LEXINGTON, Ky. — College students across the Commonwealth are graduating and are preparing for true adulthood. Some students in Lexington take the skills they learn in Kentucky back home or are here for a new life.
On a weekend when many were celebrating the Kentucky Oaks and Derby, 14 international students at Bluegrass Community and Technical College celebrated the completion of the Community College Initiative Program in the school’s Global Learning Department.
“It’s a partnership with the State Department that sends 14 J-1 scholars for one year of study to earn short-term credentials in that year to then take back to their home countries and pass along that knowledge and be better prepared for a job in the global market,” said Karissa Porter.
Porter, director of the Refugee Career Pathway program, says the Global Learning Department serves refugees, immigrants and international students.
“Lexington is one of the highest populations of refugees in the area and in the U.S. as far as from Congo. We have a huge population of individuals and families who arrive as refugees from Congo,” Porter said.
The students celebrating Friday were not refugees, but Porter works closely with that program, in its first year as well. The college is also expanding its services for refugees to include vocational training.
“We have welding assistant, electrician assistant, nurse aid, fashion production and A+ computer programming, so five programs that are usually able to be accomplished within a semester,” Porter said.
Porter says the current refugee program prepares students with existing skills to gain certification in the U.S. She says working with international students new to America is rewarding.
“There’s nothing better, I am just so proud of the work I get to do because I get to daily engage with individuals who have shown such resilience but then are also just so excited for the next thing,” Porter said.
Eligible students for the Refugee Vocational Training program include refugees, asylees, Cuban/Haitian entrants, Afghan/Ukrainian Humanitarian paroles and victims of human trafficking.