An unexpected way out appeared. College was a temporary refuge. In 2018, Arien Hermac, then a professor of psychology at New York’s New School for Social Her Research, founded her exiled college consortium. This is a group of about 60 universities around the world who have agreed to host scholars displaced from the countries in which they live. was at risk. The purpose, Mack explained to me, was to create a sense of community among the persecuted academics so that they would not become “second exiles on the campus itself”. After returning, Mack was contacted by someone at a member university who had heard about Afghan women from Ahmad and wanted to know if the consortium could help place them in schools. The women’s situation exposed a gap in the system. The woman was too old to be placed in public schools, but too young to be considered a scholar or professor. “This was the first time I was in the rescue business, so to speak,” says Mack. “So we expanded our mission.”
Shortly after the women arrived at Fort McCoy, the consortium contacted two Vice Presidents of Brown University, Jay Rowan and Asabe Poloma. “At the time, we didn’t know much about AWF, but the philosophy behind the liberal arts curriculum resonated with us.” Similar conversations are underway elsewhere. , different schools were concerned with different aptitudes. For example, like Nisi Dupa, vice president of Cornell University, Cornell University worked in various laboratories in both hard sciences and other fields, and said, I prefer students who can ‘adapt’. International issue, put it in. The University of North Texas had a special English training program for young women who were still becoming fluent in English. Brown was interested in students who exhibited strong academic performance and intellectual curiosity. Ahmad asked his three administrative staff at AUW to put together a portfolio containing brief biographies and transcripts of each woman.
Every time the school verbally agreed to accept one of the women, Charles Hallab, an attorney and founder of the Washington advisory firm Barrington Global, who provided free assistance, said the woman was accepted as a degree. I worked on a memorandum stating that. Acquisition of students for the duration of their bachelor’s degree or, in some cases, a postgraduate degree – a condition some schools ultimately agree to. Some colleges, like Arizona State University, signed on immediately. Some, like Brown, were reluctant to commit to anything binding. “The priority was to ensure that these girls had the highest possible success as human beings,” Halab told me. rice field.”
At Fort McCoy, Hashimi had heard rumors that she and her peers were transferring to an American university, but was skeptical that that would happen. I was worried,” she says. (Some of the women declined to continue their studies, choosing to look for work instead.) Milwaukee, West She’s Virginia. Some of them were approved quickly, while others required more extensive application. In November, Hashimi, to her surprise, received an email from Brown asking her to write another essay about her personal story, her academic interests, her goals and dreams. I made a request to She didn’t have a computer, so she drafted her essay on her cell phone. She then says she checked her email “every second.”
By December, I received the letter of acceptance for the AUW women. Fourteen women ended up in Braun. 9 at Cornell. 67 in Arizona. 15th at the University of Delaware. All of them receive full scholarships funded by donations collected by the university. AUW estimates the total cost to be her $32 million. Different schools had different arrangements: At Arizona State University, women were invited to enroll for up to eight semesters. Some students who already earned her AUW credits were able to enroll as juniors or seniors. Ten of her DePaul students were invited to stay until they completed their bachelor’s degrees, as long as they did not interrupt their studies and complete their degrees within five years.
Other schools offered more precarious arrangements. At Cornell, women were accepted as “visiting interns” for the grade. At Brown University, 14 women were considered “non-degree special students for the 2021-2022 academic year.” No one knew what would happen after May.