The Center for Immigrant and Refugee Community
Leadership and Empowerment
CIRCLE
"Our Voices" Newsletter (Spring, 1997)
SAC Student Photo/Art Project Receives $ 1,500
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UMass undergraduates in CIRCLE's Giving SEED program have won funding to record the experience and lives of refugee and immigrant young people using photography and art. The $1,500 grant was awarded to the 15 bicultural students that make up CIRCLE's Student Advisory Council (SAC) by the UMass Counsel on Community, Diversity and Social Justice. The idea for the six-month project was developed and written entirely by the refugee/immigrant students, in collaboration with the youth they mentor. The money will go towards cameras, art supplies, film and development, and an opening reception.

Starting this September, the undergraduates and 15 Vietnamese and Khmer high school youth will document their collective voices as refugees and immigrants. Each participating youth will be given a camera and trained in the basics of photography and art creation. Through drawing, painting, and photography, the two generations of studentshigh school and collegewill learn to express visual images of their families, selves, and communities.

The photographs and artworks will then be framed for display. The undergraduates and youth will collaborate on titles, quotes, poems, etc, to accompany the pictures, which will be on exhibit in various community and university locations starting in December. In addition to learning about art, SAC members hope the project will help them and the youth learn more about themselves, their identities, and their culture. They also view the project as a way to start a campus and community dialogue about respect for different cultures and peoples.
· The first volume of Collective Vision: Activism in Many Voices is now available. The SAC member authors put this booklet of their experiences together as a gift to be passed on to future SAC leaders.

· This spring, SAC students envisioned and wrote a grant proposal to fund a community-university art/photo project (see Our Stories).

· SAC and youth attended CIRCLE's statewide meeting in December, and shared conversations over Malaysian food.

· The Vietnamese Outreach Team celebrated Halloween with the Vietnamese youth at VACA in Springfield. Chau, Christine, Diemchau, Nguyen and Mai combined health outreach with trick or treat!

· The November SAC/Interethnic Youth Gathering at the Campus Center/UMass was a day of games, activities, food, and reflection, and a chance to get to know one another.

· SAC and youth enjoyed a fall Pizza Party at Mt. Holyoke and "In Mixed Company" dance performance outing with Vietnamese-American artist Maura Nguyen Donovan.
Voices from SAC students
From this class I realized I have a voice. I found it a easier to speak and introduce my opinions and suggestions."

"From what this class has taught me, I feel it is neither being a follower nor a leader that is important, but rather collaboration and cooperation."

"Before coming to college, I did not know where I belonged, until I learned in class that even though people may look different on the outside, they were all the same on the inside."

"Finding my self-identity was the most essential part of this course. If I did not know myself, how would I be able to work with people? How could I help search for their identity when I myself could not see who I was?"
UMass Course Introduces Students to CIRCLE
For three hours every Wednesday, students of many backgrounds have learned about the refugee and immigrant experience. Education 229 introduces students to CIRCLE and to the community work they can join through the Giving SEED program and the Student Advisory Council. Many students are first and second generation newcomers and discover the power of culture, identity, and language through the class. "I feel sometimes I need to choose who I am," said one student about her many identities.

Students also have learned to work as collective leaders in the field and in the classroom. "This is so different from my other classes where I just listen to lectures," one exclaimed. "Here I have to think, participate, and share."
SAC Students Share Community Experiences
In UMass course Education 329, three sets of SAC students described their work with local newcomer youth groups. One set shared their experience in forming a Vietnamese girl's group. "We learned to include the concerns of parents when asking young girls to participate," said Chau Ly and Khan Pham, "especially in the Vietnamese culture."

Another group performed skits illustrating how they learned "to be less ambitious, to be flexible, and to be persistent" in trying to connect with students in Amherst High School's International Club. The last group showed a video of how they helped the Khmer youth group organize a cultural performance and an ethnic food fundraiser. Rin Moeun reminded her peers, "Working in the community is hard work; at times, I want to quit, but then I see the happy faces after the youth finish an activity and I know it is worth it."
Vietnamese Girls Group is Lesson in Community Work

Over the summer, two Vietnamese SAC students lived in Springfield to
work with the Vietnamese girls youth group. Working closely with VACA, the students set up meetings in homes and community centers. The students found their work within the Vietnamese community a learning experience. They learned the need for staying flexible, and how it takes more than just a good plan to sustain regular meetings. At the same time, the students left with a sense of worth coming from their role as models and mentors to the girls, and excitement over discovering their own identities and connections with the Vietnamese culture.