Lost at a crossroad: the impact of genocide and international politics on Palestinian students’ college applications abroad

• In Event: Education and Palestine: Defying Imposed Boundaries, Resisting Erasure, & Charting Educational Praxis Across Spaces

Proposal

Two college counselors reflect on their experiences working with Palestinian students from different socio-economic backgrounds and the ways in which the current genocide unfolding in Palestine has had a significant toll on them. The impact goes beyond the psychological, but it also manifests in aspects of students’ life experiences, including their identity and agency. To protect these students, we have changed their names and other identifying information, but these stories otherwise highlight their real-life experience. Based on narratives extracted from their first-hand accounts and discussions, the authors highlight how western governments’ stances on the current genocide has left students at a crossroads - exiled from educational opportunities abroad similarly to how they are facing exile from their indigenous homeland. Students find themselves negotiating various tensions in decision-making related to their post-secondary education (i.e., college or university) planning, questioning western values that have been so embedded in existing hierarchies and power dynamics. These students have questioned whether masking their identities as Palestinians in their college essays will minimize their chances of acceptance in universities outside the region, opening up to full vulnerability only to be denied trust and acceptance by western institutions, and otherwise have faced a variety of obstacles that in essence have required they critique their own existence. This article will showcase first-hand accounts and experiences of four students in their junior and senior years in Palestinian, mostly public high schools and the impact this genocide has had on their decisions during their college application process. The authors have anonymized the students’ identities by using different names and gender but will speak on the locations of each student to allow further contextualization. The four students cover different geographical locations in Palestine: Gaza, West Bank, and Jerusalem, and all of their stories are impacted by the ongoing genocide regarding their future decisions of where to study, international safety, exposing about their background and identity, etc. Ultimately, this article seeks to uplift the resiliency of Palestinian youth as they aspire to achieve their dreams amidst genocide and oppression.

Authors

• Chris Akel, Pathways

• Niveen Latif