From Deseret News archives:
'Lost Boys' celebrate success
The Salt Lake area has the largest population of Lost Boys enrolled in higher education in the United States, says Abraham Gai, president of the Sudanese Student Association of Salt Lake Community College. Currently there are about 90 Lost Boys, and a few Lost Girls, attending local colleges and universities, he says.
The association is presenting "Lost Boys Overcoming Trauma: Reflections on and Celebration of Success in the USA" this evening at the Salt Lake Community College Student Event Center, 4600 S. Redwood Road.
It's success tempered by an ongoing struggle, say the speakers slated to take part in the event.
The Lost Boys are "very, very resilient," says Amadou Niang, a University of Utah Ph.D. candidate from Mali who is researching the integration of Sudanese refugees into Salt Lake society. "A lot of them are making it. But that should not overshadow the fact that many are also struggling," says Niang.
Successful integration is most difficult at the high school level, he says, where Sudanese students and black African students in general are the object of curiosity at first but then are often ignored.
"By the same token they are not accepted by the African-Americans at the high school level particularly. The only ones they can identify with are the African-Americans, but there is a sense of being rejected, a sense of unwelcoming."
African students generally live in apartment complexes inhabited mostly by minorities, he adds, so "the chance for them to be in an environment that is white is not very high." The result is a feeling of isolation, he says.
On the other hand, because most of the Sudanese are Christian, "it makes the transition easier" than for groups like Somali refugees, who are largely Muslim, Niang says. "The ones who go to the LDS Church or the Catholic Church have a better chance of developing a social network."
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