Above: Students at the School for International Training. Photo by Howard Weiss-Tisman/Vermont Public
Michaella is from Burundi, and she was living in a refugee camp in Kenya when she first heard about a new U.S. program that allows refugees to come to America to attend college.
The Biden administration started the Welcome Corps on Campus program last year, and in August, 30 refugee students went directly to 17 colleges and universities across the United States.
The Trump administration has suspended the U.S. State Department-sponsored Welcome Corps on Campus program, and the program is currently not accepting any applications.
But last month, just a few days before Trump’s inauguration, Welcome Corps was able to transport 85 college-aged students, including Michaella, into the United States from refugee camps in Kenya and Jordan … to Brattleboro, Vermont.