Business professor receives Kellogg grant to help improve lives of Afghan refugees

What started as a project between an NMSU professor and her daughter has now grown into a multidisciplinary endeavor backed by a $150,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to improve the lives of Afghan refugees in southern New Mexico through education and job training.

Rajaa Shindi ’06 ’14, assistant professor in the NMSU College of Business, received the one-year grant in June 2022 to improve refugees’ educational outcomes and economic security by deploying family stabilization and integration strategies in coordination with community partners.

The grant allows Shindi to build on a project she started in 2021 with her daughter, Hiba Muhyi ’22, following the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Shindi is using the grant to fund free classes for Afghan refugees at the Southern New Mexico Islamic Center that teach English and computer literacy, and prepare them for the job market. After completing the classes, participants will qualify to receive free training to obtain a commercial driver’s license.

“One of our main goals is to serve women and children,” Shindi says.

Shindi has partnered with Angela Owens, college assistant professor in the NMSU College of Health, Education and Social Transformation and director of the Glass Family Research Institute for Early Childhood Studies, to provide free child care during the classes. The grant has enabled the pair to hire five NMSU students to support the project.

“As part of this project, we will conduct a small research study to identify the refugees’ perceptions of well-being and how services support them and are delivered,” Shindi says.