Washington University is launching Empower, a 26-week program to help refugees develop English language skills and general professional abilities. 

Empower, which is free of charge and funded through a state grant, will take place Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-9 p.m. at the Delmar DiVine. The program is open to those who have refugee status, basic English skills, and a high school education. Two initial cohorts are planned for May 2024 and August 2024. 

Empower is a part of the University’s larger strategic plan Here and Next. Specifically, it is through the “In St. Louis, For St. Louis” aspect of Here and Next, which aims to improve the St. Louis metropolitan area through various forms of programming. Empower will be offered throughWashU’s School of Continuing & Professional Studies (CAPS).

CAPS Director of English Language Programs (ELP), Katie Blackburn Brown, said that ELP has traditionally only served WashU students. 

“We’ve never had any kind of externally facing programming,” Brown said. “When we were thinking, ‘ok, what can WashU do to serve the community?’ immigrants came up [as] an underserved population.”

Director of Business Development and School Initiatives at CAPS, Jodie Lloyd, explained that the program is working in tandem with the International Institute and The Mosaic Project. The International Institute is a St. Louis immigrant service and information hub, while The Mosaic Project is a non-profit organization that connects immigrants in St. Louis to employers. 

“[The Mosaic Project] has been around for 10 years,” Lloyd said. “They’ve been working to connect foreign-born individuals in St. Louis for a while, so they have quite a big network. They were able to send out our website and a paragraph on our new program to around 4,000 contacts.”

Lloyd said that after filling out an information form on their website, the potential participant receives an intake phone call. The phone call is to identify whether the individual is a correct fit for the program. After the initial intake is done, CAPS does a more detailed informational form of the individual’s interests, nationality, and additional information.

The student will then do an English language assessment to ensure their English language skills are sufficient Lloyd said. If their English is not at a high enough level, they will be referred to another organization that offers English language services. 

One of the people who identified immigrants as a community in need of outreach is Junior Hannah Jon, a former St. Louis Fellow through the Gephardt Institute. Jon, a second-generation immigrant, interned with CAPS for the 2023 summer. 

Jon, who majors in American Culture Studies with a focus on race and ethnicity, was particularly interested in working on CAPS’ immigrant research project due to her identity.

“Growing up in the U.S., I experienced microaggressions or just thinking things like ‘Oh, why does my family do that? I guess that’s not normal,’” Jon said. “Or even things like ‘Oh, my mom’s English isn’t the most fluent,’ and I’d notice how people would talk down to her in a condescending manner.”

Brown said that as part of her role, she has been researching how people conduct refugee education nationally.

“Through looking for models of this, we found that there weren’t many,” Brown said. “The U.S. isn’t doing a lot, and it’s more based around community-based organizations or community colleges…Columbia had something like [Empower], but disbanded it.” 

Brown said that while there are lower-level English-based resources, there is a need for higher-level English education for immigrants.

“There’s a lot of community-based, lower-level stuff to help refugees get a job at like Amazon, for example,” Brown said. “But what if they have a master’s degree from their home country? They just can’t communicate it or align their skills with a job in the U.S.”

Additionally, Brown went abroad to France, Belgium, Germany, and England to research how other nations conduct these types of classes for refugees. She said her model is mainly based on what she learned in France.

“The most key facet is not just instruction,” Brown said. “It’s the high-touch: we’re gonna take no more than 60 refugees total and make sure nothing [in instruction] gets lost. We’re not just printing certificates; we want to help tangibly.” 

Jon said she played a large role in contacting refugee and immigrant organizations in St. Louis to build scaffolding for CAPS’s project. 

“I did a lot of contacting with, for instance, the International Institute,” Jon said. “I did an informal interview-style research project where I reached out to people and Zoomed with them. I asked them a set of questions which built a relationship between these community organizations and CAPS.” 

Brown said ELP is interested in creating three cohorts of around 20 people that will work well together.

“Most of our applicants are from Afghanistan,” Brown said. “The second highest are Ukrainians, and then a hodgepodge of Haitians and other nationalities.”

Part of that, Brown explained, is because the Afghan community in St. Louis is very well-networked. She said that ELP’s refugee programming spread quickly through the Afghan community. 

Lloyd said that in addition to the state grant CAPS received, they also got $10 million from an anonymous donor. The donation and grant ensure that the program will continue beyond the two initial cohorts in May and August. 

Though it was not a possibility for the initial cohorts because CAPS did not receive an additional grant for that purpose, Lloyd said that in the future, CAPS is interested in including a stipend for the Empower students.

“A stipend would help with transportation, or maybe getting dinner, or maybe they need childcare,” Lloyd said. “We will continue to seek those opportunities for the students. They have to commit to the program, so we want to make sure they’re successful.”

In regards to next steps, Lloyd and Brown both expressed interest in involving graduate and undergraduate students with the program in the future. 

Lloyd said having a Gephardt fellow was a good experience, and that Jon helped prepare the groundwork necessary for applying for the state grant. 

“We do work with Gephardt, and we have an opening for a fellow this summer,” Lloyd said. “They’d be working with both the English Language Program and other things at CAPS. We hope we have someone interested this year.”

Jon explained that part of the reason working at CAPS was so fulfilling for her is that it tied into the programming she learned through the St. Louis Fellows internship, which educates the Fellows on the rich and complicated history of St. Louis.

“There’s the idea that, historically, WashU plays a somewhat extractive role in St. Louis,” Jon said. “We benefit highly from our education, but a lot of WashU students aren’t from St. Louis. We’re also taking a lot of the land without paying taxes…when we have CAPS, or programming that is dedicated to helping the St. Louis community, it’s really important that we push for that.”