School Assembly
Invited two Bhutanese refugees to speak to Walnut Hills students in order to raise awareness.
Household Staples Donation Drive
Collected personal items such as toiletries and towels which we donated to 266 refugee families in Cincinnati.
Public Screening of "The Good Lie"
Teemed up with Refugee Connect to raise awareness about the refugee crisis at a public screening of “The Good Lie”. This event doubled as a fundraiser for a refugee scholarship.
Weekly Volunteering
After school, students volunteered at a local elementary school to help refugee students with academics, athletics, art, and technology.
On October 18th at 7:30 pm in the Walnut Hills Library, a concert fundraiser featuring Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Timothy Lees, Acting Association Concertmaster Kathryn Woolley, Principal Viola Christian Colberg, Principal Cello Ilya Finkelshteyn and Principal Flute Randolph Bowman was held. The German Consul General stationed in Chicago was in attendance.
What is STAR?
Recent Projects
STAR, Students Together Assisting Refugees, is an organization through which high school students help refugees. We work to make sure that refugees have happy, successful lives in their newly adopted homelands. Together, we:
1. Better the lives of refugees
2. Increase awareness about refugees
We are a budding and flowering organization. Just in 2015, STAR was founded at Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati Ohio. We have since grown greatly in Cincinnati and are spreading to other high schools across the nation.
Bettering the lives of refugees
The needs of refugees are vast and many. The issues refugees face do not end upon resettlement. Finding jobs, learning English, getting acquainted with their new homes, and finding a friend to lean on are all challenges that resettled refugees face. We at STAR work to help refugees through these challenges as best as we can through two different paths:
1. organizing our own events
2. volunteering at local events
By following these two paths, we can both harness our ingenuity in the creation of new projects and apply ourselves to established projects.
Increase awareness about refugees
At STAR we believe that understanding and awareness about refugees is paramount to success in helping refugees. We organize talks, movie showings, and many other educational events at schools and in the community, so that our communities are more educated about refugees and the challenges they face. By educating our communities, a more open mindset towards refugees can be fostered.