Episode 3: What Welcome Looks Like: A Conversation with Emelia Sheeley

Don’t miss this episode of So, Let’s Talk Columbus with Michael Wilkos! Michael sits down with Emelia Sheeley, executive director of Riverview International Center, a nonprofit partner of United Way of Central Ohio. Together, they move from data to lived experience, exploring what it looks like on the ground to welcome and support New American neighbors in our community.

Tune in to hear how one small but mighty organization is helping translate demographic change into opportunity, connection and community resilience. Whether you listened to the last episode or are just joining the conversation, you’ll come away with a more human, hopeful understanding of what it means to build a stronger Columbus.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I asked her, you know, so what do you do for fun? You have young kids, what do you do? And she was like, nothing. Said, where do you go with your kids? And she said, nowhere. I said, where have you been in Columbus? And she said, I've been to Walmart on Bethel Road.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to Let's Talk Columbus. I'm Michael Wilcoast, Vice President of Community Engagement at United Way of Central Ohio. For over a hundred years, United Way has been in the middle of the story of our evolving city, working alongside nonprofit partners, donors, and volunteers to tackle our community's toughest challenges and create opportunities so families and neighborhoods can thrive. We also get to see up close the resilience and creativity of the people who call this place home. And that's a big part of what inspired me to do this podcast. I'm glad you're here. Let's get started. So let's talk Columbus. In today's episode, I'm excited to introduce you to my friend and colleague, Emilia Sheeley, the executive director of Riverview International Center. Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Emilia, tell me about Riverview International.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Yeah, so um Riverview International Center is a nonprofit organization here in Columbus. We celebrated our 10th anniversary in October 2025. Our origin story is a little unique because uh 10 years ago we began in an apartment on Riverview Drive. Um, a group of people got together, uh, led by our founder, Kirsa Bendetti, and they decided that there weren't any resources in Riverview, and they needed to put something there to help a very large immigrant community that lived in that street. Um, so they found someone who owned an apartment and was willing to uh rent it out very affordably. Actually, they used that apartment rent-free for over a year and then began paying only a couple hundred dollars a month in rent. And they opened the door and just said, this is a place where you can ask any questions you have about life in America. You can practice English. Um, we can help you read your mail or fill out paperwork, or you can just meet your neighbors. And so um, the first few people who lived in the area started trickling in. They were all women. Um, most of them were from Bangladesh and from uh Jordan, Palestine, and Egypt. And um I think they they played a really important role in the beginning of the RIC because they saw that the RIC was a safe space. I keep saying the RIC. Riverview International Center is a really long name. So we have to call it the RIC to not waste time. So they saw that the RIC was a safe place, um, that the people who volunteered there were nice people, and that they could get their questions answered and meet their neighbors. So word started spreading hey, you can go to 552 apartment B, and she'll help you read your mail. She'll help you enroll your kids in school. And that's how the RIC began. There was no advertising, there was no paid staff, no budget, no uh, there's really just a sofa, a rug, a desk, and a computer.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Now, what where is Riverview and what made Riverview a street that had a lot of new Americans uh migrating there?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

So Riverview Drive is um just north of Ohio State's campus, but south of Riverside Hospital. Um, if you're familiar with the Coles, roosters, it's right across the street from there. You would never probably notice this little street, but if you go on this street, especially on a Friday, you will feel that you have left the Midwest and maybe even left the United States. Um, a lot of international students began living in that street in the 1970s. Um, I think it was maybe kind of an extension of Buckeye Village. A lot of families um were coming there. And then um, with the creation or the building of the Masjid Omar on the street, it's a very old mosque in Columbus. Um, more and more Muslim people, especially, were drawn to live in the area so that they could be proximate to a mosque.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

I remember the first time coming to meet you at RIC, and you know, you turned just past the Denny's in the skyline Chile, and I was surprised that one of the first buildings I was greeted by was a mosque.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah, just past the Denny's, but before the Gold Dome.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Right. So uh your path to this work has been uh global. Studying Arabic, living in Egypt, to leading a local nonprofit. How has your personal journey shaped the way you think about the role that RIP plays in the community in supporting new Americans?

SPEAKER_02 4:58

So um I came to the RIC after living in Egypt for a little over five years. And before I lived in Egypt, I had been an Arabic student, Middle East studies student at Ohio State. Um before that, I had been an avid watcher of Lonely Planet on TV every day after school. And my is a travel TV show in the 90s. Um, and I would come home religiously and watch Lonely Planet. And so as a middle and high schooler, I was already fascinated, especially by the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, and just wanted to learn and know everything about those places. And I um went to Egypt to learn Arabic because I hadn't really learned Arabic at Ohio State, um, despite probably my professor's best efforts, and um loved it, stayed for more than five years, and um came back and needed something to do in Columbus that kind of filled that hole. Um I think though I can attribute my loving Egypt to not Lonely Planet TV show, but um just the way that I was welcomed and cared for by Egyptian people. Um I made deep friendships there. I learned language to the point that I was very comfortable conversing, going out pretty much anywhere on my own. And those experiences led me to feel like this was my second home. So coming back to Ohio, um, I didn't really know a lot about the immigrant communities in Columbus. I'd lived here when I was a student, but that was it. I didn't grow up in Columbus. So I um learned about the RIC through my friend and said, could I be of use here? And she was like, Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

And what year was that?

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Well, that was uh 2017, June 1st, 2017.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

And when did you get back from YouTube?

SPEAKER_02 7:12

That was February 2015. So I had about a year and a half of odd jobs and floundering and parenting like a toddler and a baby. So I was a little bit out of the workforce, but also just hadn't really found my place. And when I um I didn't even go to the RIC when I started, I actually encountered the RIC through an experience with a woman who lived in Riverview. Um, Kirsta, the founder, called me. She said, Can you come to the BMV on Morse Road right now? What happened? She said, I let someone use my car for the driver's test and they totaled it in Morse Road. Can you come interpret for me? Like I cannot deal with this situation right now. So it came and the woman was an Arabic speaker from Algeria. And so I helped the police do the report, and I got to help calm her nerves. Tell her you're not gonna go to jail, it's gonna be okay. We have insurance, so it's really gonna be fine. Don't worry. And then I drove her back to Riverview Drive. And on the drive, I asked her, you know, so what do you do for fun? You have young kids, what do you do? And she was like, Nothing. I said, Where do you go with your kids? And she said, nowhere. I said, Where have you been in Columbus? And she said, I've been to Walmart on Bethel Road. And I had kids around the same age, and it just it was like being punched. I said, You don't know about Whetstone Library, you don't know about the zoo, you don't know about Antrim Lake, you know. I was thinking about all the fun thing, free things I was doing with my kids at that age. And um, after I dropped her off and my friend recovered from the BMV incident, I reached out and just said, could I be useful to you at the office?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Sounds like you were an ambassador for experience Columbus and just exposing people to the city.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

All the things that you need to do when you have preschoolers. I was very versed in those.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So you didn't grow up in Columbus. Where did you grow up? And did you assume that Columbus was just your typical American Midwestern city until you started to have these experiences with Rick?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Um, so I grew up in Germantown, Ohio, which is a small town southwest of Dayton, um almost to the Indiana border out in the country. Um my parents are from Appalachian, very southern Ohio, and they went to the Dayton area for jobs and then um and then moved us to Germantown for small country town, you know, childhood. Um I honest to God, I had never been to Columbus in my life until I came to Ohio State my first day. When we wanted to go to the city, we went to Cincinnati and I had never been to Columbus. And what I was dropped off at Morrison Tower on 11th Avenue.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Did you have any impression whatsoever of the city?

SPEAKER_02 10:25

None.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

None.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

None. The silly thing about this though is at that time I had been to Russia twice. And never been to Pakistan, but I had never been to Columbus. And I had no impression of the city. I think I probably just assumed it was like Dayton but bigger.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Interesting. So uh 10 years RIC's been around and it has grown alongside the immigrant community that it serves. What shifts have you seen in the types of needs and challenges the new Americans face here in Columbus over the last several years?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

So many shifts. Um and when I think about this question too, I'm just thinking about how the RIC has shifted with these needs because we opened as a place where people could just converse and get to know one another. And we're still a place like that. We still have people drop by our office just to chat, to say hi, to drop off a plate of bakalawa or you know, some sweets or something they made. Um, but but the but we're so much more than that now, too. I think with the challenges in the economy, um, cost of everything increasing, what we're really seeing is people not just needing entry-level jobs anymore, but needing to grow in their jobs, needing to make more money, um, wanting career pathways and wanting to use maybe education that they earned in their countries to get better jobs here. So, you know, when we first started a workforce program, for example, in 2020, we um we would have people come who had never worked in the United States, maybe didn't speak English very well, um, but you know, needed their first job. And again, still at that time, most of them were women. Now we're about 50-50 women and men in services. But at this time, still, it was all women. Um, so we were helping women get part-time jobs around their schools, their kids' school schedules, um, jobs, you know, when their husbands were home and could be taking care of the kids, um, really kind of as secondary wage earners. Now we're seeing people, you know, I was a doctor in Algeria. I want to enter the medical profession here. I saw, you know, the new tower open at Ohio State, and they have a lot of jobs. Um, we're having people just, you know, like all of us, I think immigrants are feeling the pinch of cost of everything, living and everything, and needing to make more money. So our workforce program especially has really um risen, I think, to meet those challenges.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

I know that over the years you've shared stories of different groups of people on their arrival to Columbus. So let's talk about uh people coming from Algeria. I remember you sharing me a really interesting story about how that evolved. Can can you uh share with our listeners that evolution?

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Sure. Um, I don't know really how Algeria started. Um, but it really a lot of it goes back to two factors. One is the diversity visa lottery. Um, and the second is just community. So the diversity visa lottery is a program currently suspended. Um, we don't know when it will resume again, but it was a program created in the 90s uh with the goal of diversifying immigration in the United States. So at that time, the administration, the country as a whole, believed that we needed more diverse immigrants. We didn't need more people from England or China or India because we had a lot of people from those countries. We needed people from different countries, and that was a good thing. So a certain number of visas would be available for countries, and people in those countries would enter a lottery through the State Department, the U.S. State Department, and they would put their name in the drawing, and then, you know, a few months later, names would be drawn. And if your name was drawn, you had to, of course, pass security screenings and interviews and be vetted. But once you got through that process, you were given a visa. And upon arrival in the United States, you could apply for a green card. And if all went well, you would be a citizen five years later. So at the time that the RIC opened, we had a lot of people coming to our office from Bangladesh because the visa lottery in Bangladesh was open. And if you were moving to Bangladesh today, you would look for where in Bangladesh do the Americans live? Because I want to live near my people. So that was what was happening in Riverview Drive. Like one Bengali person would tell the cousin of somebody who's got who got a visa, hey, in this area, there's a lot of other Bengali people. And so it became Riverview became kind of a magnet for people from that community. Well, the visa lottery from Bangladesh has since closed, but other countries have opened. And what we're seeing now is that many, many, many people, thousands from North Africa have come to Columbus through this program. Rick's place in this is kind of funny because, um, and it really all changed in 2021 when we hired an Algerian on our staff, Amida Wally. Amida's become a legendary figure in the diversity visa community in Algeria. People know her as a resource and as someone who will help them emigrate to Columbus if their name gets drawn. So we get phone calls to her office from Algeria. Um, we get people, you know, sending emails from Algeria. My name was drawn, I'm planning to come in a few months. How will you be able to help me? Will you be able to help me get a job? Will you be able to help me find a school for my kids? Hamida was in Algeria visiting her parents uh two summers ago. And while she was there, four different families found her in her parents' village in Tiziuzu, Kabilia, Algeria, found her and said, We heard about you. Our names are drawn. We're moving to Columbus, Ohio. Will you help us when we get there? And they're moving to Columbus because there are Algerians here and because they're learning that there are resources for Algerians. Um, and of course, we don't just serve Algerians, but if we have Algerians on our staff, that's a draw-off.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Another uh group that uh you've shared stories with would be uh people came from Afghanistan. Uh share with us a little bit about the that journey.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

We had many people from Afghanistan um come to Riverview Drive in 2021 through the Afghan EVAC operation when the Taliban took control back of the country. And that was in partnership with uh with Chris, Community Refugee and Immigration Services. We actually worked together to ensure that families Chris resettled as refugees in Riverview Drive would have RIC services because all of the resettlement agencies at that time were very stretched by the volume of people who were arriving at once. So I remember there was one month, I think it was like January 22, where we had more than a hundred new people move into the street. So when you had that number of people uh with pretty significant needs, um, you know, they were pulled out of Afghanistan very quickly. So um there were, yeah, just a lot of challenges to that. Um, but we had a lot of people come in a very short period of time. We worked together with Chris to support those families. And they, it's really remarkable to see now. I was actually talking to one of my staff the other day about this to see how our Afghan families have changed, grown, um, how their lives have just changed since they came here. When our some of our Afghan families arrived, you know, we had women who had been prevented from a whole generation of women who had been prevented from ever going to school. Now those women are driving, they're working as cashiers at stores, you know, they're speaking English. And when I met some of these people five years ago, I just didn't know what the future held for them in the United States. And I knew it all depended on how much they were going to be able to I hate the word integrate because I think people use the word integrate, like you should give up your culture, give up who you are. Um, so I don't mean it in that sense, but were they going to be able to learn English even though they'd never been to school? It was gonna be really hard for them.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

I would imagine.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Um, were they going to be able to drive? Um, and many, many of them are. It's wonderful to see.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

So on a on a typical day, what kinds of questions or challenges are your neighbors bringing to RIC?

SPEAKER_02 19:51

There is no typical day. Every day is exciting, and that's something that I actually love about working at the RIC. It's something that reminds me a little bit about living in Egypt. When I lived in Egypt, I remember every day was something interesting could happen. It didn't, uh, there was some novelty to that. And the RIC uh does the same thing for me. Every day we're gonna see something different. But um, we always have people come uh for job support, and that can be anything from I just got here and I want to start work right away, to I'm having a problem with my coworker and I don't know how to navigate that, or I think I'm gonna get fired because I did something wrong. And so our team can call the boss and talk to them about it. We've been a part of many job saves that were a result of a miscommunication, a misunderstanding, some information that the boss needs the employee to know that we're able to convey in a respectful, culturally appropriate way.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

You know, I was uh just speaking recently about the job growth of the Sothoha region and how, like clockwork, we produce about 15,000 additional jobs to the metropolitan region on an annual basis. Yeah. Um, what do you think is one thing Columbus as a region still needs to build or adapt to help new Americans thrive long term? We've got the employment opportunities, but there has to be so much more to be a thriving family.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

I think in employment, something really wonderful that some companies are doing, not very many, but more could, is offering English support and English learning opportunities on the job. So right now there's this expectation that people will learn English on the side somehow and come to work and speak English. But most of the people we work with have children, spouses, other family members that they take care of. And they might not be able to go find English classes that happen at night after they finish their shift and put their kids to bed or in the morning before they go to work for their second shift job. So these companies that are offering English classes for people to take, you know, an hour out of their day to learn, it's it's wonderful. And I believe more could do it. Um, I think another thing that will be really beneficial to Ohio, to Columbus would be making it easier for people with medical training from their countries to enter medical jobs here. So, and I don't mean taking away requirements or just letting anybody become a doctor, but um a more straightforward equivalizing process for people who are are physicians from their countries. Right now, it you basically have to redo medical school. Um, and for all the reasons you can think of, that's almost impossible for most people to do. And yet we have this shortage of doctors, nurses, aides, everything in in our medical field. So those are things I think of in employment. Otherwise, um more English classes everywhere. Um I will give a shout out to FESTA's program. I love it that it includes the whole family, um, that parents can come with their children and everybody can learn English at the same time in a program appropriate for their age level. That removes a big barrier that we see. Um, so more English classes everywhere. Um, more ESL teachers in our schools. Um, that's a big challenge for Columbus City schools, I think. Uh we just we have kids being bused far because the ESL programs are school are full at various schools, so kids have to be bused to a program 45 minutes away. Um, there are a lot of things we could do, you know, it all comes down to resources and will.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

So the issue of immigration is a very emotional topic right now in this country. How do you find the conversation in Columbus? Do you find Columbus to be a welcoming community?

SPEAKER_02 24:32

In my experience, uh Columbus is a more welcoming pocket than other parts of the state. And in my circles, I'm very fortunate to spend most of my time with people who love and respect immigrants and who see them as valuable contributors to our society, to our culture. Um if I go online and look in the comment section, I would think that people hate immigrants. And that is heartbreaking. You know, I'm torn because I helped a woman, um, a client of ours move into new housing. And as I was helping her unload um my car with her things, she had about four trash bags of possessions. As I was helping her move her things into the housing, the next door neighbor came out and began taking photos of my car and of me and shouting at me. And I have to believe it's because she didn't like the look of the neighbor that I was moving in next door to her. That was a that's one experience. Um, on the other side, you know, I was just thinking today about how we have more than 200 volunteers who show up at the RIC all the time to support our programs, to take people to grocery stores, to help parents get to teacher conferences, to meet up for conversation, to learn sewing, anything that you can imagine. And these are regular everyday people in Columbus who care very deeply, who are giving their time, their resources. Um I think those people win at the end of the day. And I do think there are more of those people than there are of the mean neighbor.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Are there things that you and your team do specifically to support one another in this uh environment? To stay optimistic.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Yes. Um, most of my team, many of my team are immigrants themselves. And if you've done that journey, I think you have to have optimism. It's just, it has to be in you and you have to be brave. So my team is amazing, and they show up every day and work really hard. And sometimes, you know, they have hard days. We hear sad stories, and um, a way that we support each other is by listening. Um, I genuinely believe we all care for each other. There's a lot of um respect and also a lot of humility shown on the team. We have something to learn from each other. Like we have staff from Afghanistan, from Algeria, from Palestine, and then some of us who are born here in the US, and we all believe and I think live out that we have something to live to learn from each other. But we also we spend money on fun. We go bowling, we go out to eat. Uh, we're having an iftar dinner together next weekend for the staff and our families. Um, so we prioritize fun. Everybody gets paid time off, um, even if they're brand new to the organization, even if they work part-time. Um, so those are some things that we do, you know, to make it easier. But it is, it is just, it is a hard time.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

If someone didn't know our city, they've never been here before, and they had the opportunity to spend an entire day with you, what would they think of our city at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_02 28:19

They would be very pleasantly surprised because I think they would come here thinking maybe what I thought, like this is just maybe a bigger dating with the Buckeyes or something. And then I would take them to the Rick and I would take them to meet Basma, who's a girl that I've known since she was a kindergartner. And she's in fifth grade now, and she still runs up to me and gives me a big hug when I see her. I would make sure that they met Basma and that they met my team and they saw all the awesome things that we're doing at the RIC. And then I would take them to lunch at family restaurant and bakery in Northland, which is um an Iraqi restaurant and bakery that I love. And we would eat lunch under the big glowing um Arabic sign, and they would be surprised in the best way. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

10 years Riverview International hit the RIC, uh, but you're no longer on Riverview. Where are you now?

SPEAKER_02 29:21

That's a good point. I neglected to mention that earlier. Um, in 2024, to use Michael's word, we were renovicted from Riverview Drive. Um, a local developer bought many of the buildings and units on the street, including the building that housed 552 apartment B. And so um, in a pretty short amount of time, we had to find a new office and move. Um, we did. We moved to Old Henderson Road. Um, we're next door to Chris now and just down the street from the Japanese shop. So many awesome lunch options now for us there, better than Denny's. Sorry, Denny's, I don't know if I should say that. Um so yeah, we moved there. We have three times as much space as we had in the apartment in Riverview. It's been really wonderful to have dedicated classroom space, dedicated kids' area with fun orange chairs and kids' books and um, you know, stuffed animals in the windows. We have offices now for our staff to meet with neighbors very, you know, um quietly and privately. I have an office now, so I don't work at the Weststone Library anymore. I'm sure they're all sad. Um, but it's been a really positive move to, I think, a more agnostic location. What we're seeing now is that people who don't live in Riverview are coming to our office for services. We jumped from serving people from 40 some countries to serving people from 60 countries last year. So um, that was about, it was over 2,000 individuals in 2025 who came to our little office more than 12,000 times.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

So United Way started uh with a very small investment in RIC back in 2017 for a neighborhood partnership grant to do a community festival. Let's talk about United Way support to RIC and what it uh allows you to do today.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Yeah, United Way has continued to support RIC through the years. Um, right now we have a program investment grant um through the Success by Third Grade Initiative. And that grant we use to pay for our program, much of our program that we call community care. So it's a program that um supports the success of the whole family. So um helping them navigate school issues, communication with schools, enrollment in schools, um, that's a side of parental support, but we also, you know, we have homework help two nights a week, um a six-week summer reading program, all sorts of educational opportunities for kids throughout the year. And those are funded through United Ways program. And we primarily work with families with kids in elementary school. So it just fits. Um, you know, most people don't emigrate with high schoolers. It's really hard to move a 15-year-old to a new country, but a two, three, four-year-old uh is a little more flexible. And so we work with a lot of families of kids who are still in that uh success by third grade age range that we're really looking for. So um we love to see families, you know, parents bring their five, six, seven-year-olds to summer reading, to homework help, and they'll just have the chance to read with a volunteer, be read to um in English. And we're very proud to be a funded partner of United Way.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Well, we are proud to have you as part of the United Way family. So thank you. So if listeners wanted to learn more about Rick, how would they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Um, they could definitely start at our website, which is Riverview International Center.org. Um, or you could just Google us, Riverview International. Um, we are on Facebook and Instagram too. And um, you know, my email's on our website too. I would love to be reached out to directly. I'm happy to give a tour of the office and talk about volunteer opportunities, donor opportunities, or just whatever ideas people have. Great.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Well, thank you for being you, for doing the work that you do, and for spending time with us today. Um thanks for listening to Let's Talk Columbus. If this conversation made you think, share it. If it challenged you, good. If it made you proud, even better. And until next time, remember there's not a problem Columbus can't be fixed.