A Student Empowerment Program to Support the Holistic Development of Community College Female Afghan Refugee Students

Amid record global displacement and increasingly politicized migration discourses Afghan refugee women entering U.S. community colleges often navigate multiple challenges that extend beyond language adjustment and academic integration, including legal-status complexity, compressed resettlement timelines, and caregiving responsibilities. Although refugee learners experience complex life situations, they are frequently misrecognized within institutional systems, limiting access to culturally responsive support. Using critical participatory action research (CPAR), this study examines the implementation of a five-module support program to foster psychological empowerment and a sense of belonging among 10 Afghan female community college students. Students engaged in critical self-reflection, storytelling, co-teaching, narrative therapy, and artistic expression. Developmental outcomes derived from engagement in the program included greater self-confidence, emotional awareness, community building, and sense of belonging. The group environment allowed for participants’ expression of their vulnerability, relational development, and the construction of a creative and action-oriented self. These students’ experience reaffirms the need to create culturally responsive programming that protects their psychological wellbeing and fosters a sense of community among minoritized populations in the community college context. Findings from this study encourage community college leaders to embrace three high leverage practices: a) understanding that equity requires psychosocial support, not only formal access to programs and resources, b) engaging in experiences of co-creation with students is a way to practice equity, c) fostering retention and sense of belonging through contextualized culturally sustaining practices.