For the last four years, the IRC in Dallas has been holding a Robing Ceremony the night before graduation to honor fifteen high school graduates who started their journey in the US as refugees. Since we are unable to gather this year, we are sharing the great accomplishments of these remarkable students here.

Originally from Cote d'Ivoire, Adama arrived in the US less than six years ago. He attended the Refugee Youth Summer Academy (RYSA) and then enrolled into 9th grade at Brooklyn International High School. He and his mom participated in the Academic Coaching program, and a few years later, Adama became a "Leader in Training" - including working as a Peer Mentor at RYSA in 2014 and 2015. Meanwhile, he honed his artistry. When he graduated high school in 2015, he enrolled at the Borough of Manhattan Community College studying liberal arts, playing soccer, and painting. 

Drought and conflict have left record numbers of people in the East Africa and other regions in dire need of aid. The world must act now to avert famine.

Help ensure that information about COVID-19 is language-accessible. Please share the linked resources widely with our friends and neighbors in refugee and immigrant communities!

It was October 16, and there were over 280 people filling into SOMArts gallery in downtown San Francisco. This was GenR’s Force for Change event, where there was an outdoor bar with a DJ, and a huge gallery space full of tables of cookies and kabobs from Afghanistan, salads from Burma, and sweets from Syria. In a black box room off to the side of the gallery, there were huge photographs, propped up on easels, of refugees girls ages 8 through 11 embodying what they want to be when they grow up. The girls, who live all around the Bay Area, were posing as doctors, lawyers, and rock stars, in culmination of an empowerment workshop called The Vision Project, which was formed in collaboration with IRC. Guests milled around, observing, eating, enjoying themselves, and then they were gathered around a stage in the main gallery.  This was where the speech was going to take place.

Ivan travelled thousands of miles from Venezuela to the U.S.-Mexico border only to be turned away.

Each year the IRC in Dallas has been holding a Robing Ceremony the night before graduation to honor fifteen high school graduates who started their journey in the US as refugees. Read about our excellent 2021 graduates!