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Hello, my name is Tim and I am a rising senior English major with hopes of becoming a lawyer one day. This summer, I’ve been interning at SOAR Immigration Legal Services, a program of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. SOAR Immigration Legal Services began as an offshoot of SOAR, Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees, which serves refugees who resettle in Oregon.

Refugees often need legal aid when wading through the US Immigration System, so SOAR’s ILS was founded to meet this need. SOAR ILS now represents refugees in court and helps refugees file documents to USCIS, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Much of SOAR’s work is pro bono or offered at a discount. In court, SOAR advocates for refugees who may be, for example, applying for asylum, or facing deportation.

Helping refugees file documents is less flashy, but it’s some of the most important work that SOAR does. Forms can be confusing, and checking the wrong box or disclosing information that doesn’t need to be disclosed can, in some cases, lead to deportation for the refugee who’s filing. By helping with the filing of the forms, SOAR ILS makes sure that refugees correctly represent themselves and that USCIS reaches a just decision.

Aside from legal work, SOAR ILS runs classes for the immigrant and refugee communities. Right now, we have a citizenship-test preparation class, and a class for Ukrainian refugees that explains to them their rights.

I’ve appreciated my time at SOAR because of the stories that I’ve been able to hear. Many of these stories are heartbreaking, or sag with injustice, but it’s encouraging when I hear about the wins.

I read the case file of one client who was fleeing the political persecution of Cuba’s Communist Party, and applying for asylum in the US. Reading about the unfair detention and cruel tortures she suffered through angered and saddened me, but I was happy to read that after a winding litigation process, she got asylum and is now a permanent US resident.

In another case, a client was having trouble with the US Citizenship process because he had been unjustly arrested in the 1970s. With help from SOAR, he was able to get the arrest cleared, and eventually became a US citizen. I was able to help prep this case file for use to instruct other nearby ILS firms on what to do in similar situations.

I’m glad I was able to work with SOAR and would not have been able to without Interns for Justice. I hope to do good work like the work SOAR does in the future.

Hello! My name is Anaís Larios-Maldonado, and I’m a rising senior, majoring in Secondary Education and Spanish. I had the great privilege of interning at Oregon Child Development Coalition in the Hood River/Wasco counties this year, specifically for their Peak Harvest Early Education program of The Dalles, Oregon, as a Family Advocate.

Oregon Child Development Coalition, known as OCDC, is a non-profit organization that focuses on providing migrant families an equitable education opportunity for their children while meeting their need for childcare. It is now “one of the largest early childcare and education service providers in Oregon,” serving in counties such as Clackamas, Hood River/Wasco, Klamath, Multnomah, and Umatilla to name a few.

The program that I serve is a Migrant and Seasonal Head Start designed for children of economically disadvantaged, migrant and seasonal farm workers. The families that we serve are below the poverty threshold and receive most of their income from agriculture.

For our center in The Dalles, it is very common to see families traveling from California to work the cherry harvesting season in The Dalles and Hood River. These families are typically working for a short period, as our program is only 4 weeks long, working seven days a week and starting as early as 4 am due to escape the heat.

As Family Advocates, our greatest focus is to assure that our students are safe and healthy. Because our counties are at high risk for COVID cases, we get health referrals from teachers every day to check the students’ temperature and communicate their symptoms with parents. We normally have a medical provider on site who examines children who are feeling ill, and we work directly with them to translate to families, provide cultural context to providers, and make the children feel safe and comfortable.

I’ve noticed that the children can feel apprehensive with medical professionals, especially when they do not speak their home language, as well as the struggle that parents undergo when they are not understood or listened to when speaking about their child’s illness. I now understand the value of Family Advocate positions, and I hope that we can have more culturally competent positions who can facilitate these interactions in other places, such as the medical field.

The children at our center are as young as two months old and up to five years of age. Most of our families are Spanish speakers and are in the county temporarily before migrating onto their next workplace. In this short amount of time, our goal is to maximize the services and support that these families need, such as connecting them to resources like WIC, in some cases Bridges to Health, our partnering clinic One Community Health, and other non-profits around the Gorge.

I come from a migrant farm working household, and I attended the Migrant Head Start program at OCDC when I was younger. For that reason, I feel incredibly grateful to have OCDC as my host site for the Interns for Justice program. It feels as though I circled back to serve the community that once shaped who I am today.

Hello! My name is Derek Berning, and I’m a rising senior from Sublimity, Oregon majoring in economics at the University of Portland.

This summer I have been interning for state representative Travis Nelson of House District 44, which encompasses much of North and Northeast Portland, including UP’s campus. Rep. Nelson was appointed to the state legislature earlier this year after his predecessor Tina Kotek left the seat to enter the governor’s race in November; as a nurse and union representative, he seeks particularly to advocate for improved healthcare access and quality as well as workers’ rights and an empowered labor movement.

As his intern, I have been attending meetings of various governmental bodies—like Portland City Council and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners—and community groups—like the neighborhood associations of North Portland and committees convened to plan the coming replacement of the I-5 Interstate Bridge. By attending these gatherings, I serve two purposes: First and most importantly, I take notes for Rep. Nelson to review so he can stay informed on key political happenings in the metro region, because his daily work as a legislator requires him to focus more on statewide issues than local ones. Second, I act as his stand-in and community liaison, ensuring his presence is felt in North Portland even at events he cannot himself attend—this function is especially important for district-specific gatherings like neighborhood association meetings.

These activities have allowed me to rapidly learn about the most important issues facing the metro region, from the realms of transportation (like the I-5 Rose Quarter and Interstate Bridge projects) to education (like the effort to ban concealed firearms in Portland’s public schools) to environmental issues (like the cleanup of the Portland Harbor Superfund site).

I have also witnessed directly the real-world process of policymaking and political engagement. Frequently the public—including myself—sees politics through only the lens of electoral campaigns, with their flashy promises and bitter rhetoric, but it is the intermediary of these campaigns where tangible change is actually made; this internship has revealed the less obvious ways in which policy is crafted.

My name is Kiley Zarzoza, and I am a Junior at the University of Portland, majoring in Nursing with a minor in Neuroscience. This summer, I am interning at the Maple Valley Food Bank (MVFB), in Maple Valley, WA.

The Maple Valley Food Bank provides food assistance and emergency services to low-income residents of Maple Valley, Black Diamond, and the Tahoma School District. Last summer, during COVID, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the Food Bank. I fell in love with the volunteers, staff, clients, and the work the Food Bank does. It was then through the Interns for Justice Program I got the opportunity to step into a deeper role at the Food Bank.

This summer my main project is helping highlight the different resources and organizations that can provide support in multiple areas. Through conversations and data collection I have been able to pin point areas of interest for clients. Some of these areas include; job training programs, utility assistance, health care, and dental care. During my second week I highlighted the Washington State Food Stamps Program, called Basic Food. Providing information on how and who can apply for this program.

The other part of this project is updating and adding to an existing resource list that the Food Bank uses.

One goal the director of the MVFB, Lindsey Habenicht, shared with me was being able to do more boots on the ground work. I worked closely with Allie Ross, community health coordinator, getting this goal started. We have delivered supplies and food to our houseless community members. During this summer we will be at the local farmers market a couple times making our presence known in the community and collecting donations. I have participated alongside the staff to reach more clients in need of food assistance throughout the community of Maple Valley.

During my time as an intern I have been listening to people share their stories. I have been pushed outside my comfort zone and been able to learn more about myself. The Maple Valley Food Bank has taught me that with passion and compassion we can reduce the stigma around shopping at a food bank and support the people in our community.

This summer I am excited to be interning with the Rosewood Initiative, a nonprofit organization located in far East Portland that focuses on community engagement. The Rosewood neighborhood is significantly underserved, and its community members face many issues including systemic racism and poverty. As an organization, Rosewood seeks to address some of those injustices by working with the neighborhood and supporting them in various ways. What attracted me to Rosewood is what a wide range of programs and support they offer. In the past year, Rosewood has done everything from hold weekly COVID-19 vaccine clinics to successfully advocate for a new bus line that was needed in the Rosewood area.

I have been interning with Rosewood for the past month, and it has been a blast! The project that I am focusing on this summer involves checking in with the local businesses to see what support they might need as we are coming out of lockdown and COVID-19 restrictions. This project, that I have been able to work on mostly independently, has been fun for me because it is unlike anything I’ve worked on before. While learning about how businesses and nonprofits interact, I am also getting to know the neighborhood very well as I research all of these local businesses.

Apart from my primary project, I’ve also been able to be involved in Rosewood in other ways. My work has been a combination of virtual and in-person, and I’ve gotten to go into the Rosewood center at least once a week. This means that I’ve had the opportunity to really get to know some of the other folks on the Rosewood team and learn about the different work that they do. Through talking with other team members and sitting in on meetings, I am getting a very up-close look at how nonprofits like Rosewood are run. Additionally, I’ve been helping Rosewood reorganize their center as they prepare to open back up to the public and have helped other team members on various small projects. This experience has been truly one of a kind as I’ve been able to learn so much about Rosewood, community outreach, and myself.

I am very grateful for the IFJ program and all the folks at Rosewood for allowing this opportunity to happen, and I’m excited to spend the rest of the summer working with such an incredible organization!