{"id":242951,"date":"2026-07-14T09:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242951\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T09:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:01:19","slug":"pryse-camp-counselors-share-insight-into-working-with-local-refugee-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242951\/","title":{"rendered":"PRYSE camp counselors share insight into working with local refugee youth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As part of a recent article about funding cuts impacting the PRYSE summer program run by the local nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arysepgh.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">ARYSE<\/a>, Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source interviewed three of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arysepgh.org\/programs#pryseacademy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">PRYSE<\/a>\u2018s summer camp counselors. (Public Source is identifying refugees by first name only due to privacy and safety concerns.)<\/p>\n<p>Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kidsburgh.org\/pittsburghs-pryse-refugee-youth-camp-works-to-weather-federal-funding-cuts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">full article about PRYSE<\/a> here and read below to hear what these camp counselors shared:<\/p>\n<p>ESTHER: Esther, 16, is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and has been involved with ARYSE since she moved to the U.S. in 2022. When she attended camp for the first time, she thought to herself, \u201cWhy is this going so fast? I just want to stay there all day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The youngest of nine, Esther likes being a leader and says she\u2019s good at giving advice, which is why she\u2019s excited to be a junior counselor this summer. She says the experience at PRYSE Academy is so enjoyable because, \u201ceven though people are coming from different cultures, at this summer camp \u2026 they\u2019re all loving each other [and] choosing each other equally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>REOL: Reol, 20, is from the Central African Republic and moved to the U.S. in 2023. He credits ARYSE with helping him improve his English and lessen his fear of expressing himself.<\/p>\n<p>He found it helpful to be in the company of people in the same position, and who wouldn\u2019t judge him if he made a mistake while speaking. He said he hopes to \u201clead by example\u201d this summer, showing that a language barrier is \u201cnot a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can be able to do anything you desire by speaking multiple languages,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s getting ready to attend Pitt in the fall and study cybersecurity, but his real career goal? Continuing to work at the nonprofit.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>FAHIMA: Fahima, 19, is from Afghanistan and moved to the U.S. in 2022. She says many of her friendships originated from her time with ARYSE.<\/p>\n<p>Like others Public Source spoke to, she experienced a surge in confidence after attending the organization\u2019s English language development lessons and activities that facilitated strong bonds between participants.<\/p>\n<p>Fahima will be working as a junior counselor this summer, explaining that she was largely motivated to return because she likes teaching, but also joked with the reporter about her other reasons: \u201cWell, we all know one of them is money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of a recent article about funding cuts impacting the PRYSE summer program run by the local&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[71873,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-242951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-aryse","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}