Tenzin was the Monitoring and Evaluation intern for the IRC in the NY Education & Learning department. In this role, Tenzin supported the Newcomer Youth Summer Academy (NYSA) program, including supporting the Program Director and Dean of Instruction and Curriculum. He assisted in reviewing program academic assessment tools, training Lead Teachers on conducting assessments, analyzing data, and disseminating pre and post-assessment for reports. 

 Tenzin was inspired to intern at the IRC in NY to gain experience working for the diverse migrants and forcibly displaced people in the United States. Throughout this internship, he has shown a deep understanding of the emotional and physical toll of migration. When he was little, his parents had to send him off to India with the hope of securing him a better future and more freedom. As a young adult, he remembered clearly the intense journey he had taken across the Himalaya when he was just seven years old. He also grew up in a Tibetan refugee boarding school in India. Tenzin struggled with being separated from his parents and dearly missed their love and connection as he had to stay apart from them. He believes that education is the only tool for the displaced people to gain control over their future.  

Based on his experience of educating in a host country's education system, he shares that "having programs like NYSA for the displaced youth and children is very important from the point of view of equity to leverage with education standard requirements of the host country."    

Throughout his experience working in refugee communities, Tenzin also emphasizes the importance of being proud of one's own language and culture while learning about the culture and adapting to the host country. He said many immigrant populations in the United States are facing identity crises lately, and consequently, many immigrant youths are discontinuing their high schools and colleges. To avoid such difficulties, he believes refugees and immigrant populations in the United States have to be given equal importance to learning and preserving their language and culture besides adapting to the host country.       

These experiences motivated Tenzin to join the Education & Learning department as an intern.   

Currently, Tenzin is studying sustainable international development at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University. He is passionate about integrating indigenous knowledge into development models of change, including education, environment, and behaviour science. These enriched values of interdependence and inclusion motivate Tenzin to help reshape development programs!    

The IRC in NY wishes Tenzin well in his next chapter!