As a teacher when you daydream about K-12 students liking your class, wanting to learn from you and being grateful that you exist in their lives as a support to fun, educational activities, I would hope you include the International Rescue Committee Youth Services organization as a part of that summer dream that became very real for me. The IRC Youth Services exists in Boise as a part of our community’s IRC and “offers comprehensive, diverse programming for refugee youth… The goal is to provide the educational and developmental opportunities that build the essential academic, personal and social skills that kids need to succeed.”

Beyond creating and teaching lessons to help K-12 refugees learn English and other school readiness skills, I was introduced to the amazing world of community volunteers and organizations that work with the wonderfully dedicated IRC Youth Services employees to help refugees on a regular basis. For me, this included but was not limited to the Boise Law Enforcement Building Bridges event, Boise Bike Project, The Commons climbing gym experience, the YMCA multi-opportunity scheduling, Boise Library in the park program, Lee Pesky Center early childhood parent/child education and the amazing Idaho Botanical Gardens youth programs. During many of the activities to include onboarding and learning about the IRC as a non-profit organization in general, it was very heartwarming to see such a diverse population of Ada county adults who donate their time and skills to help refugees in our community.

When you think of STEAM careers and how we educators can help promote them, I would point out that observing a selfless Boise school district employee come in to meet with an IRC worker during her vacation to help get the refugee students enrolled in schools is the beginning of those potential STEAM careers and vitally important to the success of students attending schools. One cannot walk away from this experience without being touched, because it becomes obvious that a teacher should always pause and re-evaluate students’ backgrounds to make sure their basic needs are being met; only then can we fully comprehend how grateful we teachers should be to the IRC for having these students who definitely want to learn and definitely are happy to be in Boise, Idaho, potentially in our classes.

In the future, I genuinely hope that other seasoned teachers like myself receive the blessing of working with refugee students and the energetic IRC Youth Services program employees in the summer. It is not to be understated how important it is to have such a positive experience late in your career. The Micron Externship, thus, impacts a teacher’s regular classroom positively as we can go back with more “steam” and inspiration to teach “STEAM.” Thank you!