'It changed my life': How an Ontario university tuition levy helps students affected by war become grads
CBC
Alik Sarian uprooted her life twice for her university education.
On Tuesday, she will be one of hundreds of students receiving a bachelor of science degree at Wilfrid Laurier University during convocation ceremonies, and says she has her classmates to thank.
Sarian is originally from Aleppo, Syria. In 2016, she moved with her family to Lebanon because of conflict, and attended Haigazian University in Beirut with a scholarship to study biology.
In 2019, a friend told her about a program at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., called International Students Overcoming War (ISOW), which brings students to Canada from areas affected by war so they can study safely.
Sarian applied and was accepted. She moved again, this time to Canada.
"We had already uprooted our family once and we had to re-establish all the social ties and that work, get to know people, essentially build our lives from scratch," Sarian said.
"Having to do that the second time was a bit harder considering that Canada is a culturally different country than moving between Syria and Lebanon."
But the people involved in the ISOW program helped make the transition to Waterloo easy, she said.
"Everyone was so nice, so welcoming. It was amazing how everyone was willing to go the extra mile, take the extra step."
Sarian learned how to navigate the banking system — "we did not have any credit cards in Syria" — and she fell in love with the natural environment.
"I came in the end of summer, the beginning of fall. So just the beautiful fall colours, the trees, the leaves that were just breathtaking," she said.
The program was started in 2014 by students at Laurier. Each student, through their tuition fees, contributes $8 to the scholarship levy, and the group uses that money for scholarships for those in need.
Over the years, it has brought 23 students to the school from conflict zones such as Gaza, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Myanmar.
Ritu Singh, president of the program, said all students benefit from it.
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
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