Pamela Shindano

BY AUDREY MAYNARD

“I grew up in an environment where there was a lot of injustice,” said Pamela Shindano, a sociology and family and consumer studies major at the U. “Growing up, I suffered a lot of unfair treatment because I wasn’t well educated enough to understand my rights.”

Pamela was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and raised in South Africa before her family was granted refugee status in the United States in 2014. Now a senior, Pamela is pursuing a career in law to help advocate for people like her whose lives have been shaped by volatile, life- threatening circumstances.

According to the Refugee Services Office, Utah has experienced a 500% increase in the number of refugees who arrived between 2021 and 2022, bringing the state’s refugee population to 65,000. Whether fleeing war, violence, or persecution, each refugee’s story is unique, and their experiences are what strengthen and enrich the communities they now call home.

Layla Basic is a political science and sociology major whose parents fled Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Balkans crisis in the 1990s. Like Pamela, she is interested in the justice system and plans to attend law school after graduation.

“Being a child of immigrants led me to distrust the courts,” Layla said. “From not knowing the language, to trying to map out the process to handle your case, the courts are far from being inclusive to historically marginalized communities.”

Pamela and Layla are part of the One Refugee initiative established in 2014 by Roger (BS ’65) and Sara Boyer. The Boyers were inspired to start the One Refugee organization because they recognized that education can pave the way for refugees to succeed. In addition to offering financial support through scholarships, the One Refugee initiative provides participants with one-on-one mentoring, wellness resources, professional development opportunities, and more. Over the past decade, One Refugee has helped more than 400 students graduate from universities 2 Layla Basic and trade schools across Utah and Idaho. In 2021, Roger and Sara Boyer and their children created the One Refugee Endowed Scholarship to support refugee students at the University of Utah. Both Pamela and Layla received scholarship funding from the One Refugee Endowment.

Layla Basic

“Having a scholarship has unquestionably improved my experience at the University of Utah,” said Pamela. “The hardest aspect for every college student is figuring out how to pursue their education while also trying to pay for it. Having a scholarship eases my concerns, allowing me to concentrate more on my education and less on my financial instability.”

For Layla, the financial support she has received through One Refugee has eased the cost of tuition, allowing her to build her graduate résumé and gain experience in professional settings. This past summer, she moved to Washington, DC, to serve as a congressional intern in the Office of Representative John Curtis–an opportunity made possible by the university’s Hinckley Institute of Politics. She credits her scholarship as the reason why this opportunity was possible in the first place.

“As a first-generation student, I have had to work 40 hours per week to support myself and my family,” she said. “Having a scholarship has given me the opportunity to be a student. Without it, I may not have been able to pursue my education.”

Although they’re from vastly different backgrounds, both Layla and Pamela share a common desire to honor the sacrifices made for them by serving others. “My parents moved to the United States to ensure that I have a stable life and access to quality education,” Layla said. “My greatest responsibility is to fulfill that goal and invest myself in an education that will give me a pathway to further my goal of assisting future students in similar circumstances to mine.”

For Pamela, higher education is helping her develop into the person she wants to become by giving her the tools to employ what she has learned.

“Education gives me access to new possibilities and opens doors in my life,” she said. “I hate seeing people treated unfairly in this society. I want to impact change in my neighborhood; ideally, others will learn from my example and spread it to others. That is the change I want to bring about in the world.” ❤️