Luma Mufleh
Founder of Fugees Family, Inc.
Jose Antonio Vargas
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Tony-nominated producer, and author of the bestseller Dear America.
Learning America: One Woman’s Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children
BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of Learning America from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Mufleh that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.
Luma Mufleh, founder of Fugees Family, Inc., tells her powerful personal story in Learning America: One Woman’s Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children, offering a blueprint for change that will inspire schools and communities across America. The daughter and granddaughter of Syrian refugees, Mufleh grew up in Amman, Jordan, where she was one of the only Arab students in her class at an American school, and one of the only girls who played on her soccer team. As a young adult in a country where being gay was considered a crime, she came out to her parents and was disowned.
Fugees Family is the only network of schools in the U.S. dedicated to refugee and immigrant education. Its education model meets the unique needs of English language learners and young people who have experienced traumatic events and displacement from their home countries. Fugees schools accept only those most in need; no student passes a grade without earning it; the failure of any student is the responsibility of all. Soccer as a part of every school day is a powerful catalyst to heal trauma, create belonging, and accelerate learning. In March 2022, billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $10 million to Fugees Family to expand its school model over the next 5 years.
In 2019, Mufleh was named an Emerson Collective Dial Fellow and a Manhattan Institute Civil Society Fellow. Her 2017 TED Talk, “Don’t feel sorry for refugees – believe in them,” has been viewed more than 1.8 million times.
Mufleh will be in conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated producer. A leading voice for the human rights of immigrants, Vargas founded the non-profit media advocacy organization Define American, named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. He is the author of the bestselling 2018 memoir Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.
Event Sponsors
- Baker Demonstration School
- Bennett Day School
- Catherine Cook School
- Christ Church Winnetka
- Compass Health Center
- Countryside Day School
- Evanston Scholars
- Evanston Township High School D202
- Family Service of Glencoe
- Foundation 65
- Francis W. Parker School
- Fusion Academy
- Glencoe D35
- Hyde Park Day School
- Kenilworth D38
- Lake Bluff D65
- Lake Forest Academy
- Lake Michigan Association of Independent Schools
- Loyola Academy
- New Trier High School D203
- New Trier Parents’ Association
- North Shore Country Day
- Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy
- Pope John XXIII School
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Roycemore School
- Sacred Heart Schools
- Science & Arts Academy
- Stevenson High School D125
- The Alliance for Early Childhood
- The Avery Coonley School
- Winnetka D36
- Wolcott College Prep
- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
- Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)
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