Refugee Student Mentor Program

Are you a UT student interested in becoming a mentor in 2026-2027?

Support refugee students in your community, engage your language skills, and gain valuable volunteering experience. 

Steps to become a mentor:

1. Attend a volunteer orientation.

2. Complete a background check.

3. Get matched with a mentee and start mentoring! 

Upcoming orientations for 2026-2027 will be announced in August.

Get on the list to be notified when future orientations are offered. 

Questions? E-mail cmesoutreach@austin.utexas.edu

About RSMP

In spring 2015, Middle Eastern Studies (MES) began a collaboration with the Austin Independent School District (AISD) to not only provide an essential service to our community but to also provide volunteer opportunities for UT students with foreign language skills to serve as mentors to refugee students in AISD schools.

The idea for this collaboration came from MES faculty member Jonathan Kaplan, who saw an influx of refugee children in his daughter’s elementary school. What started as a small program in just one school quickly grew into a volunteer program with over 50 UT students working with Arabic, Persian and Pashto speaking students at 16 AISD schools, and we now serve students who speak many other languages. 

MES works with the AISD Refugee Support Office to assign volunteers to a specific school, and each student serves as a mentor to a small number of refugee students in that school for approximately 2-5 hours per week. MES also provides practical programmatic and language training to new student volunteers each semester. 

The program seeks to help refugee children adapt to their new lives in America and acclimate to their roles as students. While many of these schools have English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, these programs are not well-suited for teaching students who speak Arabic or other languages not long-established in the Austin area. The Refugee Student Mentor Program not only fills a need within the local community, but it allows our students to learn about the cultures and experiences of refugees who are starting their new lives in America.

We are grateful to our partners, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, and the South Asia Institute, who help fund the Refugee Student Mentor Program. 

How to Get Involved

Students

If you are a UT Austin undergraduate or graduate student and you would like to support refugee students in the Austin community by becoming a mentor, please contact CMES Outreach.  Student volunteers must complete AISD paperwork and attend a training session prior to volunteering.

Schools

If your school is interested in learning more about our program, please contact CMES Outreach.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies also offers community language training in Pashto, one of the two official languages of Afghanistan and commonly spoken by resettled Afghans. If you are interested in learning more about this program, please visit the Pashto Online Summer Institute.

RSMP in the Media

 

2025

• RSMP Receives Lighthouse Award from local foundation RecognizeGood
• UT mentorship program helps local refugee students overcome language, cultural barriers

2023

• RSMP wins the Austin Partners in Education (APIE) Mentor Champions Award

2022

• Strategies to Support Multilingual Learning in US Schools (Webinar featuring RSMP, the Washington University in St. Louis SALaMA program, and Qatar Foundation International)

2021

• The Daily Texan (UT Refugee Student Mentor Program fundraises to cover transportation costs)
• CBS Austin (Austin ISD prepares to welcome more Afghan families to school)
• Community Impact (Austin ISD preps to welcome Afghan refugee students whose parents worked for U.S.)
• The Daily Texan (UT program provides mentorship to refugee students relocated from Afghanistan)
• KXAN Austin (How UT is adapting its refugee mentor program amid influx of Afghan students)

2020

• The Daily Texan (Mentoring groups continue to support students in virtual setting)

2019

• Life & Letters: College of Liberal Arts Magazine (Speaking the Same Language)

2018

• Humanities for All (Goals of the Publicly Engaged Humanities, featuring the Refugee Student Mentor Program, Refugee Student Mentor Program Profile)

2017

• KUT FM (UT Mentor Program Offers Young Refugees More Than Just A “Hello” In A Familiar Language, Refugees Are Leaving Austin, But It’s Not Because of a Travel Ban)
• YouTube (Refugee Student Mentor Program: UT Austin Students Volunteer to Help Refugee Children)

2016

• Austin American-Statesman (Commentary: Doss Elementary Models Support for its Refugee Families)

Donate

When you give to the MES Refugee Student Mentor Program, you become a part of a program that impacts both UT Austin students as well as families all over the Austin area. Our students benefit from using the language(s) they learn at UT Austin, they gain professional experience, and they have a lasting impact on the community. Gifts from our friends and alumni help MES continue this important work in the community, creating a sustainable program that will benefit students and families for years to come.

To give to this program, visit UT Austin's Giving page, select 'Center for Middle Eastern Studies' as the designation, and add write in "Refugee Student Mentor Program" in the Comments field. 

Are you a current mentor? Follow these two quick steps to access our internal resources and announcements:

• Step 1: Join our Program Group
  Click this link and click the "Join" button. You must sign in with your university credentials. This adds you to our email update list.
• Step 2: Access the volunteer site
  Once you have joined the group, click here to view our volunteer web portal.

Note: This portal is private. If you have not completed Step 1 to join the group first, clicking the SharePoint link will result in an "Access Denied" error.