Community Builders

During the past year a group of UW Tacoma students have worked to organize an immigration conference on campus. The result is "Our Tacoma Story: Education, Advocacy and Building Communities". Among other things, the two day event will feature a legal clinic where participants can speak with an immigration attorney. There will also be a panel featuring Washington State Supreme Court Justice Steven Gonzalez and Senator Claire Wilson.  During this episode UW Tacoma student Karla Michelle Vargas will talk about her personal reasons for wanting to host this conference and what she hopes the community will take from it. Assistant Professor Sarah Hampson offers insight into the budding law community on campus.

En español:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/265902/1060277-constructores-de-la-comunidad

Transcript

Karla: 0:01

I want people to be more aware and more educated on this issue because it's such an important issue. And it literally, it's what makes America, you know, like having immigrants willing to work for a country that's not theirs, but willing to put in the work for it.

Maria: 0:21

From UW Tacoma, this is Paw'd Defiance. Welcome to Paw'd Defiance where we don't lecture, but we do educate. I'm your host Maria Crisostomo. Today, our Tacoma story with UW Tacoma Assistant Professor Sarah Hampson and UW Tacoma senior Karla Michelle Vargas. Vargas and a group of youth of UWT students from the Pre-Law Society have organized a two-day immigration conference, that includes a free legal clinic and a panel discussion with State Supreme Court Justice Stephen Gonzalez, and Senator Claire Wilson. We'll talk about why students decided to host the event and what they hope to achieve So hi to have Assistant Professor Sarah Hampson and Karla Vargas. Can you briefly introduce yourselves? We can start with Sarah.

Sarah: 1:12

Sure, hi, I'm Sarah Hampson. I'm an assistant professor, I teach in the Law and Policy major, and I'm also the co-interim director of the new Legal Pathways Initiative at UWT.

Karla: 1:24

Hi, my name is Karla Vargas. I'm the vice president for the Pre-Law Society. I'm a UW student. I'm currently majoring in Law and Policy.

Maria: 1:32

Carla, can you tell us more about Our Tacoma Story?

Karla: 1:33

So, um, Our Tacoma Story is about educating the public as well as helping the communities. So we'll be having a free legal clinic for our community members as well as panels on educating and research on immigration and we meant to mid, sorry, myths and reality around it. Thank you.

Maria: 2:01

Um, how did you decide to come up with this event?

Karla: 2:04

Um, so a little background story. So I come from a mixed status family. Um, my family, some of us are US citizens, some of us are on document or some of us are DACA, and recently we faced a lot of, um, some... encounters with immigration where, um, our family has been affected. So we came up with this because, since I faced these obstacles, I wanted to be able to provide, you know, some kind of way to help that community that doesn't have the resources that I've been able to come up with. Like Sarah, who's helped me a lot, um, overcome some obstacles and I just pitched this idea to the Pre-Law Society and they were all for it. They were so excited, they were so willing to be allies, they were so ready to get this work done. They knew that, you know, having a status of being a US citizen, it was really helpful and really impactful to get this movement started, and that's how it all started.

Maria: 3:10

So I'm assuming that, it's been very hard for you. Can you describe more about why this is very important to you?

Karla: 3:18

This is really important to me for me to educate the community who has the power to do something, like a US citizen, you know, but doesn't know how to get it going, as well as educate the community on what kind of pathways they have or you know, knowing that they have an attorney there to talk to them about their situation and kind of give them like alternatives or ways for them to protect themselves in case immigration were to knock on their door. Um, it's just really important to me because all this, you know, the community doesn't know about these resources, doesn't know about these nonprofit organizations who are willing to do the work for them. So it's really important for me and the Pre-Law Society that they are educated, as well as they are knowledgeable of what's out there for them, and what kind of resources can help them.

Maria: 4:07

I want to go back to Sarah. Can you describe the role the students have played in this event?

Sarah: 4:13

Oh, they've been amazing. So I think we, you rightly identified the vision for the conference really came from Karla and her experiences. But, we have a lot of students in Pre-Law Society that really took the ball and ran with it, and have really done a lot to organize this conference and to make it happen. Um, I'll just back up what Karla said that the tagline of the conferences: education, advocacy and building communities, it sort of has a few different reasons for being that again kind of came out of Karla's vision and one of those reasons for being is education, education of communities that need, maybe need help with immigration or need to know kind of what pathways and rights that they have, but education of our campus and wider community around these issues. Like what are people facing, that are like Karla or maybe not like Karla. So one of the things that, um, we're also trying to bring out with this is, you know, what, who are immigrants? And who has this experience? And how varied is that experience? Um, and, and so that's kind of one of the things that we're trying to do with that too. And then just building communities, really trying to bring out allyship and bring out a large group of people at UWT that are there to support and really stand behind our immigrant students and our students who are undocumented.

Maria: 5:50

Is this the first time this, this event is going to be, you know, held?

Karla: 5:56

Yes. And we hope, and we really hope that we, with this conference, the university can, um, build allyship with these organizations that are coming and decided to join on. So this can be held annually, um, especially as how our university is becoming more and more diverse. And we've seen a population of a lot of, um, dreamers who are DACA or undocumented or refugees. And that's what makes UW Tacoma unique, is that we have so much diverse. And that's the one thing we also want to highlight in this conference is that, you know, in this conference we want to show that it's not just the, the news media likes to portray undocumented migrants as only Latinex communities, but it's not. You know, a lot of UW Tacoma students are not Latinex, but either them or themselves or their families have gone through the migration process and it's been really hard for them to become documented, or the obstacles they face to come to the US.

Maria: 6:56

How long have you been working on this project?

Karla: 7:00

(laughs) For almost about a year, if I'm not mistaken.

Maria: 7:02

Wow.

Karla: 7:03

Yes. We started and we, I pitched the idea back in June and so we headed, we hit it from there and Sarah, honestly, it couldn't have been done without her. She's done so much work and she's put us together.

Sarah: 7:22

Uh, no.(laughing) So a lot of the work that was done and has been done and continues to be done by the students. Um, particular props to the students and the student officers in the Pre-Law Society, um, is what six of you? Seven of you? That have just been amazing. I mean we're talking, these students have been contacting legislators, these students have been speaking, you know, with our chancellor. Um, these students have been organizing a huge array of community organizations and community members to come to this thing and to be part of this thing. They've got a legal team to come out and give a legal clinic on day one. So, um, they're, they've been doing an amazing amount of work. Um, I've come in and done a little bit of background organizing in the last month and a half or so just to kind of bring the pieces together, but they've really done the bulk of this work and particularly the visionary bulk of this work, um, is definitely this thing is student Org, uh, organized student run. I will say to you a couple of other little shout outs. Um, uh, so they've also organized, they've got a lot of other students on campus from other RSO's and from across the campus, as well as from Pre-Law Society to come and volunteer and be part of this. So, officially co-sponsors are Muslim Student Association and First Gen, First Gen Fellows. Um, but a lot of other students are working on this too. So this is centrally student-run student organized conference.

Maria: 8:53

Karla, can you give us, you tell us about the event?

Karla: 8:55

Yeah, so the event is called Our Tacoma Story. It's education, advocacy and building communities. The hashtag we'll be using is#ourtacomastory. This event will be taking place at the William Philip Hall and there'll be a keystone oratorium as well. The date is May 2nd and 3rd, which will be next Thursday and Friday. On the first day we'll be starting at nine o'clock and from nine to one we'll be having a legal clinic that is open to the campus and the community. And then from 12:30 to 1:30 we'll have a film screening in Key 102 from one of our professors, Dr. Sonia de la Cruz, and her topic of the film is called Sad Happiness: Cinthya's Transborder Journey, as well as 3:30 to 4:30 we'll be having another film screening in Key 102 and that will be from coming from one of our students Long Tran, which is called Subtle Asian Woman. And then it will be followed by, on Friday the next day, will be from 9:00 to roughly around 6:30. Um, we'll be having the welcome from the chancellor, as well as doctor Danica Miller. She'll be discussing and opening it up since we are in tribal land. Um, we'll have student introduction as well as a language discussion. From 10:00 to 11:00 we'll be having Justice Gonzales and Senator Claire Wilson as well as other senators and representatives from the Washington State having a panel discussion about what is being done here in the Capitol to help the migrant community and what is being done now. From 11:15 to 12:15 we'll be having the myths and realities about migration and we'll be having attorneys Amanda Banner and Leticia Hernandez as well as a student from UWT Andre Woods. Um, and then we'll be having a student panel. We'll, we'll be talking about the immigrant experience of UW Tacoma students. Uh, 2:45 to 3:00 we'll be having a faculty research panel speaking on, uh, the research they've done from the Northwest Detention Center here in our backyard, and that will be from Dr. Ochoa-Camacho, Dr. de Veritch Woodside and Dr. Rachel Hershberg. And then we'll be having a student debate. We'll, we'll be talking about what it is to have a sanctuary city and around and the current issues. Um, and that is brought by a- we're current, a new, ah, student debate club that just started here on campus. So that's really exciting for us. And then we'll be having a keynote speaker, Professor Ian Hayden Lopez,and yeah, that would be around on our two-day conference that has been in the works.

Sarah: 11:57

Great. So, um, just a couple of things I want to jump in there. First of all, both days of the conference are free, open to the public. Um, we particularly encourage community members to come to day one which is an information fair and a free legal clinic, but everyone is, is welcome. Also, you can find out more on our website. So, we have a web page that you can find through the Legal Pathways Website, UWT Legal Pathways, and ah, under Our Tacoma Story.

Maria: 12:24

Um, Sarah can you talk about the Legal Pathways Initiative?

Sarah: 12:28

Sure. So Legal Pathways is co-sponsoring this event. Um, and uh, it's, it's a new initiative here at UWT where we're looking to support students who are interested in law-related careers in law-related topics, um, in their work. So this is to us a really good, a really good kind of use of our support, um, but also looking for ways to bring the campus and the communities together around law-related questions and discussion. Um, and again, this to me is, is really central to that mission. Um, we have, uh, we're in the process of hiring a brand new director for the program. Um, so that announcement will be coming out very soon. So keep your eyes peeled for that. I'm really excited about who we're hiring. Um, yeah. So, um, so we have a lot of initiatives on campus, a lot of programming, but to me this is the kind of work that we really want to be doing, which is giving students opportunities to explore and bring their own, um, questions around law and policy, um, to the campus and particularly connecting with communities around this. So these students have been really kind of doing this on their own. We just want to support that. Um, you know, they've, they've been making connections with local lawyers, with local community organizations, um, to make this happen. So we just want to support it.

Maria: 13:55

So, Karla, what have you learned from this experience?

Karla: 13:56

Oh my God. It takes a team. Like honestly, like this could have never happened without the Pre-Law Society and the officers and them willing to jump in and do this and do that and work on, you know, getting the community members, getting, working on, getting, confirming the attorneys. They've done a lot of work and I feel like this could have never been done without their support and their help. Um, I also learned that, um, you know, it takes a village to really like, get the vision forward, kind of situation. I also learned that people are willing to put in the work. You just have to help be able to, um, I don't know how to put in words, but they're willing to do the work. Um, they just need a little bit guidance and, um, a little bit of like, uh, education for them to know like maybe how to approach a certain community member, how to approach a certain student that, um, has, has been through the migrant experience. Um, because some of them do not know the proper ways or the right ways to maybe approach them, and to be sensitive about, if that makes sense.

Maria: 15:16

Sarah is there anything that you have learned from this event?

Sarah: 15:19

Oh my goodness. Um, it's really hard to put together a conference on this scale. Um, and it's particularly hard for students to put together a conference on this scale on their own. And so the campus community, when there is a vision like this and you have a group of students that really want to work, um, people like myself, faculty, administrators, staff, we need to step up and support that. Um, and um, yeah, I guess that- that's, I mean, there's so many things I've learned. It's hard to, it's hard to nutshell it, but I would say that, you know, um, you know, we as faculty and administrators like we, we have a lot more power to make certain things happen quicker. And we know what we're doing around some of the, you know, navigating campus structures and community structures and we just need to enable the students, right, to do these kinds of big things because they're so capable of doing that. Um, with just a tiny bit of hope. Like, you know, who do you go to to book a room? And, you know.

Maria: 16:23

Um, yeah, those small details.

Sarah: 16:25

Small details. Yeah. Um, that's probably all I want to say.

Maria: 16:30

So what do you hope to the community takes it from this event?

Karla: 16:34

I hope too that they'll take away resources as well as, um, opportunities to, um, you know, maybe obtain an attorney at a low cost because attorneys for immigration can be as li-, as, as little, as$200 for a consultation. Um, I want to build relationship with the university and these communities so this can continue annually. As well as, I want people to be more aware and more educated on this issue because it's such an important issue and it literally, um, it wh- it's what makes America. You know, like having, having immigrants work, willing to work for a country that's not theirs, but willing to put in the work for it.

Maria: 17:23

Sarah, is there anything?

Sarah: 17:25

Yeah, I would, I agree. I would like to see a stronger connection between UWT and some of these organizations that we've built this year. I'd like to see that ongoing. Um, I'm hoping that Legal Pathways can help a little bit with that kind of continuity, um, because a lot of our wonderful organizers this year are graduating. Um, so I'm, I'm hoping that, you know, the institutional memory, um, will be there through that program. Yeah, I think, I think I just want to support what, what the students want to get out of this.

Maria: 18:02

Thank you to our guests and a big thank you to our senior lecturer, Nicole Blair for letting us play your music on the show. Thank you to Moon Yard Recording Studio and thank you for joining us today. Be sure to subscribe and go to iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Pocket Cast.