Following 28 years of working as the Education Coordinator for Refugee and Immigration Services in Roanoke, Alice's contributions to the refugee resettlement effort continue to inspire volunteers and community members.

Even before her first contact with refugees in Roanoke, Alice had already acquired a passion for adult education. She witnessed first hand her own parents struggle to learn English and acclimate to life in the United States after emigrating from Poland when she was young. Later, she had spent time helping visually impaired people overcome the unique barriers that they face. After these lifelong experiences, Alice felt ready to tackle the challenges of helping refugee adults in their own struggle to acquire English.

At the time, most of the refugees in the Roanoke community were Vietnamese -- a population with which Alice had no previous experience. But this didn't deter her. In fact, she says that this diversity is what attracted her to the job in the first place. Recruiting and training volunteers was also new to her, but like many individuals becoming involved with refugees for the first time, Alice picked up the skills as she went along and took advantage of whatever workshops and trainings were available to her.

However, many of the skills that Alice employed aren't things that can be picked up in a workshop. She was able to motivate and inspire people to try things they never knew they could do. She also saw the importance of matching the right people with the right situation, not only placing them in positions to help the refugee students, but to grow personally as well. She acquired a passion for weaving these relationships among the Roanoke community and the new arrivals. A recent article featuring Alice in the Roanoke Times aptly called her "A special kind of matchmaker".

In some cases, connections that started between a tutor and student became relationships between whole families that persist even two decades later. Her volunteer tutors often felt that they learned as much as they taught. For many of them, their experiences working with refugees as volunteers carried them farther than they ever imagined. For one volunteer, what began as a couple of hours a week tutoring on the side turned into a paid position teaching English in China!

Alice learned a few lessons herself, as well. She says, "You are more effective if you have good volunteers than if you try to do everything yourself." Alice learned to focus her time and effort nurturing and encouraging volunteers. She also emphasized the importance of treating everyone with respect, no matter how much or how little education they have. "Everyone can sense whether or not you value them," she explains.

For Alice Duehl, the best part of the job was being able to empower others to do great things -- and knowing that there are so many relationships out there that she has touched.