Civic Engagement
For my civic engagement project, I decided to take a part in my hometown community and become apart of Park City’s latino outreach program. I was interested by the increasing political controversy on the subject of immigration and was also intrigued in how a traditionally affluent town such as Park City, which is also fairly far away from the mexican border, came to have a sizeable immigrant population. I partnered with The Park City Museum and a few other non-profit local organizations such as the recycling center and the Christian Center to be able to offer more educational activities and extracurricular opportunities to Latino families in the Park City and Summit County area who would otherwise stay low in the community due to stigma or immigration status (The city council has explicitly stated it will not maintain a sanctuary status in the wake of Trump’s ICE crackdown). It was mine and the program’s goal to provide the children of these families with entertaining, hands-on learning experiences and opportunities to be able support and guide their integration into the Park City community and the rest of the country as a whole.
Most of my time during the three-week total was spent at Park City’s McPolin Elementary School, which is located directly adjacent to my old high school. On the first day, me and the other two volunteers, Evan and Jaimie, who were also my old high school colleagues, were introduced by the supervisor to a class of students who were picked and then chose to participate in this program for numerous reasons: immigration status, dual immersion, or simply community learning and cohesion, if the parents were not already involved or had language barriers that prevented them from doing so. My regular routine was to go to in from 4:15-5:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each time I attended I would enter a small classroom of about five to six students on average, depending on who wanted to show up, as it was after school hours. With my other volunteers, when there were six students, it would be a equal distribution of two per mentors. The two students I was assigned were Jorge and Charlie. Jorge was eight years old, and Charlie was ten. Both were originally from Mexico. We would start off casually with introductions and how their week had been so far, as well as going over how their school work was coming along. If there were language barriers, we has resources in the class to explain both ways the spanish and english pronunciations to each other and each learn from that. We would also play board games, do some joint activities with the other groups, have snack time - which I found a equal learning opportunity due to mexican candy being explained to me as well as me explaining some off-brand chips and the likes being explained to them as well as the ingredients.
While some of the kids would get occasionally rowdy, they were all so genuine in my perception of them. I found myself by the the end of the second week excited to return. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with with and hopefully helping then and making and impact, as it gave me a sense of pride and fulfillness that I could give back to my community. One day we even took a small trip over to the habitat preserve behind the highschool and we got to admire the wildlife there, and one day we took a hike up PC hill. This allowed us to show them the communities recreational activities and unique wildlife while also translating to them and making connecting to their previous experiences with similar doings. Sometimes, our discussions hit close to home for some of the students. We talked about their perception of the current administration and how some of them are fearful each day could be their last in this country due to Trump’s immigration policy. “We will round up and deport all 11 million immigrants who are in this country illegally, giving them a chance to do it the right way” was a quote referenced from both the students I personally mentored. They did not understand how they could be viewed as criminals - their parents were hard workers, and they themselves had either been born in the US and their parents could still face legal action, or they had been brought to the U.S. as small children, some with no memory of the event, and therefore were considered early childhood arrivals subject to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA policy, which has been under attack by Trump’s agenda. This seriously stuck a chord within my own heart as while I previously agreed on some of the new policies such as deporting violent criminals and tightening border security, I found myself at odds with how these were actually manifesting to target any alien resident. Whether they had just entered the country last month or if they had been law abiding and tax paying for the past 40 years, the distinction does not seem to not matter to our President.
I did not originally intend to become so involved in the program, but I eventually ended up meeting my student’s parents as well. This further deepened my experience and knowledge of the side of my community I previously paid no attention too. I received the contact numbers of both Jorge and Charlie’s families and will continue to initiate contact every so often, I considered these people my friends now. At the last session, I felt it was a bittersweet moment. I know I myself have not only learned a great deal about latino-american culture, language and spirit, but I also hope I was able to make an impact in my students lives as well by positive reinforcement and showing and explaining that not all in America are distrustful or want immigrants to leave, on the contrary I made it known that there are many willing to support their cause and and most model communities will welcome them with open arms.
For my civic engagement project, I decided to take a part in my hometown community and become apart of Park City’s latino outreach program. I was interested by the increasing political controversy on the subject of immigration and was also intrigued in how a traditionally affluent town such as Park City, which is also fairly far away from the mexican border, came to have a sizeable immigrant population. I partnered with The Park City Museum and a few other non-profit local organizations such as the recycling center and the Christian Center to be able to offer more educational activities and extracurricular opportunities to Latino families in the Park City and Summit County area who would otherwise stay low in the community due to stigma or immigration status (The city council has explicitly stated it will not maintain a sanctuary status in the wake of Trump’s ICE crackdown). It was mine and the program’s goal to provide the children of these families with entertaining, hands-on learning experiences and opportunities to be able support and guide their integration into the Park City community and the rest of the country as a whole.
Most of my time during the three-week total was spent at Park City’s McPolin Elementary School, which is located directly adjacent to my old high school. On the first day, me and the other two volunteers, Evan and Jaimie, who were also my old high school colleagues, were introduced by the supervisor to a class of students who were picked and then chose to participate in this program for numerous reasons: immigration status, dual immersion, or simply community learning and cohesion, if the parents were not already involved or had language barriers that prevented them from doing so. My regular routine was to go to in from 4:15-5:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each time I attended I would enter a small classroom of about five to six students on average, depending on who wanted to show up, as it was after school hours. With my other volunteers, when there were six students, it would be a equal distribution of two per mentors. The two students I was assigned were Jorge and Charlie. Jorge was eight years old, and Charlie was ten. Both were originally from Mexico. We would start off casually with introductions and how their week had been so far, as well as going over how their school work was coming along. If there were language barriers, we has resources in the class to explain both ways the spanish and english pronunciations to each other and each learn from that. We would also play board games, do some joint activities with the other groups, have snack time - which I found a equal learning opportunity due to mexican candy being explained to me as well as me explaining some off-brand chips and the likes being explained to them as well as the ingredients.
While some of the kids would get occasionally rowdy, they were all so genuine in my perception of them. I found myself by the the end of the second week excited to return. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with with and hopefully helping then and making and impact, as it gave me a sense of pride and fulfillness that I could give back to my community. One day we even took a small trip over to the habitat preserve behind the highschool and we got to admire the wildlife there, and one day we took a hike up PC hill. This allowed us to show them the communities recreational activities and unique wildlife while also translating to them and making connecting to their previous experiences with similar doings. Sometimes, our discussions hit close to home for some of the students. We talked about their perception of the current administration and how some of them are fearful each day could be their last in this country due to Trump’s immigration policy. “We will round up and deport all 11 million immigrants who are in this country illegally, giving them a chance to do it the right way” was a quote referenced from both the students I personally mentored. They did not understand how they could be viewed as criminals - their parents were hard workers, and they themselves had either been born in the US and their parents could still face legal action, or they had been brought to the U.S. as small children, some with no memory of the event, and therefore were considered early childhood arrivals subject to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA policy, which has been under attack by Trump’s agenda. This seriously stuck a chord within my own heart as while I previously agreed on some of the new policies such as deporting violent criminals and tightening border security, I found myself at odds with how these were actually manifesting to target any alien resident. Whether they had just entered the country last month or if they had been law abiding and tax paying for the past 40 years, the distinction does not seem to not matter to our President.
I did not originally intend to become so involved in the program, but I eventually ended up meeting my student’s parents as well. This further deepened my experience and knowledge of the side of my community I previously paid no attention too. I received the contact numbers of both Jorge and Charlie’s families and will continue to initiate contact every so often, I considered these people my friends now. At the last session, I felt it was a bittersweet moment. I know I myself have not only learned a great deal about latino-american culture, language and spirit, but I also hope I was able to make an impact in my students lives as well by positive reinforcement and showing and explaining that not all in America are distrustful or want immigrants to leave, on the contrary I made it known that there are many willing to support their cause and and most model communities will welcome them with open arms.