ARYSE

PRYSE Academy week 3✅ Swipe through this post to see what our students and staff did during the third week of our summer program.

This week, our students introduced us to Pitt’s Bike Cave, and for the last 2 weeks of the program students will take turns building a bike from scratch to be displayed at our Final Showcase! More details about our Final Showcase will be shared next week.

See you next week!🥰

It’s the second week of PRYSE Academy 2026 and we are honored to highlight our cultural cosmetology workshop led by Ayana Toukam, or Miss Yaya.🥰

In this workshop, our students learn about and deepen self-love through hair care, affirmations, and sound. Each day starts with reciting the affirmations they create as a group on the first day and the tone for the session is set through music and scents from an oil diffuser. This is the first time we have hosted a workshop that explicitly teaches our students about confidence and self-care, and we are so grateful to Ayana for leading this workshop with her confidence and teaching our students skills they will have forever.

Thank you to Christopher Sprowls for capturing several of the photos included in this post📸

Each year at PRYSE Academy, we are grateful to have creative partners facilitate workshops during the afternoon for our students. To thank our partners for their time and creativity, each week we will highlight them and their work! This week, we are excited to share our puppet making workshop led by Melannie Taylor, a teaching artist from the City Theatre Company 🎭

City Theatre has been a long-time partner at PRYSE and this is the first year their facilitation has not been in traditional acting or storytelling. In this puppet making workshop, students will work together to build puppets and learn about character development, structure, and storytelling through puppetry. Our youngest students in the pink class were the first to experience this workshop and they loved creating their characters and building their puppets!

We can’t wait to see what the rest of our students create with Melannie and are so appreciative to them for leading this workshop!🤗

Today, an article from Pittsburgh's Public Source source was published sharing about the impact of federal funding cuts to programs that support immigrant and refugee communities, specifically our programming at ARYSE. To learn more about these fund cuts and impact, you can read the full article which is linked in our LinkTree.

A special thank you to Maddy Franklin for writing this story and highlighting our work and the reality that many immigrant and refugee serving organizations like ours are currently facing. Also, thank you to our PRYSE Academy 2026 cohort and team for welcoming Maddy when she visited training, and to Nateso for sharing your experiences with ARYSE.

📷: Public Source

Today is start of our PRYSE Academy 2026 staff training which means it’s time we introduce you to our Co-Directors for this summer: Leah, Megan, and Sayed!🤗

Leah, Megan, and Sayed started working with us the second week of May and instantly got to work getting to know one another and the work we do at ARYSE. We are so happy to have Sayed, Meg, and Leah with us for PRYSE Academy 2026!

Over the next 2 weeks the trio will lead our junior and senior counselor training and support this cohort throughout the summer in managing daily tasks and essential needs, as well as ensuring PRYSE Academy is a welcoming and supportive space for all staff and students.

We are so excited for everyone to meet them this summer!🥰

Happy World Refugee Day!💛

This day celebrates refugees throughout the world and their contributions and importance to our communities. Today, and always, we are proud to honor our beloved students and their family members who bring so much joy, knowledge, and generosity to communities right here throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania. 🌞

As we approach World Refugee Day, a day that honors the resilience, contributions, and cultures of refugee communities around the world, we’re proud to highlight a recent advocacy trip to Washington, D.C. with Refugee Council USA and cwsglobal. Swipe through to see photos and videos from the experience taken by Youth Steering Committee member, Fahima!😊

Before traveling to D.C., ARYSE alumni, Rahwa and Fahima, as well as Meg and Jenna from our team, participated in advocacy training focused on federal policy, effective storytelling, and meeting with elected officials. While in Washington, they joined advocates from across the country to support policies that protect immigrant and refugee communities. They met directly with Congresswoman Summer Lee (PA-12) and staff from Congressman Chris Deluzio and Senator John Fetterman’s office, sharing the experiences of refugee youth, the role of ARYSE in Allegheny County, and encouraging support for a congressional letter that strengthens protections for refugee communities.

We’re grateful for opportunities like this to elevate the voices of our students, strengthen our advocacy efforts, and help build a more welcoming future for refugee and immigrant communities.💛