by Megan Kysylyczyn
On February 12th, the Immigrant and Refugee Discussion Group had a visit from two LEAP High School (of the Saint Paul Public School District) staff, including social worker Sue Gonzalez, and teaching assistant Plen. LEAP High School is mainly comprised of immigrant and refugee students who speak English as a second language. A couple themes came out of our discussion including navigating systems as undocumented students and challenges students at LEAP can face.
Navigating Systems as Undocumented Students
With the current Hispanic majority there are concerns surrounding being undocumented and what opportunities exist because of that, and how to navigate a political system and society when one is undocumented. Fortunately, in Minnesota we have a state level Dream Act which allows students to apply for college, receive in-state tuition, and can apply for the MN state grant for financial aid if they meet certain criteria. While it doesn’t erase all anxiety and burdens students face, it can eliminate some barriers to attending post-secondary education. Although, the MN state grant will more than likely not cover all educational expenses, so there are still financial barriers for students to overcome.
Student Challenges
On a more general note, the whole student base of LEAP High School face many challenges. Many are navigating an entirely new system and country while learning an entirely new language. They could be the liaison between their family and community if they speak enough English. Several students even have disabled parents who require some care and help. Many students work to help their family financially. In a nutshell these students have many responsibilities, of which education is only one.
Sue talked a lot about helping her students navigate systems that they or their families have probably never navigated before. One example that resonated with me was that she will take students to therapy appointments if they want. She realized that if she did therapy with students, come Summer they wouldn’t have access to it, which she didn’t want to be the reason why they stopped. To minimize the barrier of not knowing how to do it for themselves or not knowing where to go Sue will help set up an appointment and accompany them. Along the way she’ll explain things, set it up during school hours if that makes it easier for them to attend, and will wait in the waiting room till the appointment is done to bring them back to school. This is only one of many situations Sue helps her students navigate.
Leaving our meeting, I was left thinking about the increasingly large amounts of responsibility some immigrant and refugee students are asked to take on. Sometimes something must give, and sometimes it’s their education. I hope we as family professionals, social workers, teachers, university faculty, etc. can learn to be kind to all young people who have immense responsibilities and be there to teach them how to navigate and balance them instead of punishing them for not magically knowing how to do it.
When I came out of high school it felt like I should magically know how to navigate college, work, my health, getting good grades, maintaining my relationships and fulfilling familial obligations. My family pushed my whole life for me to go to college (and now that I’m almost done with a bachelor’s they’re pushing for a master’s), so I’ve been afforded slack when it comes to putting school first. I was given the opportunities and the ability to put education first. Not everyone has that. If I came from a culture which valued family over everything and I had to constantly decide between family or education, it’d be extremely hard to choose education. In fact, I don’t know if there’d even be a choice to make; it’d be family.
Ultimately, the meeting reminded me to be more understanding of young people (and people in general) on multiple levels and that I want to normalize taking any route to higher education instead of no route to higher education. We tell young people to go to college, usually with a silent message that it should be a 4-year university, without acknowledging any of the barriers in their way. Some students encounter more barriers than others. We can’t be a society that demands young people obtain higher education at any and all personal costs to them but get upset when they can’t agree to that. From meeting with Sue and Plen forward I decided to remember that we all have responsibilities that influence our choices about education and understanding those is the first step to making education more easily accessible.