SYE Initiative

Syrian Youth Empowerment (SYE) is a non-profit initiative aimed at empowering Syrian youth by providing a path to higher education. 

SYE started in 2015, by a small group of Syrian college students in Chicago, and grew into a team of more than 40 volunteers reaching more than 2000 Syrian high school students and directly helping more than 150 to apply to colleges around the world. Our attempt to address the ongoing education crisis that Syrian young men and women are facing led us to self-organize to share our collective knowledge with those in need of guidance and mentorship. We started with little to no funding and helped students receive admissions and financial aid in world-renowned schools like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, among many more in the US, Canada, France, Mexico, UAE, and others.

Today, we are pending 501(c)(3) non-profit status from the IRS, and will be registering as a charitable organization in New York state (donations to SYE are not tax deductible at the moment)

This year we will be taking our largest class size yet with the help of an even larger group of volunteers who will each mentor one, two, or three students from inside and outside Syria.

You can support our work by donating:

- $350 to sponsor a student for a full year!
covers all test registration fees as well as preparation materials, college application fees, and all other misc. expenses

- $250 to sponsor a student to take college required tests
covers test registration fees for all required tests, these fees are often the single biggest hurdle for a student.

- $100 to support our efforts to grow and accommodate more students

Or

- Any amount you prefer!

All funds will go directly towards supporting Syrian students!

We are grateful for all the support we receive. SYE is fully run by volunteers and we are always looking for ways to expand our work to meet the enormity of this crisis. WeSo thank you for caring about this cause, and for choosing to support our work.

SYE team

Read more about our work and previous classes on our website here .

Here are only a couple of those life-changing letters that SYE alumni have received from Stanford, Harvard, and the University of Cambridge.