Assist international students in times of crisis

Make a donation to IIE's Emergency Student Fund

A tsunami in Japan. An earthquake in Nepal. Ongoing conflict in Syria and Yemen. When emergencies strike, victims feel it in all parts of their lives, including education. Yet very few organizations offer crisis-related education support to high achieving students whose educations suddenly are thrown into jeopardy.

We Helped Sinan Finish School in Safety, and it Changed His Life

Syrian undergraduate Sinan Zeino was just six credits away from completing his degree in English Literature when his commute to school turned deadly. After the bus in front of him exploded, he faced a terrible choice: risk his life to graduate, or come up six credits short. Sinan chose to protect his safety and delay his education.

Sinan focused on finding a scholarship to study elsewhere. Within six months, he received an offer to attend college in the United States at Salve Regina University, in Newport, R.I., which is a member of the IIE Syria Consortium of universities providing scholarships for Syrian students. But even with his tuition fully covered, the $600 that Sinan and his family had saved wasn’t enough to pay his room, board, and other critical expenses.

IIE created the Emergency Student Fund (ESF) for situations like this. Sinan and hundreds of other students receive scholarship funding from ESF to cover critical expenses beyond tuition such as housing, food, and healthcare. For Sinan, whose family was unable to provide any financial safety net, ESF was vital.