PAIR Houston BULLETIN
August / 6 / 2018
Help PAIR Go Back to School!

This summer has been filled with exploration and fun. New partnerships expanded PAIR students' horizons and celebrated graduations and college next steps. 

As internships draw to a close and students prepare to meet teachers, we hope you'll help PAIR prepare for another year building bright futures for refugee youth. 
 
Donations help to support PAIR programming in a variety of ways. 

$50 provides a safe trip home for a PAIR student

$75 provides healthy snacks for a full week of PAIR programming

$100 supports PAIR program supply costs and student uniform fees

$125 allows PAIR to cover the cost of college application fees for juniors and seniors

$150 sponsors a graduating senior
 
Help PAIR to go back to school BIG! Click below to donate online today! 
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In This Issue

Refugee Community Advocacy Month

As we continue to see historically low refugee arrival numbers, it is critical that we continue to stand up and demand action for refugees.  Help advocate by taking action.  Access RCUSA's Advocacy Toolkit for ideas and support.
Serious Summer Fun for Middle Schoolers

More than 50 students from all three of PAIR's middle school programs came together for PAIR's summer camp, which met for the 6th year at Baker Ripley Gulfton. Daily for three weeks, students were busy bonding, exploring, and growing.
 
This year, youth created short films, tackling every element from script writing to costume and prop design, filming, editing, and, finally, a film screening of the finished products. Students also enjoyed a dance workshop with Core Dance and two soccer workshops run by Houston ReVision. New this year, rising ninth graders took part in a boot camp: three sessions designed to prepare them for high school.
 
And students experienced Houston on camp field trips! These included a ride by bus and rail to Hermann Park after learning about traffic safety, a soccer clinic with the Dynamo and Dash, an outing to a movie, and a visit backstage at Hobby Center with TUTS followed by games at Levy Park.
 
Sixteen volunteer counselors staffed the program. Wesley, our ExxonMobil summer intern, and Pendeza and Gloire, PAIR graduates hired through Hire Houston Youth, assisted new middle school program manager Abbie Drozek-Fitzwater in leading the team. In addition, seven juniors and seniors from PAIR's high school programs served as paid junior counselors, gaining work experience and building their leadership skills.
 
Summer camp was a memorable and enriching experience for students and staff!
High School Students Joined a Variety of Summer Programs through PAIR
CampSpark

One group of PAIR high school students spent a week at the Rice University Bioscience Research Collaborative in CampSpark. Here they engaged in hands-on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities. These included experimenting with the best methods and milks for making ice cream and learning the science behind emulsions and freezing points - and enjoying the sweet results! The next day they extracted DNA from strawberries; another day was spent dissecting animal hearts.
 
In its second year, CampSpark is a collaboration between PAIR and Rice organized by Katelin Cherry, Melody Tan, and Alyssa Shapira, all graduate students in bioengineering. Thanks to the work of the organizers, the program was led by professionals from immigrant and refugee backgrounds who could dazzle students with science experiments AND relate to them on a deeply personal level.
 
Project GRAD & Career Institute

For a second  year, a group of PAIR students attended a Project GRAD College and Career Institute at Texas State Technical College, in Rosenberg. During the 6-day program, students explored their career interests, gained knowledge of post-secondary education options, and learned about professionalism, including making eye-contact, confidently shaking hands, and presenting a 30-second elevator pitch. They also took part in hands-on activities to learn about technical jobs in robotics, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), cybersecurity, electrical power controls, and environmental safety and technology, among other fields. In addition to all of this, students visited a local business and toured the University of Houston. Learn more on the Project Grad website!
Young Women's Leadership Challenge

Another group of PAIR students began the year-long Young Women's Leadership Challenge with a week-long summer conference. They'll continue to meet at fall and spring workshops and lectures during the year. In the conference the youth explored leadership and entrepreneurship; self-esteem and body image; local and global careers; global issues, conflict resolution, and media literacy; and financial literacy and social etiquette. Throughout the week they developed a personal "Take Action Challenge," in which they created a project with a vision and a goal, while learning fundraising, marketing and communication. They will complete their projects during the coming year. The PAIR participants are collaborating on a project called "Motivating Immigrant Students," to organize a community service field trip for all PAIR refugee students in high school.
 
All of the PAIR students who've completed the YWLC over the past three   years, along with their peers from other groups, become part of the Alumni Network, which links more than 100 young leaders to share advice, references, and contacts that will help them with their personal and professional goals.