Our Experiences

For English 119SL, Refugee Literature Then and Now, I volunteered at Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). In doing so, I connected my academic readings to my volunteering experience. CHIRLA strives to bring awareness by educating local communities about immigration rights and migration. One of the ways in which they do so is by having their volunteers alert the local communities about ballot proposals. For example, I learned about Measure EE, an outcome of the Teachers’ Strike that took place in January of 2019, which allows the city of Los Angeles to increase taxes on corporations in order to fund the local schools. This fund allows schools to be conducted with smaller class sizes and have more nurses and councilors, both of which encourage students by giving them a better learning environment. I learned that voting for Measure EE is especially crucial because a lot these underfunded schools are occupied by students of immigrant parents.

When an assigned partner and I drove to different locations to implore residents to vote for Measure EE, I spoke with a resident who asked me if I could offer him any resources to help his son-in-law, who I will call Gabriel to protect his anonymity. Gabriel has been in the United States since he was three years old but is on the verge of getting deported because, in escaping violence from El Salvador, his parents were killed, leaving him to live with his uncle who recently died. Gabriel did not have any more money to pay for his lawyer. He had also been working twelve to fourteen hours a day under-the-table for $7.00 an hour to make his rent and buy food to eat, most of which consisted of Top Ramen. He was struggling—almost getting evicted twice and losing his job. His employer has even threatened to report him to ICE when he has asked for a livable wage. Gabriel, in many ways, is treated like a modern-day indentured servant. Like a lot of indentured servants who were bound to their employer without legal rights, Gabriel is exploited and is committed to his employer without any agency. As reflected by his story, refugees and asylum seekers are indebted to give their ongoing allegiance for an act of previous “support.”      

Volunteering while analyzing refugee stories through class discussions and readings has forced me to personalize the refugee experiences, and it has convinced me to take action because I realized that the refugee crisis today is comparable to the refugee stories explored earlier. As part of the class requirement, we did a collaborative project and have produced (Refugee) Children’s Stories: Untold Truths from the San Fernando Valley Refugee Children Center, a book that tells authentic refugee stories to raise awareness about the current asylum predicament. Furthermore, this website provides insightful facts about refugees today in hopes that we can spread knowledge about immigration and bring immigration reform to help people like Gabriel. Lastly, this website includes photos from the San Fernando Valley Refugee Children Center, which were taken by our professor and classmates. Even though we cannot disclose the names or the faces of these refugee children, we will never stop educating ourselves about refugee stories and legislation in hopes that they will be finally seen as humans, not as criminals or aliens.

This class has paved the way for me to gain first-hand experience of a refugee crisis. I now understand that refugees are those who fight for their lives by migrating to a safer location to escape violence. They are not criminals, but they can be unjustifiably criminalized.

For our course, I have been matched to volunteer at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which “provides opportunities for refugees to thrive in America. The International Rescue Committee also helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and regain control of their future.” The IRC offers multiple volunteer positions which varies between financial help, providing a furnished home, transportation (from the airport and pick up/drop off from any appointments that they need to attend), citizen test prep courses, help with rent, hosting a family, english classes, tutoring for children, legal services, affordable food, and offer many more amazing services! As a volunteer, I worked with the Casework Supervisor and assisted her with data entry while also working closely with my volunteer coordinator by assisting her with writing ‘thank you’ cards to donors and helping out at the front desk by answering/transferring phone calls, taking messages, and answering questions that a client may have. The reason why I absolutely love volunteering is because we are helping someone in need and by just seeing their gratitude is the most rewarding aspect of this experience.. Even if on some days it may seem as if we are not doing much (by assisting with paperwork and data entry), we are still helping someone that is possibly incapable of filling out the necessary paperwork on their own. To add, I am also considering to continue volunteering at the IRC, even when our 20-hour volunteer time commitment is over because of the welcoming environment at the center and by meeting some of the most compassionate and amazing human-beings! I must say, volunteering at the IRC is truly one of the most rewarding experiences. 

Throughout the duration of our class, we read amazing works of literature across many different genres, such as: Medieval Literature (Beowulf and The Man of Law’s Tale) and Slave Narrative (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl). As a class, we focused on how different genres intersect with the broader category of ‘Refugee Literature’. The literary work that stood out to me the most in our class is Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees. The book compiled different short stories and characters into one book, very similar to what we are doing! I also believe that Nguyen’s book, while fictional, is a great model for our book project.

Thanks for reading!

For this course, I was paired with the California-Pacific Neighborhood Immigration Clinic, working closely with the Citizenship Assistance Project Coordinator, Mayra Medina-Núñez, on promoting naturalization on their social media platforms. Having experience working for other companies on social media managing before, I worked closely with Mayra and gave my own suggestions for raising the engagement rates on their platforms. I was tasked with formalizing a social media strategy to increase awareness of Cal-Pac NIC and to increase turnout of naturalization applications in the 2019 term. Later in the quarter, I also devised and executed a social media campaign called Humans of Cal-Pac NIC which aims to humanize the organization’s client cases, and created and organized a social media content calendar to advertise Cal-Pac NIC’s services and news on naturalization. Throughout the process of developing the social media content calendars, I also liaised with the organization’s past and current volunteers and clients to gather testimonies for Humans of Cal-Pac NIC social media campaign.

In conjunction with my volunteer work, I have also been assigned the course readings on refugee literature that was crucial to developing a vision for the class book project, by gaining a deeper understanding of the past and current crisis regarding refugees and asylees. I think this class has made me more aware of how privileged I am, and how I do have the responsibility to give back and serve others who are less fortunate. One of my lifelong goals has always been to become an established attorney, and I think this course has inspired me to one day be able to provide pro bono legal representation on my own to unaccompanied children in immigration court proceedings when I become a lawyer someday. 

Over this quarter, I’ve had the privilege of working with the amazing team behind the San Fernando Refugee Children Center (SFVRCC) as their database developer and information technology specialist. Because I work in the back office, I’ve gotten to know the staff at the center and witness their dedication and passion in action. A bulk of the effort that goes into non-profit programming and advocacy work happens behind-the-scenes; for the SFVRCC, there are countless hours devoted to paperwork, scanning, translating, planning, advocating, counseling, and negotiating. The SFVRCC is a small organization, meaning that most of the staff take on extra tasks outside of their job descriptions to keep the center running even if it requires self-teaching to meet unfulfilled roles. But at the SFVRCC, this unglamorous and unrecognized work takes on layers of purpose and compassion. We are encouraged to refer to and think of the people at the center as “our families” rather than “refugees,” “undocumented,” or “asylum-seekers,” labels that, while helpful in some contexts, feel technical and distant when you meet the parents, students, and children that the center supports. Curious toddlers will wander into the back room where I work as their parents bring their concerns to or laugh in conversation with Liana, one of the site supervisors and administrators. Liana’s kind and welcoming presence reflects the culture of acceptance and community that the center is committed to facilitating, a culture that resists the narratives of exclusion and enmity that have become so prominent in contemporary politics.

Working at the SFVRCC reminds me that positive change is a collective effort. I am as inspired by the faithfulness of the Center’s staff as I am by the resilience of the families we work with. One of the most remarkable aspects of the SFVRCC is the staff’s diversity in terms of generations, ethnicities, and experiences; it is the embodiment of solidarity. Pastor Fred Morris, the pastor of North Hill’s Methodist Church where the Center is located, was moved to come out of retirement and establish the Center in 2014 after understanding the violence that prompted families to desperately seek asylum in the US. At over 80 years old, he regularly advocates for the center and its families, providing interviews, meeting with stakeholders, and collaborating with organizations (including undergraduate classes from local universities). Both he and Liana view their work as a calling and ministry, fueled by faith and empathy from their own experiences of immigration, deportation, and displacement.

The genuine care of staff like Pastor Fred and Liana is necessary for the rewarding, yet difficult work at SFVRCC. Each time I process a case for the database, I see a photo of a child and am reminded that the fact that their file is in my hands means that this child is caught within the unrelenting uncertainties of the US immigration and legal system. By the time the database is finished, I will have processed 250+ cases which speaks to the gravity of the situation that the center is intervening in. The children’s stories are heartbreaking and powerful, but they will never be heard without the support of advocates who are willing to navigate the complexities of encouraging representation while also protecting vulnerable identities from surveillance. And yet, in a space that was created in response to such darkness and hostility, there is hope. On my first day, one of the students translated for us and shared that he was looking to transfer from community college to a school like UCLA where he could continue his education, much like I did. Another time, we received a phone call that one of the center’s families had had a successful hearing, granting them asylum in the US. Liana couldn’t contain her joy and exclaimed that moments like this made all the work worthwhile.