Agnes Scott College, 125th Commencement Speech, 2014

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• published: 17 May 2014
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Commencement address given by Luma Mufleh, Founder and director, Fugees Family, Inc. Luma Mufleh, the founder and director of the non-profit organization Fugees Family, is a visionary soccer coach, educator, social entrepreneur, refugee advocate, and humanitarian. In 2004, Mufleh started a soccer team for refugee kids, dubbed "the Fugees," in Clarkston, Georgia. She launched Fugees Family in 2006 and Fugees Academy in 2007 to build on the power of soccer to galvanize child survivors of war by giving them the educational support and structure they need to realize their potential. Fugees Family now serves girls and boys from 28 countries, providing year-round soccer, after-school tutoring, a private academy, as well as an academic summer camp held on the Agnes Scott College campus. Mufleh continues to serve as head coach of the Fugees soccer teams and works tirelessly to champion the needs of talented young people who come to the United States with little English or formal schooling but with hope for a better life. Her long-term vision is to build a permanent home for the Fugees Academy as the first school for refugee girls and boys in the United States. Mufleh's efforts to help the refugee and immigrant community have expanded to include several businesses. In 2004, she created Fresh Start, a cleaning service that pays refugee and immigrant parents a living wage to clean residential and commercial properties. In 2010, she began Queen Food Company, a food truck business employing parents and graduates of the Fugees program that focuses on authentic, ethnic street food. Mufleh's work was chronicled in New York Times reporter Warren St. John's best-selling book "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference." "Outcasts United" was the first-year summer reading for the Class of 2014. An immigrant from Jordan, Mufleh earned her Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Smith College and has received numerous awards for her work, including the Search for Common Ground Award, The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award and the Smith College Medal. She has appeared on NPR, CNN, CBS and MSNBC and in The New York Times. In recognition of her creative leadership and steadfast commitment to educating and empowering refugee and immigrant children, the Agnes Scott College Board of Trustees is proud to confer the doctor of laws, honoris causa, on Mufleh today.