“[From] an influential educational leader and activist…an impassioned, penetrating critique and inspiring model for progress.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The story of how a visionary leader built a group of kids into a soccer team and then into a nationally acclaimed network of schools for refugee children.  

It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh—a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan—stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join.  The players, 11- and 12-year-olds from Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, soon welcomed her as coach of their ragtag but fiercely competitive group. Drawn into their lives, Mufleh learned that few of her players, all local public school students, could read a single word. She asked, “Where was the America that took me in? That protected me? How can I get these kids to that America?”

Learning America is the insight-packed story of how Luma transformed the team into what is today a small but mighty network of schools for refugee children, Fugees Academy—at every step focusing on what traumatized students need in order to learn. The journey is inspiring and hard-won: Fugees schools accept only those most in need; no student passes a grade without earning it; the failure of any student is the responsibility of all. Soccer as a part of every school day is a powerful catalyst to create belonging and accelerate learning. 

Finally, this gifted storyteller delivers provocative, indelible portraits of student after student making leaps in learning that aren’t supposed to be possible for children born into trauma—stories that shine powerful light on a clear and hopeful path for America’s most left-behind.