Ready for American Hospitality, or RAH, is a collaborative training program between the African Community Center and the University of Denver, serving refugee students from the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management who are taking the Human Capital Management course.
RAH operates three cohorts per year and graduates between ten to eighteen students per cohort. Students come from all parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ukraine, Congo and Eritrea.
The African Community Center, a refugee resettlement agency, wanted to facilitate a food training program for refugees but needed the space and resources to make this wish a reality. The idea was pitched to DU in 2012.
“They loved the idea so much that they not only donated a space for the program to be facilitated, but they also wanted to incorporate it into the school,” explained Jessi Kalambayi, graduate student and program manager for RAH.
Cheri Young, an associate professor at Knoebel and the instructor for the Human Capital Management class (required for the hospitality major) has built a mentor and protégé partnership between the students in her class and the RAH students, most of whom come through the African Community Center.
The role of the students taking Dr. Young’s class is to mentor and support the RAH students’ journey to get ready for the United States workforce. They do this by demonstrating what the hiring process looks like. They also train and work together to prepare for a banquet dinner held every quarter.
“It really is to create some sort of simulation of what the real world looks like, which is operated working with a vulnerable population that has very unique circumstances. They have to learn how to create an equitable working environment,” said Kalambayi.
The students are able to learn cultural competency, empathy and how to meet someone halfway.
An impactful experience for both the Knoebel and refugee students is being able to work with someone who may not have strong English skills, yet is able to train and work alongside them to meet the common goal of putting on the quarterly dinners.
The role of the RAH program is to connect the refugee students with employers who are connected through Knoebel. Employers will come on campus and do interviews with the hope of placing RAH students in hospitality jobs. The program has given refugee students resources and information that are necessary to succeed in the workforce. Approximately 83% of students are graduating with a job.
“They’re able to go on and succeed within whatever roles they are, but we are really starting that journey to their first job,” Kalambayi said.
Like other minority groups, refugee students are also being affected by the changes happening under President Trump’s administration.
“Refugee admissions have stopped completely. They [the Trump administration] are not taking refugees into the country,” Kalambayi stated.
RAH is affected as they cannot admit any new refugees to support in their program; however, they are putting all their energy and focus on the students they currently have. There is hope that the United States Refugee Program will restart, as there are a lot of people who need to be reunited or given a chance to rebuild their lives. There is currently a lawsuit being filed to block the suspension of the program.
“It’s really the work that we’re doing that is not just impactful for the school but for the refugee population, and I’m hoping that’s something we can continue to highlight,” Kalambayi expressed.
