User:PaperAirplanes/sandbox

Paper Airplanes is a start-up nonprofit using Skype to provide free, one-on-one language and skills instruction to people affected by conflict so they can pursue education, secure employment, and ultimately, rebuild their lives.

In the summer 2013, our founder Bailey Ulbricht spent two months volunteering in Reyhanli, a small town on the Turkish-Syrian border, where she met dozens of young college-aged Syrian students desperate to complete their university degrees. After she returned to the United States, she began Skyping a few of them to help them practice English.

Soon, young Syrian refugees she did not personally know were reaching out to her, requesting English lessons. She realized she could ask some of her friends to help, and in June 2014, she ran the first Paper Airplanes English program with 10 tutors from her alma mater, Carleton College, and Syrian students she knew. Throughout the rest of her time at Carleton she grew the program, recruiting tutors among the student body and neighboring colleges, seeking advice from professors, and advertising to Syrians through her Syrian friends and social media.

In December 2016, the program received official nonprofit status in the United States, and in January 2017, the team expanded to include 25 staff members, 5 of whom were former students eager to join the group.

We believe strongly in the power of the Internet to transform educational access for those who need it most. We focus on the skills learners need to access future training, employment and higher education opportunities in their country of residence or abroad. Through live and personalized instruction, we further hope to break down politicized cultural barriers and encourage cross-cultural understanding. For now, we are focusing on the MENA region, and particularly those who are affected by the Syrian conflict.