Lenoir-Rhyne, to educate individuals and to help those who need help.”

The Long Road to LR

Many AUAF students were able to leave Afghanistan during the initial evacuation in August 2021. AUAF alumni were not part of the official evacuation efforts but were offered seats on departing flights if they were available. Many — including the six who made it to Lenoir-Rhyne in the first cohort — spent weeks or months awaiting transport, 随时准备离开.

第一组中的一位女性描述了她的旅程. “In October, I received an email saying there was a spot on the plane heading to Iraq. I was instructed to go to a hotel in the city to collect my gate pass. With the Taliban regime, 我不该一个人出去的, 但是我的父亲和兄弟们都不在家, so I took a taxi alone. 在酒店里，我遇到了塔利班士兵，并和他们交谈. They finally let me go inside to get my gate pass, but it was very scary.”

Her flight left the next day, giving her a few hours to say goodbye to loved ones. “我妹妹没有同样的机会. In August, she received a phone call to leave and had an hour to pack a bag and say goodbye,” she said.

While they waited, a critical concern was avoiding Taliban soldiers who might target them for their affiliation with AUAF. One of the men in the cohort had learned this lesson a few years before, when he and four friends from the university took a wrong turn on a vacation trip and stumbled into Taliban-controlled territory, where they were captured and interrogated for several days before they were released. Although he feared for his life and the lives of his friends, he tried talking to his captors.

“我很想知道他们的想法，”他说. “他们认为我是间谍，所以他们对我没有任何好感. They were guided by ideologies that were sent to them through messages or videos, 但这与伊斯兰教的真谛无关.”

The same student had been present at AUAF when Taliban forces attacked the campus in 2016 and was nearby when a later attack targeted a government building near his workplace.

“These things were part of the community, part of life when we were living in Afghanistan. 预计会发生这样的事件，”他说.

When they were able to travel, members of the first LR cohort evacuated with several hundred other AUAF students, first to Qatar and then on to the American University of Iraq Sulaimani (AUIS), 他们能在哪里继续学习. 这群人描述了他们在苏莱曼尼的经历, 位于伊拉克库尔德斯坦地区, as positive and pleasant, they knew it would not be a permanent location for them to build new lives. 签证通过后，他们启程前往新家.

Welcome to North Carolina

Even a voluntary move to another country brings challenges in lifestyle adjustments. 非自愿移居到另一个国家, leaving loved ones behind, 不知道何时或是否有可能团聚, 将这些挑战增加一个数量级.

“They are here until they graduate, two or three years for most of them,” Brandon explained. “在一年内，他们将获得美国的永久居留权.S. 我不会说这永远不会发生, but some big changes would have to happen with the Taliban to make it safe for them to go home.”

Early in the process, Brandon and Hubbard worked closely with university pastor the Rev. Todd Cutter ’96, M.A. ’00, M.Div. ’04, and the Rev. Dr. 克里斯蒂·洛尔·萨普，圣. 安德鲁的路德教会教堂就在全球赌博十大网站对面, 为阿富汗学生的到来做准备. Once the cohort was assembled, the Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency and the Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte assisted with the details of resettlement.

“Our Lutheran faith calls us to do this because it’s grounded in grace and acceptance,” said Hubbard. “It doesn’t matter what faith you have, it’s about the kindness that you show others.”

得到重新安置机构和勒努瓦-雷恩小组的支持, cohort students settled into university housing with access to kitchens to accommodate their dietary needs. 他们探索并爱上了北卡罗来纳西部的风景. 他们学习成绩优异，找到了工作和实习机会.

“这所大学提供了全球网赌十大网站需要的东西, and the kindness from the professors and staff melts your insides because we received this kind of attention from our families, 但现在全球网赌十大网站却从全球网赌十大网站几乎不认识的人那里得到了它,队列中的一个男人说.

Although several members of the cohort have family in the United States, 这些亲属都不是本地人, 有些人住在遥远的西海岸. The cohort members have begun to find support in the community and connections with other refugee families.

As is the case for one of the women in the group who has become close with a couple she met at St. Andrew’s. “They are older and very kind. 他们前往阿富汗，帮助了许多阿富汗学生,” she explained after returning from a short vacation with her found American family. “这是我第一次看到海洋，所以很难描述它. The world is very wide.”

学生们来到这里后也面临着挑战. For example, they rely on friends and visitors to bring them meat prepared in accordance with Islamic law from larger cities because Hickory doesn’t have a halal butcher. Sometimes they face prejudice in looks or remarks from strangers out in public. 即使在他们感到舒适和安全的校园里, one of the students recalled occasionally feeling on the spot in a class as the sole representative of roughly two billion Muslims worldwide.

“It is good to have the opportunity to educate others about my faith, 我的背景和一切都不是他们在媒体上看到的那样,” she explained. “At the same time, it is hard to feel like an outsider in those situations.”

Her response to this early discomfort was to get involved in campus life as a representative to other North Carolina campuses helping smooth the transition for other international students and refugees. After she graduates, the student plans to take her degree in project management and business analytics into the nonprofit sector to benefit people who have been through experiences similar to hers.

She added, “If institutions want international students to feel comfortable and their own students to have a better understanding of the world, 他们必须向他们展示更多这个国家以外的世界. I want to help make those changes, not just at LR but around the state and around the world.”

The Journey Ahead

A draw to public service and civic action is a common thread for every member of the student cohort.

One of the women in the group will complete her Master of Business Administration in 2024. She majored in marketing as an undergraduate at AUAF and interned as a scholarship coordinator with the Yalda Hakim Foundation during her year in Iraq, 帮助其他阿富汗妇女接受高等教育.

“我不得不调整我的计划和目标, 但当我毕业时，我想继续帮助别人, perhaps work with an organization like International Rescue Committee,” she said. “我在华盛顿特区参加了一个会议.C.他和其他阿富汗学生一起参加了一个小组讨论. I made some good connections there, but I’ll see what happens when I get into the real job market.”

One of the men in the cohort had nearly completed his law degree at AUAF. He is now majoring in politics and law with plans to attend law school after he graduates in 2024. 整个夏天他在当地一家律师事务所实习, 所以公司雇他做法律助理.

“I like political science, but I see law as more concrete and realistic,” he said. “In the long term, 我想从事国际刑法方面的工作, 哪个是全球网赌十大网站国家的一个重要话题. Mostly, I’m looking forward to just being able to finally practice law.”

Another political science and law major in the cohort began a long record of public service around the time he entered AUAF, 第一次在“儿童慰藉”做志愿者, which helped children injured during the war in Afghanistan travel abroad for treatment. He then spent some time working in the Directorate of Local Governments before helping a colleague establish a new nonprofit in Kabul.

“全球网赌十大网站把一辆旧公共汽车改造成了一个移动图书馆. 它在阿富汗国内外都很有名。. 他们称该组织为Charmaghz, a Farsi word that refers to the resemblance between a walnut and a brain. He moved on to work for a think tank dedicated to collecting data related to the Afghan peace process.

“After graduation, I could go to graduate school, 但我和海军陆战队的征兵人员谈过了,” he said. “I have knowledge from Afghanistan and the countries around Afghanistan, and I speak Persian, Urdu and English. 我很适合从事政治或情报工作.”

In the meantime, he and his cohort continue to settle into their new lives and make plans for a future that may be uncertain but is defined by hope.

他说:“能够平静下来，深呼吸是很好的。. “住在任何一个你感到平静的地方都是令人愉快的.”