Monday, March 14, 2022
Roe wins national championship in 3,000 Meters
Abby Smith
lot about how to approach it and I think she executed the plan we came up with really well. We talked about getting to the front with 1,000 Meters to go and then never giving up and she certainly did that.” Roe is OSU’s first NCAA indiSam Hutchens vidual title winner since Kaela Edwards Assistant Sports Editor won the mile in 2016. Roe is the fifth Cowgirl to win an NCAA individual Taylor Roe has accomplished title. another goal. Roe’s win caps off her stellar “I’ve not won a national title,” Roe season where she won a Big 12 chamsaid Tuesday. “That’s definitely a goal of pionship in the DMR, Mile and 3,000 mine.” Meters. Roe, a junior Oklahoma State In her national championship race, distance runner, changed that on Satur- Roe got the lead with just under three day. She won her first NCAA title in the laps remaining and held off NC State women’s indoor 3,000 Meters. runner Katelyn Tuohy down the stretch. Dave Smith, the OSU Director of “I just go with whatever feels Track & Field and Cross Country, was right,” Roe said. “I know Dave (Smith) with Roe and eight other OSU athletes has trust in me and I trust myself that in Birmingham, Alabama, for the Indoor my intuition is going to be the best for National Championships. me.” “I thought (Roe) ran incredibly a poised, patient, strategically almost perfect race,” Smith said. “We talked a sports.ed@ocolly.com
Afghan refugees find home in Stillwater Taylor Roe won her first national title in the women’s indoor 3,000 Meters.
New Mexico and finally to
Kendall Suess Stillwater. Ghazniwal said O’Colly contributor the process for some fami-
As they left Afghanistan, their lives were forever changed. Tayyab Ghazniwal is a refugee who fled Afghanistan and lives in Stillwater. Ghazniwal attended a school where he learned English before the Taliban regained control. “In Afghanistan, I was a part of The International School of Kabul and the school was funded by USAID, so the staff was predominantly foreigners,” Ghazniwal said. “I was a part of that institution for seven years, but eventually the school shut down because of threats from terrorists. I continued my education through the online medium. I funded it personally through being a teacher in Afghanistan.” The U.S. had been involved in its longest war until last year in Afghanistan. During that time, the U.S. attempted to help Afghan citizens fight the Taliban. The Taliban and the U.S. government agreed to a withdrawal deadline for U.S. troops by May 1. In April, President Joe Biden announced he would order all troops to be home before the anniversary of 9/11. As the U.S. evacuated several thousand Afghan refugees in July, Stillwater became a place of relocation. The evacuation process from Afghanistan to the U.S. was not easy. In about three months, Ghazniwal traveled from Afghanistan to Qatar, Germany, Washington, D.C.,
lies to get to the U.S.can take six months. “Unfortunately, none of these locations were properly prepared for us to come,” Ghazniwal said. “In Germany, we struggled with food and people lost a lot of weight. It was horrible. In Qatar, the food was fine, but there was no housing, so people struggled with that. It was a difficult journey. The refugee camp I was in was in the middle of a desert.” Ghazniwal arrived in Stillwater on Jan. 8 and lives in Oklahoma State student housing. Ghazniwal said the cultural and linguistic differences have made it difficultfor the refugees to adjust. “In the first couple of weeks some of the families struggled because there were less Afghan families here,” Ghazniwal said. “(The families) don’t speak the language of America, so they still do struggle with barriers, but it will improve over time.” To help begin to bridge this gap, Oklahoma State’s English Language and Intercultural Center created the Conversation Partners program under the OSU CARES grant. The program stands for Compassionate Afghan Resettlement and English Services. CARES conducts language assessments and figures out employability for the refugees. Assistant Director Shahrzad Mehrzad develops, selects and teaches the instructional materials for the 32 Afghan students enrolled in the CARES
Oklahoma State officials and faculty met to discuss topics including the resettlement of Afghan refugees in Stillwater.
program. Newcomers are continuing to be enrolled in the program every few weeks. “We offer two English as a Second Language (ESL) classes titled, ‘English for Cultural Integration’ and ‘English for Occupational Purposes’ for students,” Mehrzad said. “The former is designed for beginner students, and the latter is for more intermediate and advanced levels. Each class meets three days a week from 9-10:45 a.m.” After the refugees ESL classes, the refugees have Conversation Partners, where volunteers and students are paired. The volunteers range from OSU students to residents. Mehrzad said the topics include how to ride a bus in Stillwater, getting ready for taking a driving test and lessons in American currency are based on the
individual students’ needs. The classes and conversation partners are the primary instructional purposes in the CARES program. Mehrzad said the beginner classes are helpful for these newcomers who have little knowledge of English and need to be able to be a part of the Stillwater community. “The class for beginners prepares the learners for the important daily interactions and helps them navigate daily life in the U.S. culture,” Mehrzad said. “The ‘English for Occupational Purposes’ course focuses on workplace English and helps students with job hunting and applications. We are hopeful this program assists this group to be an active part of the community.” Ghazniwal works for the CARES program and the Stillwater Public
Schools to teach English to the other refugee families. Ghazniwal is a language interpreter, teacher and a familiar face for the Afghan families. “I work roughly 30 hours per week as a teacher at Will Rogers Elementary,” Ghazniwal said. “I specialize specifically with the Afghan kids, but I do have about three years of teaching experience so I connect with kids easily. I get a lot of attention from the American kids as well, so it’s fun.” Ghazniwal said the students’ English is improving and it isvaluable he is able to communicate with the refugees. Ghazniwal said OSU and the CARES program have been beneficialfor the education of adults and children. Ghazniwal said the refugees’ English classes for the children are get-
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ting a lot of attention, but the adult classes could be improved on. “I have been a direct witness to (CARES) having a positive improvement on the kids,” Ghazniwal said. “In the first couple of weeks, there was less improvement because of the struggle to adapt to a new environment, but as we let go of all of the fear and people become familiarized in our brainswe are able to learnand develop English abilities.” The community has responded generously to the refugees, and volunteers have started working with them one-on-one through the conversation partners program. Mackenzie Tomlinson is an English master’s student at OSU who was encouraged to join the program because of her experience teaching Composition I. See Refugees on 3