‘We Can Eat, We Can Live’: How Refugees Are Finding Home on an American Campus

Dozens of refugees have found shelter through Guilford College (NC) since 2015, when the liberal-arts college started Every Campus a Refuge. Founded by Diya Abdo, an associate professor of English, the program works with the city of Greensboro to provide newly arrived immigrants with places to live as they begin their assimilation into the American way of life. Diya, as everyone calls her, has also started a refugee-studies minor for Guilford students. The refuge idea has spread to six other colleges across the United States. Here is the story of one family’s experience at Guilford, and the students and alumni who helped them along the way.