A mentorship program connecting UT students to refugee populations in Austin schools is adapting to local budget cuts.
The Refugee Student Mentorship Program under the Center for Middle Eastern Studies pairs UT students interested in foreign language and service learning with refugee students who attend schools within the Austin Independent School District.
Mentors generally work with students once per week to practice English language skills. Last school year, a total of 39 UT student mentors served 64 students across Austin ISD and Pflugerville ISD, Arielle Levin, CMES senior outreach program coordinator, wrote in
an email.
“It’s this beautiful meeting of community need, volunteer opportunity for students and experiential, practical language training,” Levin said.
RSMP also worked with Austin Partners in Education’s mentoring program, a local nonprofit working directly with the district to provide classroom-based academic coaching.
However, Levin said the RSMP can no longer partner with APIE after its mentor program ended due to Austin ISD budget cuts. The non-profit helped connect AISD students with the RSMP, serving as a point of contact and providing context for different campus needs, Levin said. Now, RSMP has to coordinate with each campus, making it harder to manage
their operations.
Partner schools in Austin ISD include Dobie, Webb and Murchison middle schools, along with International High School, Levin said. Last school year, the program also worked with two schools in Pflugerville ISD. AISD was not available for comment.
In addition to language barriers, refugee students often experience interruptions to their education, Levin said. These challenges are greater for refugee students who speak less common languages.
Joseph Carnefix, an international relations and Middle Eastern studies sophomore, said as an RSMP mentor, he met students’ language level and catered to their cultural interests.
When the program first began in 2015, the federal government started to increase the maximum number of Syrian and Iraqi refugees, who were forcibly displaced by war and violence, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data. Under this context, Levin said students with a background in Arabic considered how to help schools with refugee students.
Now, Levin said the program is more multilingual. While Pashto is the main language
spoken by mentee students, an increasing number speak Spanish, Levin said. Other languages include Portuguese and central and eastern African languages.
The federal policy landscape also poses challenges to organizations supporting refugee populations. In 2024, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees, with Texas being the top state for refugee resettlement, according to DHS data.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to indefinitely suspend refugee resettlement through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The program allows refugees to apply for permanent residency after a year of living in the country. Although this executive order does not affect those already a part of RSMP, Levin said the program will continue to meet the needs of enrolled refugee students who need extra support.
Ruhma Tarar, a UT alumnus who was an RSMP mentor for over a year, worked directly with a refugee student from Afghanistan. Tarar said it is important to recognize multiple processes of adjustment for refugee families — young people in particular.
“It’s one thing to be a refugee in the country. It’s also another to navigate the educational system here,” Tarar said. “If these students are struggling with communication and English, how much support are they receiving to be able to graduate high school?”
