Asian Pacific American and Refugee Student Services - TUSD

07/28/2022

06/08/2022

Join us as we celebrate World Refugee Day Saturday, June 18, 2022! this event will be held at Phoenix College from 11am-3pm.

VOLUNTEER WITH US:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d48afa62ea6fec25-phoenix1

YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS IT!

03/11/2022

ThanksRoberts Naylor K8!

11/05/2021

https://learning.careyinstitute.org/learn/educating-refugee-immigrant-students-foundations-course-usahello

11/04/2021

https://cmes.arizona.edu/outreach/k-12workshopAfghanistanFall2021

Date: Sat, 11/13/2021 - 11:00am to 2:00pmK-12 Online Workshop: Afghan History, Culture, and the Young Refugee Experience (Page Under Construction) Speakers: Dr. Shah Mahmoud Hanifi (James Madison University), Ms. Atifa Rawan (Librarian Emerita), Ms. Malika Akbary (UArizona student) The United State...

10/02/2021

Educators- register for this amazing course to better support our students of refugee status! Registration is open until October 15, 2021!

09/30/2021

https://www.rispnet.com/how-to-assist-afghan-refugees-and-sivs/

09/30/2021

https://ceinternational1892.org/article/half-day-virtual-learning-event-supports-educators-in-welcoming-afghan-students-and-families/

Sign up for a free half day virtual learning event supporting educators in welcoming Afghan Students and Families this Saturday!

Virtual Learning Event Supports Educators In Welcoming Afghan Students And Families.

09/20/2021

Please pass the word along. We are looking for a Student Support Specialist, specifically one who speaks Vietnamese. Please see the job posting below. Thank you!

Apply for Student Success Specialist (Effective 2021-2022 SCHOOL YEAR) position at Tucson Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona on https://jobs.tusd1.org/

09/18/2021

GATE A-4

Wandering around the Albuquerque Airport Terminal, after learning my flight had been delayed four hours, I heard an announcement: “If anyone in the vicinity of Gate A-4 understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.” Well — one pauses these days. Gate A-4 was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian embroidered dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing. “Help,” said the flight agent. “Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be late and she did this.”

I stooped to put my arm around the woman and spoke haltingly.
“Shu-dow-a, Shu-bid-uck Habibti? Stani schway, Min fadlick, Shu-bit-se-wee?” The minute she heard any words she knew, however poorly used, she stopped crying. She thought the flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for major medical treatment the next day. I said, “No, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just later, who is picking you up? Let’s call him.”

We called her son, I spoke with him in English. I told him I would
stay with his mother till we got on the plane and ride next to
her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just
for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her? This all took up two hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling of her life, patting my knee,
answering questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool
cookies — little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts — from her bag — and was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the mom from California, the lovely woman from Laredo — we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better cookie.

And then the airline broke out free apple juice from huge coolers and two little girls from our flight ran around serving it and they
were covered with powdered sugar, too. And I noticed my new best friend — by now we were holding hands — had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and I thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in that gate — once the crying of confusion stopped— seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women, too.

This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye
2008

Photo bj~ Seatac airport, early 2020

This is the kind of world I want to live in. Don’t you? Spread kindness and watch the miracles happen all around you.