It has been almost a year and a half since Raed Ibraheim al Abbassee arrived at Bard College to begin his freshman year. A lot has happened. Raed survived the dual culture shock of a new country and language and first year in college with flying colors. His grades were all As and Bs, and he completed, as part of his coursework, a moving short film on the Iraq War. He spent the summer working in the lab of Dr. Tom Fasi, a researcher at Mount Sinai hospital. Raed gained valuable lab experience, a nice start to building his resume, and had an opportunity to get to know New York City.

This semester Raed took a very heavy course load -- all math and science. He will dial it back a little in the second semester with one literature course. (Maybe he will get a little more sleep). He continues to do very well.

For the midwinter break, students in the Iraqi Student Project have organized a reunion in New York City, with 20 of the 35 students in the program traveling to New York and bunking down in various borrowed apartments. We hope they have a great time in the city and can enjoy the opportunity to speak their native language together and to trade experiences about college life in the United States. In addition, Raed will be visiting his uncle who has been resettled in Worcester.

We were very fortunate this year financially. We received a $10,000 grant from the Bessie Foundation and Raed won a $5,000 scholarship from an organization called Rally for Iraq. We're very proud of him.

However, we still have to provide Raed with daily his living expenses and build up our funds to pay his room and board for two more years. If you can help support our project, please send a check to Iraqi Student Project Mid-Hudson, PO Box 326, Rhinebeck, NY 12572. Your contribution is fully tax-deductible. You will be helping a very deserving and promising young man, and, in a small way, healing the wounds of war.

Have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy new year.

New Beginning, New Hope:

Two months in New York. That seems normal or at least not surprising for many young guys from most of the countries around the world. But for a young Iraqi guy, who’d never been outside Iraq before; that seems interesting. The circumstances made that guy would be someday me. I’ve never dreamed be in such an amazing place, but here I am. It was a long journey and everything was after sufferings and struggling. For sure, I won’t be able to do anything without meeting such incredible people in the Iraqi student Project. I clearly remember these days last year. It was my beginning in the ISP. During these days, we had our English Placement Test in the American Language Center in Damascus, and having the first Writers’ Workshop.
Maybe many of you are asking now, what’s look like be in the U.S., and what my impression is. What my difficulties are now. How the classes are so far. Here, I would like to give you few sentences about my life here now.
Starting from the college and the weather now, it is really nice there at Bard, especially this time during fall, for sure, I’ve been told that this is just a temporary time, and snow will cover the ground. Actually, I’m looking forward to that, because I’ve never seen snow before.
I can’t say how people are nice at here Bard, all the people from the faculty and professors to the students, especially when they know I’m from Iraq. I began to have new friends. Classes are good. I’m studying pre-med, so my classes for this semester are Biology, Chemistry, Macroeconomics and the First-Year Seminar. What helped me out this semester is that I know a lot of the materials, especially with Chemistry. That was surprising for me because I said “Oh wow, so we do still have good level of education in Iraq, despite the destruction that we had after the invasion”. I don’t want to make some advertisement for Bard here, because obviously, they don’t need to, but I have to say “Bard is great place to be in”.
What I miss now is, for sure, my family. This is the first time in my life I left them for this time. Despite the fact that Bard has a really good food, I began to miss my mom’s cooking, and I think this is the case of all the ISPers. But I think this is fine, because I believe no one could get everything that he wants in his life. I miss my ISP friends so much, because they were everything what I had during the last time before my coming to the U.S. We were together all the time, studying, encouraging and supporting each other, eating, and having fun. I wish them all the best in their schools and I hope we could meet again soon. Finally, I want to thank all the people who helped me be here, and all the people that are helping and supporting me now. You are doing a great job, and really I don’t have the words to show them my gratitude. Thank you.

Raed Invited to Awards Dinner

Here are our local area Iraqi students -- Raed (at Bard) on the left, Mustafa (at Manhattanville) next to him, and Randa (at TCI) in front of them. They were invited guests at the Fellowship of Reconciliation's annual awards dinner. Here they are on a cruise around Manhattan with Rev. Michael Lapsley, one of this year's award winners. (Rev. Lapsley is a South African Anglican priest who is the director of the Institute for Healing of Memories in Capetown, South Africa. In 1990, he was targeted for assassination by the apartheid government, and lost his hands, an eye, and much of his hearing to a letter bomb they sent him).

The FOR awards dinner was held on a cruise ship that circled Manhattan on a sparkling fall day. A great introduction to Manhattan island, the Statue of Liberty, and the charms of fall weather.

Potluck Dinner to Welcome Raed to the Community

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More than thirty people attended a potluck dinner to welcome Raed Ibraheim to the Bard area community and the Hudson River valley. Our kind hostess, Kay Verilli, lent the use of her sweeping veranda for the event. This was the community's introduction to the Iraqi Student Project.


Raed talked about how he got involved with the Iraqi Student Project after his family was forced to flee Baghdad and his college education was interrupted. He described the opportunity as "a lifesaver",

a completely unexpected opportunity to realize his dreams of completing his education.


On a sultry evening, everyone welcomed the wonderful food and drinks brought by all, and everyone was impressed with Raed's English facility, and by his mature and serious composure. We are quite sure he will be a great success at Bard College!


Many thanks to Kay Verilli, to Hans and Micki Boehm, to Diane Sommer, to Jane Brien and Stewart Verilli, to Joanne Schmidt, to Yoram Gelman, and to everyone else who pitched in, for all their work in making this event possible.

Iraqi Student Project Founders Interviewed on Public Radio

Iraqi Student Project founders, Gabe Huck and Theresa Kubasek, were interviewed on Chicago public radio, WBEZ, recently. You can listen to the interview by clicking HERE.

Gabe and Theresa explain how they got involved with Iraqi refugees, how they identify and prepare students for college in the US. They talk about the the US community support groups who are providing home away from home help to 35 Iraqi students in the project who are in school in the U.S. Gabe and Theresa are currently preparing many other students in Damascus, Baghdad and Amman for college work in English.

Gabe Huck was a publisher and director of Liturgy Training Publications for 35 years. Theresa Kubasek was a teacher and teacher trainer for 30 years. They both now live in Damascus, where they identify promising Iraqi refugee students of college age, work with them to strengthen their English speaking and writing skills, and help them apply to colleges and universities in the U.S.

Join Grassroots Support Group for Iraqi Refugee Student at Bard College!

You are invited to become a member of Iraqi Student Project - MidHudson, a local support group which is helping Bard College ISP student, Raed Rakeen Ibraheim, feel welcomed to our community. As Americans, it’s one small thing we can do to help rebuild our relationship with Iraq.

The Iraqi Student Project is a grassroots project which brings Iraqi refugees of college age to the United States for their education. The Iraq war created more than 4 million displaced people, including more than 2 million who fled the country entirely. The refugee crisis disproportionately affected the middle class and professionals, who were targeted for ideological reasons and also to extort their savings.

At the universities, both students and professors were forced to flee in large numbers. Syria, with a population of 19 million people, took in 1.2 million refugees (the equivalent of the United States hosting 18 million refugees). Although Syria offered shelter to the people who fled Iraq, the refugees are not permitted to work, nor do they have access to higher education.

Meanwhile, Iraq needs to rebuild. The Iraqi Student Project is one small way Americans can contribute to the rebuilding process and can create the people-to-people ties that will affect our future relationship to Iraq. The first crop of college students was admitted in September 2008. 14 colleges across the country, from New England to the West Coast, admitted students. Participating colleges in our general area included Union College in Schenectady, Fairfield University in Connecticut, Canisius College in Buffalo.

Locally, Bard College has made an extremely generous contribution to The Iraqi Student Project, agreeing to a full tuition waiver in the form of a Science Scholarship Award, to a student in the program. Raed Rakeen Ibraheim will be arriving in Dutchess County the first week of August to begin his four year education at Bard. Now the work begins for The Iraqi Student Project. Our part of the bargain is to provide Raed with the social, emotional, and financial support he needs to succeed in a completely new culture.

Our grassroots method is to establish a support group that will raise the money and provide the resources to insure Raed room and board, books, computer, cell phone, winter clothing, etc., as well as to make sure he is welcomed to local homes for the holidays and intersessions, has summer internship opportunities. We estimate we need to raise $13,000 to $15,000 this year to cover room, board, books, and other personal expenses. We are about 25% of the way there.

We think this will be a wonderful opportunity for the Mid-Hudson community to broaden its knowledge of the Middle East as well as to contribute to the rebuilding of Iraq. We will be convening a local support group meeting in the next few weeks. We are planning a public event in June, and a welcoming dinner for Raed at the end of July or beginning of August when he arrives in the U.S.

Right now we need to create awareness of the project at Bard, and to create an active community support group that would include people willing to help with events, fundraising, bookkeeping and mentoring.

ISP works to minimize expenses for Iraqi refugee students. Tuition, room, board and other school-related fees will be waived by participating colleges and universities. All other expenses will be raised by local support groups in partnership with ISP.

The Support Group for Raed Rakeen has raised 25% of the needed funds for this year already! Anyone who is interested, would like more information or would like to be on a mailing list for upcoming events, can contact Felice Gelman at rosahill [at] gmail.com or 914-333-0221, or Diane Sommer - (member, Dutchess Peace Coalition) - dianesommer7 [at] gmail.com or 845-227-9464. Web: www.ISPMidHudson.org

You can also download the ISP Midhudson Brochure. Please copy and distribute the brochure to friends and others who you think might be interested.

Interview with ISP Founders on WBEZ-Chicago

Listen to a radio interview with Gabe Huck and Theresa Kubasak, founders of the Iraqi Student Project, aired on WBEZ Worldview (Chicago Public Radio) in Chicago.

http://audio.wbez.org/wv/2009/07/wv_20090729b.mp3

Gabe Huck was a publisher and Director of Liturgy Training Publications for 35 years. Theresa Kubasak was a teacher and teacher trainer for 30 years. Both now live in Damascus, Syria where they work for the Iraqi Student Project, reaching out to eligible Iraqi students, help them apply to colleges and universities in the US, and working to strengthen their English and writing skills for study in the U.S.