EVSC students participate in refugee camp simulation
Originally published October 2019
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Area students were given a chance to get a small dose of what it might feel like to be a refugee during a simulation experience Wednesday.
With funding from the Public Education Foundation (PEF), Harrison High School hosted "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" refugee camp simulation experience for Evansville Vanderburgh County School Corp. students early Wednesday.
Nearly 500 students across EVSC took part in the two-hour refugee camp simulation on Harrison's Romain Stadium field. It was created to increase students' cultural awareness and empathy toward international students.
During the simulation, students were divided into small family groups and given new cultural identities. Each group went through the simulation and encountered experiences many face while attempting to resettle in other countries.
Several volunteers, including students from the University of Evansville and Vincennes University, were placed in different stations across the field to help facilitate the simulation experience.
"Students come to a border, have to do registration, have to go to an immigration judge," Harrison teacher Janelle Nisly said. "They might be put in jail, get a medical examination and get water and food. There are a lot of pieces to it."
Nisly, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, wrote the $2,500 grant for the program's development. With her experience working with international students, a program aimed at informing students on the process of immigration was needed, she said.
In the fall of 2018, Nisly met with other EVSC educators to discuss a program that could increase awareness and empathy for international students. She went online and discovered an organization in Louisville that started the refugee camp simulation — Global Human Project.
The project is a social change organization that hosts the "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" program across the region. After attending a simulation, Nisly decided to help bring it to Evansville.
"This was not a solo thing here at all," Nisly said, talking about the efforts on behalf of others at her school and PEF and other organizations. "I think it reflects the people that sat down and said, 'Hey, we think this is neat and would love to see this come to Evansville.' I just happen to be the one that wrote the grant."
With Harrison's diverse student population, Nisley said the school was the most ideal place to have the program.
"Harrison is the right place for this," she said. "They were so supportive, and we have a huge international population here. It has the highest ESL population (in EVSC), so they've been wonderfully supportive."
Among the nearly 500 students who participated at the simulation, 350 were freshmen from Harrison and the rest were students from Bosse High School, Ivy Tech Community College Evansville and Evansville Christian School.
Senior nursing students from UE played the role of medical providers at the program's medical station.
Dr. Angie Wooton, a nursing professor at UE, said her students' participation in the event also helped them learn about culture and increase their empathy for potential international patients in the future.
Students from Vincennes University also helped participants learn five words from either Spanish, Chinese or Korean languages as part of the simulation.
Evan Doan, a sophomore at Harrison High School, said he felt the program was helpful in understanding the immigration process many of his peers at Harrison had to go through.
"I think it's really important because I never really realized what an immigrant has to go through," he said. "I heard immigrant stories before, but I didn't know how drawn out it was and all the requirements you have to check.
"It's important to see what a lot of these ESL kids had to go through just to get where they are. What we have is special, and it's not something everybody gets."
The program's reception was largely positive, Nisley said, with many of her students saying they enjoyed taking part in the simulation. She is eager to see how she and other Harrison faculty can help the program grow.
"The hope is to make it an annual event," she said. "It's also our hope that other schools or other community organizations will become hosts as well."
Wooton said Bosse teachers were already talking about how they could set up a similar program there in the near future.