By Eli Epstein for Mashable.

When Ghaith fled Syria in 2013, he left with more than the clothes on his back.

Though refugees are commonly thought of as poor, uneducated and helpless, Ghaith, who comes from a middle-class background and was studying computer science at the University of Aleppo before the Syrian civil war, brought his education and intellectual curiosity to Beirut in 2013, where he now lives and works as a journalist and a writer.

People with degrees are stuck with few opportunities.

Today, he’s able to use both — and earn money for himself — as a “conversation partner” on NaTakallam, a non-profit that pairs Arabic students around the world with native speakers who are living as refugees.