BRAVE: Building Refugee Achievement Through Vermont Education - BRAVE: Building Refugee Achievement through Vermont Education - The Lessons Learned & Proposal for ECDC MCC Vermont’s future University Partnerships Program

William Huddleston

The BRAVE structure and curriculum are shared here for the benefit of future BRAVE students as well as practitioners around the US and the world. [...] Overall, these potential bachelor and post-bachelor students were seeking programs in the arts, law and tech (4 students each); business, medicine and political science (3 students each); and humanities and the sciences (2 students each). [...] On their own, the advising and education plans were necessary, but not sufficient to convince and prepare students to take the next steps to pursue their higher education plans. [...] For example, students had difficulty with the email communication norms of their teachers, with attendance due to demanding work schedules and with timely submission of assignments due to work/family responsibilities and challenges with the English and assignment formats. [...] The information that was most useful for these plans was 1) knowledge of the wide range of US bachelor & post-bachelor options and financial aid/scholarships; 2) the available local, online and part-time courses; 3) the significant time, preparations and ESL coursework required and 4) the importance of working with advisors during their applications, enrollment and coursework.