On the last day of the Refugee Youth Project’s summer school, Towson University dance performance and choreography major Baylee Wong noticed a huge transformation in the students she taught throughout the six-week program.
“As the weeks went on, they got more and more excited,” says Wong, who worked as an assistant teacher for the summer program’s dance class. “You could really see them coming out of their shell.”
The students—14–21-year-old refugees primarily from countries in Africa, Asia and Central America—went from not wanting to perform in front of an audience to requesting the use of the stage in the auditorium of Patterson High School, where the program is held.
Designed to help school-aged, refugee youth develop the skills required for academic success and positive integration, the Refugee Youth Project is a program from Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) supported by the Maryland Office for Refugees and Asylees. BCCC partnered with Towson University’s Community Dance Center for the summer school dance programming, part of a curriculum including STEM, soccer, art and career readiness.
Community Dance Director Candice Webster shared the summer teaching opportunity with Wong, a senior from Carmel, New York, who is pursuing an added concentration in PreK–12 dance education.
“Baylee is a rock star,” says Webster. “She is one of those students who is very focused. Not only is she a beautiful performer, but she does her research, she’s a planner and she has had the opportunity to grow leaps and bounds through this program.”
Dance education students get hands-on classroom experience though an internship in their final term. But working with the Refugee Youth Project gave Wong classroom experience sooner and with a more diverse group of students, including non-English-speakers. Additionally, says Webster, it’s a chance to experience firsthand how dance breaks down barriers.
Wong worked with the instructor to help in the classroom and demonstrate the movements. The program started with dances from the students’ cultures then moved to ballet, modern, jazz and hip hop. She says the experience taught her about classroom management, the need for adaptability and flexibility and how to cater to individual students’ learning styles.
Towson University’s top-ranked dance programs provide rigorous preparation for dance at all ages and stages of life—in professional companies, as educators and as arts advocates—in the context of a liberal arts education.
She also experienced its power to transcend cultures and languages.
“Dance is so much more than just moving,” Wong says. “Working with the students, I was able to learn more about their cultures and bring that into the space.”
One student, Salome Birindwa, a 10th grader at Patterson High School from the Democratic Republic of Congo, taught the class dances she had choreographed for TikTok.
Working with Wong gave her the confidence to take her performances from the social media platform to the stage.
“On TikTok, you’re by yourself,” Birindwa says. “But when I got to the stage, my hands were shaking to go out—I was nervous.” But after performing, “I felt like my dream was coming true.”
After graduation, Wong hopes to join a professional dance company and one day open a community dance center with a social enterprise model that makes dance education accessible to all.
Opportunities like the summer teaching assistant job are what make the TU dance program special, Wong says.
“One of the reasons why I chose Towson was because they give a lot of opportunities starting from freshman year, and you're allowed to perform and create, which in a lot of places you can't do until junior year,” she says. “They give you a lot of space to grow and explore the things you want to do.”
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