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Maya
's mentorship /

Global refugee crisis

Delving Deeper into an Existing Passion

Mentee Profile

A high school junior with a personal interest in the refugee crisis and immigration policy, Maya hoped to use her mentorship to build on her experience advocating and volunteering for immigrants and refugees in both New York and Israel.

Mentee Goals

Develop skills in public-facing writing and primary source analysis.

Gain knowledge about the history and present state of refugees in the U.S. to create an informative original website.

Investigate the veracity of common anti-refugee claims and assess which politicians' platforms support refugees.

Mentor Match

Maya's mentor is a Columbia University lecturer specializing in immigration and political history, who also serves as the Executive Director of Columbia's Freedom & Citizenship Program.

Custom Curriculum

Skill Development

Maya honed her writing and research skills through response papers to assigned readings, which helped populate her website. She also drew connections through her research, leading to new features on her site, including a page on how refugees benefit the U.S. economy, debunking common myths.

Program

In her mentorship, Maya established a timeline about the history of American refugee policy, researched current problems and dialogues about refugees and investigated future issues, presenting political platforms that support refugees.

Final Project

UnitedStatesForRefugees.com is a thoroughly researched, original website covering past and current politics behind the refugee crisis, the economic impact of refugees in America, political platforms on immigration and refugees, and offers resources for those interested in helping, as well as a fundraising jewelry shop.

MENTEE FEEDBACK

Students self-reported large gains in:

Accomplishing a personal goal

Gaining appreciation for the value of her own contributions

Readiness for college level work

Clarification of a career path

Clarification of which academic areas interest her

Increased academic self-confidence

Learning to work independently

Vist project website

OTHER Case studies

Website on body positivity offering resources for schools looking to add body image literacy to their health curricula

High-level translation of Seneca’s Thyestes from the original Latin to English with annotations and analysis

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Projects

Hugo has run hundreds of mentorships across dozens of fields.  Each of them are unique and designed around the students background, goals and interests.  Below are some of the final projects students developed during their mentorships.

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