Students educate community on immigrant, refugee issues through new club
April 11, 2020
After seeing a lack of support on campus for immigrants and refugees, sophomore Ashley Martin decided to make a change.
The Students Supporting Immigrants and Refugees club started meeting this semester after Martin, a social work major, came up with the idea to get students involved with immigrant and refugee issues.
“During high school, it was an issue that really touched me and I knew that I wanted to work towards making a difference,” Martin said. “So, the summer before my freshman year, I spent my summer in Greece and worked at a refugee camp there.”
Vice president Christian Rivera heard about Martin’s plan for the club during a social work class they had together and decided to join.
“I studied abroad in Costa Rica and my host family hosted a refugee from Nicaragua, and I got to learn all about him,” Rivera said. “He literally came with only the clothes on his back and it really touched me. He has nine siblings and the rest are in Nicaragua, and he cannot see them. He was given the opportunity to come to a school in Costa Rica to pursue education.”
Although not everyone has personal experiences with these issues, co-advisor Sarah Donovan said people on campus are affected through family or friends.
“There is a growing number of students on our campus who are immigration-affected, so they themselves might not be immigrants or ever have had a refugee experience. But, oftentimes they have immediate family members who have,” Donovan said.
SSIR’s goal is to educate the Boone community about immigrant and refugee issues that they might not have known about.
“My biggest thing is a lot of people are ignorant of this issue; not in a negative way, but they just do not have enough knowledge about it,” Rivera said. “I believe that this is such a big issue in our country right now that a lot of people have polarized views about this, and we are hoping to change some of these negative ones with what we do.”
“There is a growing number of students on our campus who are immigration-affected, so they themselves might not be immigrants or ever have had a refugee experience. But, oftentimes they have immediate family members who have.”
— Sarah Donovan
During club meetings, students discuss recent news regarding immigration and refugees, and brainstorm fundraising ideas to help affected communities.
“We want to help,” Rivera said. “We want to work in the community, especially. Whether we are right next to the border or twelve states away, we want to help in any way possible.”
Donovan said through her experience teaching classes, a lot of students are unaware of issues relating to immigration and refugees.
“This is an issue that everyone on campus needs to be aware of,” Donovan said. “Most of us have a really hard time wrapping our heads around what that might be like, but the reality is that there are a lot of people living among us who are our friends and our neighbors that are affected by these issues. We need to have a better understanding of how immigration issues really can affect people long term.”
Despite only having two meetings so far, SSIR is looking forward to collaborating with different organizations on and off campus to raise awareness.
Donovan is involved with the community organization Immigrant Justice Coalition, which aims to help immigrants in the community.“We have had on and off success with partnering with App State campus groups, but never have we had a good close supportive connection with any campus group,” Donovan said. “I am excited to have a student club on campus that is focusing on some of the same things Immigrant Justice Coalition is focusing on so we can really have that campus community connection.”
Martin said she hopes people who come to SSIR meetings can learn about issues affecting the immigrant and refugee community, and different ways to help them out.
“My hope for this organization is that we are not only able to educate the campus (and) the community that we are in, but also ourselves,” Martin said. “I hope we can serve a community of people that have been often overlooked in Boone. It is a college town, and a lot of us are in a little bubble, and I hope we can break out of it and make some connections.”
