COSI Back To Work Podcast Ep. 2: Funding Helps Refugees and Immigrants Achieve Success
Emily Griffith Foundation is excited to launch a six-episode podcast series about the COSI Back to Work Grant. The following story outlines the content of Episode 2, explaining how the grant helps immigrants and refugees across Colorado.
By Noelle Riley
Immigrants and refugees come to the United States for various reasons such as war or poverty, and sometimes to flee political distress from their government.
That’s what happened to Suleiman Kayita of Tanzania in East Africa. Before the pandemic hit, he left his wife and six children behind and now lives in Colorado.
“(I left) because of political reasons. We had a difference in political ideologies and fear of being persecuted,” he said. “I had to come here and get work and seek asylum here.”
He left all he knew behind.
“I’m a father, a husband and a caring citizen. I miss my family, but I think the process is long,” he said, referring to the asylum process and the possibility of bringing his family here eventually.
Thanks to the Emily Griffith Foundation, he was able to get funds to help him get his HVAC certificate. He did so from a COSI Back to Work grant the Foundation secured for students.
Suleiman graduated from Emily Griffith Technical College’s HVAC program in September, and he now looks forward to starting his own business one day.
His successes were made possible by many entities, including the International Rescue Committee, or IRC, that brought him to Colorado.
The asylum process can take years, and Suleiman hopes to bring his family here someday. In the meantime, he needed to improve his English and build a new career. That’s when the IRC guided him to Emily Griffith Technical College.
“When I looked at the other colleges and what they provide, I thought Emily Griffith is the best option for me,” he said.
He took English classes, got his GED, and then enrolled in the HVAC program.
“So when I came here, I had my own educational background, but you know how the system is here, what you came with might not matter a lot, so looking into my background, HVAC was one course that was close to the background that I had,” Suleiman said.
He used to do maintenance and repairs back home, so he felt going into HVAC was a good fit for him.
Suleiman was also able to secure scholarships to help fund his schooling. One of those was from the COSI Back to Work Grant.
“It made me feel like now my goal of being a business owner is going to be achieved, and it’s through the support that I got,” he said.
After months of bolstering his language skills and gaining his HVAC certificate, Suleiman’s ready to take on the world.
Ryan Yates is proud of him. He’s the dean of English and Adult Education at the College and enjoys his role.
“What I love most about the work that we do, is it’s really well aligned with the original mission of the school and why Emily started it. She started the school 106 years ago to serve this exact same population,” said Ryan. “She had been working in the five points neighborhood which is just up the road here, and that had been primarily an African American and immigrant neighborhood and she saw that a lot of the parents of the grade school students she was working with were struggling to find consistent work and it was because they didn’t have the same workforce training that other folks had.”
Ryan also understands the dynamic of what students go through when they enter the United States and have to learn a new culture.
Years ago, he and his wife went to South Korea to teach English. They were totally submerged in a foriegn place with no South Korean language skills.
“Our students struggle with day to day lives or they have barriers because they don’t speak the language or because they don’t understand the culture,” he said. “And I got just a taste of that being a foreigner in South Korea. I did not understand the work culture when I arrived there. It was very different. They go 100 miles an hour for 60 to 70 hours a week. We work hard in this country, but not like they do.”
It was a culture shock for him — much like it is for refugees and immigrants who enter the U.S. That experience made him more aware of what Emily Griffith students go through.
“It’s really hard to come to the United States as an adult and learn the language from scratch and learn the work culture from scratch,” he said. “And so if we can facilitate that a little bit, that’s a great accomplishment, but really, it’s them doing that work.
Additionally, a lot of the refugees currently enrolling at Emily Griffith are from Afghanistan and Ukraine
In the last year, the college has served 583 Afghans, 201 Africans, and 17 Ukrainians. In total, Emily Griffith Technical College served over 1,600 English language learners last year.
Refugee resettlement programs help these individuals acclimate into the United States.
“We have close partnerships with the refugee resettlement agencies in the Denver Metro Area, and they do really remarkable work,” Ryan said. “They are tasked with finding housing, jobs and food. They connect families with the English language and school.
They also connect students with scholarship opportunities.
“The amazing part about grants like the Back to Work grant is there are two components that are critical. One, just the financial barrier. It can be enough to dissuade people from career training. Our programs at Emily Griffith, like Suleiman’s HVAC program, are not terribly expensive,” he said.
“We tend to have the lowest tuition in the state, but we're talking about thousands of dollars. For someone who is new to this country, and is working jobs that don’t pay a livable wage, that’s an insurmountable amount of money.
The Back to Work money helps remove some of those barriers.
Also, instructors and workforce centers help with job and scholarship applications, and basic needs like obtaining cell phone plans and housing. They also focus on career readiness skills.
Emerging from the pandemic, workforce centers across the nation had federal dollars to help people with tuition, job training, and housing.
Lisa wanted to get federal dollars into students’ hands so she reached out to Emily Griffith.
“And so we talked about our situation that we had funds to pay tuition for in-demand certifications, and if they had people who needed help and were facing barriers, I wanted to work with them,” Lisa said.
The funds provide support above and beyond the scholarships Emily Griffith offers. So far Lisa and her team have helped 15 Emily Griffith students post pandemic.
“And they just really enjoy working with the clients from Emily Griffith, because, as you can imagine, federal funding for tuition comes with lots of paperwork,” she sai
Lisa praises the Emily Griffith team. They walk refugees and immigrants through the tedious process of filling out paperwork for funding and resources.
“Not only do they have a great team, they have a really well structured organization,” she said. “They make such an effective and great effort to reach those who are being left out of accessing opportunities, and that’s where we want to be, and that’s why we partner with them.”
Tiffany Jaramillo is the manager of Adult Education, English and Career Pathways at Emily Griffith Technical College.
Her program is designed to help refugees and other eligible immigrants enter the workforce.
“I love interacting with the students that we get to serve. They come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and are here to learn and make a better life for themselves in the United States and we get to help them get connected to education and employment services so they can pursue their goals for their life here in the United States,” Tiffany said.
She and her team also help them with resettlement, getting students into English language classes, career navigation and the job application process.
In order to do that, they help students learn the culture and technology.
“Digital literacy and access to technology, it’s always been there, but since the pandemic everything is online,” Tiffany said. “Interviews, English classes, so many things require that digital literacy skill, so that’s one area that’s even more important than it was even a few years ago.”
They also provide career coaching after they finish their English programs.
“I love this work. And the team that we’ve built here and be able to serve these students. It’s powerful work because we get to see students’ lives change and impact made and moving from Level 1 English to Level 4 English, moving from our English program or GED program into our college career and technical education programs,” she said. “People landing their dream job. So, yes, this work is incredibly fulfilling and important.
And Suleiman is just one example of how Emily Griffith’s scholarships, like the Back to Work grant, help immigrants and refugees.
“It’s never too late to do something. And focus toward achieving your dreams, however hard it may be,” Suleiman said.
Noelle Riley is a podcast producer with the Emily Griffith Foundation. The next episode will feature an Emily Griffith Technical College student in the automotive program who also received Back to Work money.
For more information on Emily Griffith programs, visit www.emilygriffith.edu
To find out more about how you can help Emily Griffith students, visit www.egfoundation.org
The beats for the podcast were composed by Just Emcee, and podcast cover art was designed by Sara Grossman/CODE Marketing.