Gail Vignola, MATESOL

Besides teaching, I'm a committed activist in the cause of higher education for displaced Syrian students and, with my students at the University of Evansville in Indiana, started a nonprofit—Scholars for Syria—in 2016 to increase awareness, promote advocacy, and raise funds for Syrian students and their families. I received a 2016/2017 Global Scholar Award from the University of Evansville for this initiative, and Scholars for Syria introduced the first Syrian student in Indiana as a TEDx presenter in 2016.

In 2017, Scholars for Syria was awarded the UE Student Organization of the Year and the UE Diversity Awards based on our advocacy work and the social awareness course designed to place Syrian students in local schools to form cultural alliances and dispel negative rhetoric about Syria’s conflict and culture. Scholars for Syria also organized a community rally in early 2017 to protest the travel ban that was affecting so many UE students.

In 2019, Scholars for Syria and the U. of Evansville were awarded the International Institute of Higher Education (IIE) Heiskell Award for Higher Education in Emergencies award in recognition of their successful approaches and strategies for supporting displaced scholars.

In the fall of 2019, Scholars for Syria brought Pulitzer prize nominee Sam Dagher, author of “Assad Or We Burn The Country” to the Seton Hall campus to discuss the global implications of the Syrian conflict; they also hosted the Syrian Emergency Task Force at Seton Hall in 2021.

I'm a board member of VIP.fund, a nonprofit for displaced students promoting higher education through crowdfunding and mentorship, and a national and executive board member of the Syrian American Council, an advocacy and humanitarian organization.