At West Ridge tutoring center, multilingual refugees given safe space to learn with help from college students
Ten-year-old Lana Azizieh, a fifth grader at Clinton Elementary School, said that before she came to the United States two years ago, she didn’t know English.
“Now I’m really good at English,” she said, noting that she loves math, but not so much reading. “I like to read graphic novels, but mostly I’m not reading graphic novels (in school) so there are just words, words, words. I get tired of reading.”
Azizieh, a refugee from Syria, is one of 103 students receiving tutoring from Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA), the West Ridge education center dedicated to helping refugee children arriving in Chicago.
Azizieh came to the U.S. in 2021 and enrolled at FORA almost immediately, joining students mostly from Myanmar.
A minority of students at FORA are from Afghanistan, and a few are from South Sudan, Syria, Bhutan and Eritrea.
“We primarily serve refugee students who have been denied the opportunity to go to school before arriving in Chicago,” said Kathleen O’Connor, FORA’s director of education. “I think most people are familiar with the idea that the Taliban doesn’t want girls to be educated. But I don’t think very many people realize that means there are lots of Afghan girls here in Chicago, who are attending Chicago Public Schools, who do not have the background that they need so they can really engage in a class the way they want to.”
O’Connor and her husband, Michael O’Connor, thought of the idea for FORA while they were volunteering to help resettle refugee families around 2015. They noticed children who were often fluent in multiple languages were struggling in school because they didn’t have the age-appropriate core curriculum skills to succeed at a high level or communicate effectively.
For Moe Tun, a 15-year-old from Myanmar who is a 10th grader at Mather High School, the safe space at FORA allows her to ask all the questions she feels too shy to ask in school.
“My least favorite subject is English because it’s my third language for reading and writing so it has been a bit challenging for me,” Tun said. “FORA helped me become a good learner and seeing all the tutors willing to help, encouraged me that I can learn this new language. And I don’t have to feel like I am being judged (for my questions).”
Tun, who came to the U.S. four years ago, said she used to like math a lot, but then she started learning about chemistry over the summer.
“I think it’s really cool and interesting,” she said. “Also, I started learning a little about physics and I like that too now.”
Tun’s brother, Soe Tun, 17, also gets after-school tutoring help at FORA.
“Since English is my fourth language, I usually struggle to bring my ideas and gather them in structured words,” he said. “So having someone who can walk me through and explain to me how to write is really helpful.”
Kathleen O’Connor, a former Dominican University professor with a doctorate in child development psychology, said most of the students who come to FORA lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, which is why high-impact tutoring is so beneficial. The students get anywhere from two to four hours a day of tutoring in math and reading, five days a week, with at least one tutor for every two students.
Since opening its facility in 2019, it has partnered with several organizations and institutions to foster a volunteer base, most recently working with students from a class at DePaul University.
Last quarter Kate Cooper, an assistant professor of communication studies at DePaul, taught an experiential learning class where her students worked with FORA. Cooper was given a grant from DePaul’s Migration Collaborative to work on a project that benefits an organization. Cooper also worked with Michael O’Connor close to 20 years ago and was familiar with his work in the migrant communities.
“We looked for a project that we could do together — and it’s something students are reading about a lot,” Cooper said. “They’re hearing about migrant and refugee issues and it’s very visible right now in Chicago, where DePaul students are living and working and studying so it’s something that they care about.”
Tristan Balgemann, a senior at DePaul, focused on helping FORA enhance its volunteer turnout as part of Cooper’s class.
“Our focus group team has been looking at ways to bolster engagement and retention and seeing if there’s anything that we can offer that will help volunteers stay in it for a longer haul,” Balgemann said.
Giulianna Larson, chief outreach officer at FORA, started as a work-study tutor in 2021 before being hired in 2022.
“I look at recruitment as an opportunity to provide our students with individualized tutoring resources as well as a way to educate the community on refugee literacy,” Larson said. “My first semester in this role I recruited about 120 tutors and this semester we had just over 200 tutors for our fall sessions.”
Larson, who is a junior majoring in multimedia journalism at Loyola University, said the tutors are just as inspired by the students as the students look up to the tutors.
“Many tutors are like mentors for students, supporting them on good days and bad days and we’re inspired by the students’ resilience,” she said. “And the students have been inspired by the tutors’ hobbies and academic interests. FORA students see the wide range of studies and become inspired and feel a sense of belonging that they can find something that interests them.”
Logan Taylor Black, a student at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, tutors students in kindergarten through seventh grade five days a week at FORA. Although she found the organization through a need to complete a quarter-long experiential learning component for her program at Northwestern, Black said the experience has been twofold.
“The most rewarding aspect of tutoring is feeling like I’m actually making a difference in the lives of the students,” she said. “The fact that every day I am able to come in and support them in something that I have taken for granted but they are so curious about is incredible.”
Black said one of her students — a seventh grader from Afghanistan — recently scored high on a test and proudly brought the paper to tutoring to show her.
Sometimes — though not often — there can be a language barrier between the tutors and students, but Black said she was impressed with how much English every student knows while also being fluent in their native tongue.
O’Connor said the bridge between the students and their tutors, especially those in college, has been fantastic.
“It’s so great for college students to have the opportunity to make an immediate impact,” she said. “But on a deeper level, I think when students walk into our building, they get to experience the kind of joy that all of our staff and volunteers and our students are experiencing as they connect with one another through learning — it’s hard work teaching literacy and restoring the right to read, but we have a culture that brings joy to that effort.”
