Keynote Speaker: Mary Maker
The Presentation
Mary understands viscerally what it means to be one of the 120 million displaced people in today’s world — to see education as both a lifeline and a seemingly impossible dream. She also knows how education can turn tears of loss into a passion for peace.
Mary invites listeners to see displacement — whether from war, natural disaster, or personal circumstance — as a universal human experience that demands not just empathy, but action.
Mary exorts her listeners to contribute to the ripples made by education that will one day become waves of change.
Mary Maker is a South Sudanese refugee, educator, and activist for refugee education, currently working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). After fleeing her war-torn country as a child, Mary found hope and security through education at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. She has since become a dedicated teacher to young refugees in her community, believing that education is a critical tool for rebuilding lives and empowering a generation often denied access to the classroom. In addition to her work in education, Mary is an actor, fashion lover, and writer, sharing her story on global platforms such as TEDx and United Nations summits to advocate for resilience, peace-building, and inclusion in education. Read More
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, works in 136 countries to provide life-saving assistance, including shelter, food, water and medical care for people forced to flee conflict and persecution. The agencty is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
As a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, Mary Maker plays a key role in supporting campaign moments, advocacy initiatives, and fundraising efforts. Read more.
Virginia Tech has been deeply engaged in refugee and migrant education and support and displacement research for many years. Coalescing several departments’ disparate work in this field, Virginia Tech established the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies (CRMDS) in 2020. The center became a place for faculty and students across departments and colleges to collaborate on related research and directly support identified needs. The center - created by professors Katrina Powell, Brett Shadle, and Rebecca Hester - works to better understand displacement on global and local scales through humanistic and interdisciplinary research.
In 2021, Deirdre Hand, who is presently CRMDS' Community Engagement Specialist, along with three of her former students founded Elimisha Kakuma, a college preparatory educational program for high school graduates in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. The Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies and the Cranwell Foundation quickly became key supporters of Elimisha Kakuma.
Above and beyond the university’s official engagement in these ways, many faculty and students embody Ut Prosim by individually volunteering their time and sharing resources to help displaced and migrant people. Several Hokies are involved with organizations like the VT-YMCA Welcome Center and the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership – local nonprofits working to help refugee families relocate and acclimate to the area. With so many Hokie hands helping out, collaborations between the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership and the university’s Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies are common.
This year, the center, the Language and Culture Institute, the Cranwell Foundation, and Elimisha Kakuma – along with several more active partners – were all instrumental in helping two South Sudanese students from Kakuma Refugee Camp enroll at Virginia Tech. Read more about the students’ story here.
