Yacoub Aljaffery arrived in the United States in 1996 as a teenager after fleeing wars and living in refugee camps. His journey through the public school system was shaped by both supportive teachers and personal struggles. Inspired by his ESL teacher, he pursued higher education, eventually becoming an ESL teacher himself. His doctoral research focused on refugee students, and he continues to study their experiences while educating future teachers. He has published book chapters amplifying refugee students’ voices and remains committed to asset-based perspectives in education. His own five years without formal schooling in a refugee camp deeply inform his work. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0206-0639

contact: aljaffer@augsburg.edu