A new student group on the University of Oregon campus is aiming to take on a large project with big impact.

The group is called No Lost Generation. They’re attempting to help refugees of Middle Eastern countries who currently struggle to find a home when theirs has been destroyed by war. Since last fall, the group’s members have set their sights on improving the lives of as many refugees as they can.

Its current project is to create five full scholarships with tuition waivers. These would be awarded to admitted applicants who have United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees approved refugee status.

“I think it’s been really motivating for us just thinking about how there are people who are just like us,” said Harley Emery, a co-director for NLG. “We are in similar situations, education wise, but [they] have had a war come in the middle of their paths to success in life.”

Harley Emery, co-director of NLG, has helped raise over $10,000 for refugees (Image from UO blog)

NLG has been working with refugees in the Eugene community and members were inspired by hearing their stories. Its goal is to have enough money raised through fundraising to bring at least one refugee student to the University of Oregon next year.

“We believe that everyone should have equal access to education, disregarding factors like race, gender or religion,” said Maria Pervova, Emery’s co-director for NLG.

So far, NLG has gained a great deal of support from many departments at UO and from Eugene. That support from university faculty and other student groups has helped NLG to gain support and awareness for their cause. NLG is a smaller branch of an international organization that was created by United Nations High High Comissioner for Refugees; there are close to 50 different branches across the country.

“We have a petition with almost 2,000 signatures at this point,” Emery said. “[And] we’ve had quite a few departments officially endorse us. The political science department, international studies, geography.”

The refugees would apply to the university through the same process as any other student, and the potential money going to these scholarships comes solely from fundraising, so none of it would come out of student tuition or other fees.

Facing challenges

(Image from Facebook)

A big problem that NLG faces is the amount they need to fundraise if they have to pay the same tuition as international students.

“It’ll depend on if they accept our proposal to have these scholarships go toward in-state tuition rates instead of what international students pay,” Emery said. “Our main argument is that these students don’t have a country that they belong to at this point because they’re refugees, so they’re stateless people.”

Momo Wilms-Crowe is a first year student and NLG’s outreach coordinator. “It’s cool to be part of a club that’s doing something that’s super tangible,” she said.

Currently, NLG has focused on refugees from the Middle East but would love to include other regions as well once they gain more momentum. Refugees from Central America have also been on their radar, giving the group future aspirations. For now, NLG wants to get their scholarship in front of administrators, which they’ll be working on in the upcoming weeks. They’ve currently raised $10,000, and hope to at least double that number.

Group members are currently holding a crowdfunding effort to chip away at their goal.

“We need to keep going,” said Pervova. “We don’t want these awful cycles of refugees staying in poverty to last forever.”

Follow Erin Carey on Twitter: @elcarey

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