Welcome Corps on Campus: Welcome Remarks

Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure to welcome all of you to Georgetown as we celebrate the launch of the Welcome Corps on Campus (WCC).

This endeavor has brought together many partners and colleagues, working together as part of a coalition to connect refugee students to supportive higher education communities. I wish to express my gratitude to each of the institutions who are contributing to this work, and to the Community Sponsorship Hub, for organizing this collective effort.

In a moment, I’ll introduce Ambassador Julieta Valls Noyes, former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, to talk about this program. Today, she serves as Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at the U.S. Department of State. Later, we’ll also hear from members of the Welcome Corps team—Nele Feldmann, its Associate Director, and Jacqueline Pilch, the program’s coordinator.

I’d also like to thank our colleagues at the National Association of System Heads for joining us—they will play an invaluable role in helping to engage our campus communities in this work.

It’s my privilege to welcome all of you here to Georgetown on behalf of the President’s Alliance, our steering committee, and our many members around the country. I’m deeply grateful to Miriam Feldblum, our Executive Director, for her leadership and for the President’s Alliance members who are with us.

The President’s Alliance engages a range of issues across higher education—from advocating for legislative protections for DACA-recipients and DREAMERs…to initiatives that support education for refugee students. As Miriam will share, the President’s Alliance was grateful to contribute to a 2021 initiative, led by the State Department, that looked at educational pathways for refugee students. And this afternoon, we are honored to be with you to celebrate the Welcome Corps on Campus program.

This work could not take place at a more urgent moment for our global family.

We are living through a period of extraordinary dislocation.

• Almost 110 million people around the world have been forced from their homes, in search of safety, security, seeking better lives for themselves, for their families, for their children.
  
  
• More than 35 million of these are refugees, and they face significant barriers to accessing higher education.
  
  
• Less than half—only 3 million of the 7 million children who are refugees are enrolled in school.
  
  
• Only 6 percent of refugees matriculate into a higher education program.

Each of us have a role to play in expanding access and opportunity around our globe. Everyone deserves the opportunity to pursue an education. All of us—no matter where we call home—are connected to this global experience.

As colleges and universities, deeply connected to our global community, we can provide hope. Our academic missions call us to this work: how can we care for one another…how can we build our societies so we are inclusive…how can break down barriers of opportunity.

With the Welcome Corps on Campus, we realize a new way to advance our shared mission.Welcoming refugee students to our campuses—in accompanying them—we recognize a new opportunity to strengthen and expand the role of education in service to the common good.

We’re grateful to you for sharing in this important work in the time ahead. I’d like to thank all of you for being with us, and for our speakers for sharing their insights about this program and its importance.

It is now my pleasure to welcome Ambassador Valls Noyes, and to invite her to the podium to offer her reflections. Her work as the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration provides critical support to refugees, internally displaced and stateless persons, and vulnerable migrants around the world through humanitarian diplomacy. She previously served as Ambassador to Croatia during the Obama Administration.

We are grateful for her partnership in this effort, her service to our nation, and her presence here this afternoon.

Thank you for joining us.