“I come from a diverse background, so I’ve always been really passionate about Hispanics and immigration.”
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Transcript for Better Than Struggling by Yourself
Yeah, so I’ve been tutoring, again, since freshman year. Um, it’s the Gloria Dei missions church in Valpo, and they tutor Hispanic children–kindergarten through, um, high school. And, um, basically like we help them because their parents usually are not able to speak English and they can’t help them, so they come to us and we give them help. Recently, there’s been, like, a girl who just came from Mexico and she didn’t speak any English, and so they’ve asked me to help her over the summer, and, you know, help her transition from like a non-speaking English person to somebody who can understand so that when she enters school she’ll be able to adapt better.
It started originally as just a student, like, a student started the program, and then eventually the pastor hired, like, a preschool teacher to, like, oversee everything because she was more qualified. And throughout the program, we’ve, like, created fundraisers and stuff to help fund for, like, their supplies, their snacks… Um, we purchased, like, two busses that picks them up from the schools and takes them to the program and then drops them off at home, so they don’t have to worry about it.
I come from, like, a diverse background, so I’ve always been really passionate about Hispanics and, um, immigration, and actually there’s a friend that I have that goes here and she’s an immigrant, but she was brought here when she was younger, and right now like her parents are paying for her entire school because they’re not eligible for financial aid through, like, loans, and I know she was talking to me about the DREAM Act and how it’s been approved for her, and I know that, like, she’s going through it through… with a lawyer, and she has a residency kind of now where she can stay here to go to school and stuff. So I think that’s really cool, and I would love to help.
It was through sociology that I met my friend, and she told me her story, and then, um, with her I was in LIVE [Latinos in Valparaiso for Excellence] and she became, like, part of the E-board, so even though I, like, didn’t have enough time to be part of the E-board, I was still, like, very involved in what was going on. And then, um, so she also wanted to be a lawyer and I wanted to be a lawyer, and, um, well, I think that influenced me more, and then, I guess, um, it helped me also because she’s like a minority and I’m a minority, so she struggled, I struggled, it’s like better than struggling by yourself.