Beyond Survival: Helping Displaced Talent Make Their Mark on the World

What happens when refugees access world-class education?

Columbia Global’s vision in action.

Born in Qom, Iran, to Afghan refugee parents, Amina Rahimi (name has been changed to guarantee her safety) learned at an early age that being a refugee meant facing closed doors at every turn. When she excelled in high school, she discovered that refugee students were banned from attending pre-college programs. Undaunted, she spent months calling the Ministry of Education until they finally permitted her to study. It could only be from home, they said — no in-person experiences, except to sit for exams. Later, when she wanted to pursue a degree in software engineering, she was told she had to make a perilous journey back to Afghanistan to obtain a student visa, without which refugees were barred from universities in Iran.

Then, in 2019, Amina read an announcement on EuroNews that would transform her life: Columbia University offered scholarships to displaced students. "How is it possible that a university would care about refugees," she wondered, "when it feels like no one does?"

For the more than 122 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, access to the most essential elements of survival — from health care to housing to jobs — is often severely limited. Education, particularly higher education, typically isn’t a possibility. Columbia Global has responded to this crisis through an array of programs and initiatives that are coordinated through its Global Centers, Columbia World Projects, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, and the Committee on Forced Migration, which serves as a platform for engaging faculty, students, and staff on displacement issues. These programs include the Emerging Scholars Fellowship Program, the Scholarship for Displaced Students, and the Displaced Artists Residency in Paris.

Three years after Amina first heard about the scholarship, and after doing everything in her power to get more scholarly and practical experiences to give her a competitive edge, she began her application process to Columbia University in 2021. In 2022, she was offered a scholarship and accepted into the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Amina’s journey exemplifies the extraordinary resilience of young refugees seeking to meet their educational goals. For Amina, her own determination was shaped by her mother's resilience — denied schooling in Afghanistan and forced to flee to Iran, she taught herself to read and write while working to ensure her children have the education she was denied.

Her journey at Columbia wasn’t without its own challenges. She struggled with the profound guilt she felt for leaving her mother and sisters behind, as well as the trauma she endured as a refugee. Her engineering professors Aurel Lazar and Henry Hess offered guidance. "They gave me so much care and support," said Amina. "They offered encouragement, provided me with personal mentorship and helped me see my strength." Professor Hess reflects that these interactions were mutually enriching: "Engaging with these students' experiences can be eye-opening for the Columbia community. I learned that it takes more than admission to enable a displaced student to succeed. The dedication of our Engineering Student Affairs staff, who went the extra mile for Amina, was crucial to her journey." Today, Amina can be proud. She completed her master’s degree in biomedical engineering at Columbia and works in a neuroscience lab at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, developing AI applications to advance the understanding of brain health.

"This scholarship did not solely provide academic resources — it has given me a new life," Amina reflects. "In Iran, I faced so many barriers because I was both a woman and a refugee. Here at Columbia, I was thrilled to be in an environment that valued freedom, growth, and defining one’s own future."

But perhaps most remarkably, Amina has become part of the solution herself. Together with others, she mentors displaced students — particularly those who might be overlooked by traditional programs. "We are trying to focus on refugees who almost never have access to educational mentorship opportunities," she explains. "We must not leave them behind."

Whether they come from Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, Venezuela, central Africa or Syria, the students and scholars who participate in our portfolio of programs need assistance with adjusting to a new learning environment as well as on cultural adaptation, mental health, and in building new social networks. As these programs evolve, this fundamental understanding drives improvements in how to support displaced talent, recognizing that their needs differ significantly from those of other international students.

Stories like Amina’s illuminate the profound ripple effects of investing in displaced persons. Through Columbia World Projects’ Impact Awards and other initiatives, Columbia Global is constantly evolving its approach to address new challenges in forced migration. Each supported individual becomes a catalyst for change, another way for Columbia Global to help people turn ideas into action. From a scholarship announcement glimpsed on a news feed to AI applications in neuroscience, from concept to reality, from thinking to doing — this is how transformation happens, one impossible dream at a time.

Other Columbia Global Programs for Displaced People

Columbia's programs for displaced talent span multiple continents and initiatives. Through our Global Centers in Amman, Nairobi, Paris, and Santiago, we provide research and professional opportunities for displaced scholars, artists, and students from around the world. The President's Global Innovation Fund supports faculty working with the Istanbul Center to develop mental health assessment tools for refugees in earthquake-affected zones in Turkey, while faculty working with the Athens Center are exploring the impact of displacement through the Healing Roots project. At the same time, the Institute for Ideas and Imagination provides crucial support to displaced artists, preserving cultural expression in times of crisis.