Thursday, October 15, 2015

[It's the Interns] To ignore the rights of the immigrant community is to ignore the identity of this country

It is always hard to say good bye!
Advancing Justice-Atlanta Summer Internship has come to a close. "it's the Interns" series continue with our interns who worked behind and in front of the scene to Build Power for Good in the South and their thoughts on the Internship.

By Leslie Wang


·    What was your most memorable moment from the internship?

It was when the interns were visiting the Center for Civil and Human Rights, I put my hands on a counter and put on headphones. Through the headphones was a mimic of the situations that could happen at a demonstration, where policemen could be shouting and protesters arguing and crying. Never been to a protest before, I realized for the first time how hard it could be for a peaceful demonstration to take place and the training that were needed by the protesters.

·    What was an eye-opening, unexpected experience, challenges, or knowledge gained from the internship?

After gained more insightful knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s and heard detailed stories about the freedom riders, it was an amazing experience to meet the Dream Riders of 2015 at the Georgia capitol. Seeing young adults at my age who grew up in the United States but were unfairly treated because they were undocumented, I admired their courage to talk about their stories and their determination to fight for what the rights that were belonged to them.

·    Why do you believe it is important to be involved in Civic Engagement?

As an international student, I always voted at my college, no matter how small the elections were. Because I knew the international student body was not trivial, it was important to incorporate our voices and needs into the policy making process at our school. If I did not say anything, I did not believe anyone else would speak for me. The same logic applied to being citizens, which involves more serious and down-to-earth issues. If a citizen did not engage, no other person would fight for the rights for him or her. Therefore, it was important for citizens to be civically engaged.

·    How do you hope to incorporate what you have learned this summer as you go forward?

I could be a quiet person if I were at a new place. It was fine when I was attending new classes at school. However, I learned that at workplace, it was very important for co-workers to speak up their opinion and to communicate with each other, so that unnecessary misunderstandings could be avoided. At this work, I always made sure that my partners expressed themselves and I expressed myself fully, instead of making conjectures or pretending that I knew what they needed.

·    What advice do you have for the future interns?

It was an important experience for me to use the things I learned from our staffs and our work to understand the lives and conditions of people with whom I met in my life. I noticed that there were so many situations and possibilities of lives of which I was not aware, and I learned to respect and to listen to that differences. I hope if the future interns could get the same experiences we had, you could bring the knowledge into your life and use it.

·    What unique skill set did you developed from the internship?

As a native Chinese speaker, I did not thought of translating my first language as a challenge, but the reality contradicted me. It took me a long time to translate flyers, menus or posters from English to Chinese. Besides the literary meaning, I had to take into the consideration that their lives were to a very large extent different from their lives in China, and made the translation more applicable to the situations here.

· What was the best Asian dish you had throughout the internship?

No doubt it were the naans we had at Clarkston Municipal Dinner at Kathmandu Kitchen and Grill.

·    Why are you proud to work with the immigrant community?

Because the United States is an immigrant country where the majority of citizens either had immigrant heritage or were immigrant themselves, to ignore the rights of immigrant community is to ignore a part of the identity of this country, of which every member in this society should be proud of.








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