Photo: Alex Beck of BDCC and students at the Stone Church; upon their arrival, Alex took them on a tour of Brattleboro’s hot spots. February, 2025.

In January 2025, over 80 young adults aged 19-26 arrived at the SIT campus here in Brattleboro. They came primarily from Syria, South Sudan, and Somalia, with other countries represented as well; you may have seen them at their jobs around Brattleboro or riding their scooters and bikes around town. But now, they are finally departing after more than seven months of living and learning alongside each other. 

They arrived through the Welcome Corps on Campus program, created under the Biden administration, which had previously brought 30 students directly to universities across the country. But these students were in a more unique situation; each of them had flights that were arriving just before January 20th, arriving just before refugee arrivals were paused. As such, they arrived straight to the SIT campus, which has served as transitional housing for refugees in the past with over 100 Afghans living there temporarily in 2022.

These students in Brattleboro are the only ones in the entire country to be a part of the Welcome Corps on Campus program, and are among the only refugees accepted into our country in 2025. Their room, board, and college prep courses have all been generously funded by the Shapiro Foundation, with logistical support coming from SIT and ECDC (the local refugee resettlement office). 

The Refugee Ministry of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church has been instrumental in supporting these students.  With just a couple of weeks to prepare for their arrival, they were able to organize enough volunteers and community sponsors, from within and outside the congregation, to assist these students and handle logistics upon their arrivals. 

Each sponsor, including BDCC’s Alex Beck, volunteered their time to work and engage with a group of 10 students each. These sponsors, alongside additional volunteers, helped their group to get settled and navigate the complex systems of the U.S. 

But of course, they also had plenty of fun here in Brattleboro, and volunteers played a key role in helping students get off campus, to meet basic needs like shopping and dentist appointments, but also to learn more about American culture and what Vermont has to offer. Beck recalls learning ice skating with his students, getting tickets donated by the Harris Hill ski jump, dancing in the streets at Gallery Walks, learning to swim on the West River, and many, many trips to Walmart and T.J. Maxx. 

Looking back on the time he spent with these students, Alex says “having been involved in refugee resettlement professionally since its very start, this was a unique and remarkable opportunity to support this work in my personal life.” As they depart, he is thinking about their futures; “knowing how vibrant of a community Brattleboro can be, when that campus is filled with young people, I was honored and excited to be a part of it.” 

At SIT, students took courses in a wide variety of topics, including Environmental & Economic Justice and International Relations. These courses aimed to prepare them for the college environment, and to teach them the expectations of professors as well as advancing their academic English skills. By the end of their time at SIT, they were writing professional and scholarly essays that one would think was written by a native English speaker. 

Many of them have already decided their majors and have a goal for their careers, and have been working with BDCC through its employment services program, on ways to tie their academic planning to their long term career goals. “Welcoming these students has been a life changing experience, for myself and for Brattleboro, and if we’re lucky, when they are doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers, they will come back to Brattleboro and call it home.”

Having been in Brattleboro since January, the students are eager to begin their university experiences. They are thoroughly prepared to navigate college life and all other aspects of living in the U.S. Throughout July and August, these students are departing to dozens of different schools all across the country, from Vermont to California. They are all grateful for the support from the community and the education they have received here, and we wish them the best in their upcoming endeavors!