Saint Louis University Honored for Work in Jesuit Refugee Education

SLU Receives the 2025 Senator Simon Spotlight Award for Campus Internationalization

ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis University has been awarded a 2025 Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for Campus Internationalization by NAFSA: Association of International Education. Named after the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois, the annual NAFSA Simon Awards celebrate outstanding commitment and accomplishment in campus internationalization.

SLU was one of three Spotlight Award winners. The award recognized SLU’s Partnership for a Higher Purpose initiative, which encompasses the SLU-Jesuit Worldwide Learning program offering bachelor's degrees to international students displaced by conflict, lack of opportunity, and poverty in refugee camps in Kenya and Malawi.

“The program is a true expression of Jesuit values,” said SLU President Fred P. Pestello, Ph.D. “Saint Louis University is proud to be a part of this initiative, which exemplifies what becomes possible when mission-focused organizations from around the globe join together around a shared purpose.” 

The program works with Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL), a Jesuit-sponsored international higher education program founded in 2010 and designed to serve students at the margins. Pestello serves as a member of JWL’s Global Advisory Board. 

Jesuit Worldwide Learning students are typically in war zones, refugee camps, and impoverished countries. JWL operates in more than 50 learning centers in 20 countries across Asia, Africa and South America. 

JWL students will graduate with a B.A. in General Studies through SLU’s School for Professional Studies. The School for Professional Studies (SPS) offers globally accessible academic, professional and continuing education programs for students in keeping with the University’s Jesuit tradition of excellence. The JWL program offers a bachelor’s degree free of charge to interested refugees in the camps who meet eligibility requirements. The first cohort of SLU students began classes in 2024.

Jesuit Worldwide Learning classes are offered through a community-based cohort. JWL provides students with computers, internet service, and on-site support. A JWL learning facilitator meets with students once or twice weekly during the term to provide administrative and academic support. A learning coordinator is also on-site. Saint Louis University offers student support services, faculty and course materials. 

SLU-JWL cohorts are comprised of small groups of students. Currently, there are 32 students across refugee camps in Kenya and Malawi. Two students in Nigeria will join the next cohort in March.

“The beauty of the cohorts is their ability to serve as inspiration for one another. They root for one another,” said program coordinator Eboni Chism. “They value education. They are taking advantage of every opportunity to learn and advocate for themselves and others.”

Students take online courses in eight-week terms instead of a traditional 16-week semester. The classes are delivered asynchronously via Canvas and students regularly communicate with program coordinators in St. Louis.

The students begin their time at SLU with 30 credits already completed through either Creighton University or Xavier Institute of Management in India’s one-year certificate program. Once enrolled, they are full-time remote students with access to all forms of SLU support, including identification cards and online library resources.

“They are so excited to receive their SLU ID cards,” said program director Patricia Bass, Ph.D. “They are Billikens, and they are proud to be Billikens.” 

Students expect to complete their degrees within three years. The first cohort is on track to graduate in summer 2027.

About NAFSA

Serving more than 10,000 members and international educators worldwide, NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the largest nonprofit association dedicated to international education and exchange. Visit us at www.nafsa.org/press. To learn more about our advocacy efforts on behalf of international education, visit www.nafsa.org/takeaction. Resources to guide our members on these issues can be found at www.nafsa.org/reginfo.

Institutions selected for the Simon Awards will be featured in NAFSA's annual report, Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities, to be published this fall and honored during NAFSA’s 2025 Annual Conference & Expo this spring.

About Jesuit Worldwide Learning

JWL provides equitable high-quality tertiary learning to people and communities at the margins of societies – be it through poverty, location, lack of opportunity, conflict or forced displacement – so all can contribute their knowledge and voices to a global community of learners and together foster hope to create a more peaceful and humane world.

About Saint Louis University

Founded in 1818, Saint Louis University is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic institutions. Rooted in Jesuit values and its pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers more than 15,200 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. At the core of the University’s diverse community of scholars is SLU’s service-focused mission, which challenges and prepares students to make the world a better, more just place.