Lutheran Community Services Northwest
Between February 2016 and March 2017 I volunteered at Lutheran Community Services Northwest, a refugee resettlement agency in Tacoma Washington. My volunteer experience began with teaching, a young Iranian women named Ruth, English. Having never taught English before, I relied on worksheets from her class and YouTube videos. Through working with Ruth on her English, I began forming a strong friendship with her. As time went on I saw she was having issues integrating into the local community. For example she needed money to pay rent, to do so she had to get a job. Yet for a job in America you need to speak English, which she did not. Although she got a job, there was a complication of commuting to work, she either had to use the public transportation system or get a drivers license. I assisted her with practicing English and driving skills, the other times I was not around she had to rely on her own abilities. Helping Ruth integrate into Tacoma I realized the importance of engagement, encouragement, and emotional intelligence.
Ruth experienced many difficult times while we have been friends, all she needed sometimes was for me just to be there for her and listen. American culture and Iranian culture are vastly different I could not always comprehend the complexities or decisions made by her family, but she needed a friend for emotional support. I connected with Ruth in various dimensions; intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual. By interacting with her on all these levels, I got to know her and become fully invested to seeing her succeed. She moved to a new country facing continuous battles of being considered an “outsider” by various people. I had to take all these things into consideration and be fully cognizant of her situation. My focus with Ruth had shifted over time, to where my main goal focused on helping create a stable and positive well-being for herself.
Overall my experience with Ruth helped shape my vision of community work to understand the true meaning of service, I feel my experience with Ruth taught me the essential qualities of civic responsibility I value to create positive change; Listen and Accept, Be Aware and Address Situations, and Engage to Promote Positive Well-Being.
The time I spent with Ruth opened my eyes to complexities of integration in the United States for refugees. Wanting to further my knowledge about the global refugee crisis I decided to complete my undergraduate research thesis on integrating refugees in the United States. I wanted to start to make my difference in the world, by expanding my knowledge and using my personal experience with refugees. I believe I can become a leader in my community by bringing awareness to the situation by using my leadership values and qualities of civic responsibility.
To see the findings of my year long undergraduate research copy and paste the link below into a new window.
My presentation is from the 6 minute mark to approximately 15:30 minutes.
https://uw.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=83bb09d7-282b-4f2d-9c21-82203d555e11
Listed below is my undergraduate thesis completed May 2017 based on the requirement of graduating with Global Honors from UW Tacoma.
capstone_thesis_final.docx | |
File Size: | 132 kb |
File Type: | docx |
June 2016 October 2016