Student Reflection
by Jamie Gervens
Entrada 1
He estado aprendiendo español desde el séptimo grado, pero técnicamente he estado aprendiendo para 8 años porque no tomé clases de español en mi segundo año de la universidad. Las clases de español que he tomado incluyen: 228, 208, 232, 307 y ahora 332. Planeo tomar 308 el próximo semestre. Disfruto aprendiendo español y creer que es genial hablar un idioma diferente. También es muy útil en la fuerza laboral, especialmente en la asistencia sanitaria. Siempre me siento bien después de poder ayudar a alguien en español.
Mi meta es volver a sentirme cómoda con toda la gramática, porque no he tenido una práctica estructurada desde la escuela secundaria. Entonces, a veces no recuerdo cómo conjugar correctamente. También creo que esta es una buena manera de sentirme más cómoda hablando con otras personas, ya que eso también es algo que no he practicado constantemente todos los días como hice antes. Si COVID no ocurriera, habría estudiado en el extranjero en España para terminar mi menor. Estoy triste porque habría sido una experiencia muy genial. Creo que estar inmerso en el idioma y la cultura habría sido una buena forma de aprender.
Estoy emocionada de ser voluntaria en la comunidad. ¡Me encanta que aprendamos español y ayudemos a otros al mismo tiempo!
Entrada 2
Soy voluntaria de Immigrant Services of Champaign Urbana (ISCU) y trabajo directamente con el director ejecutivo, Ben Mueller. El propósito de ISCU es ayudar las familias inmigrantes que son nuevas en la comunidad. Los enlaces familiares y los guías comunitarios trabajan con las familias para determinar sus necesidades. La organización apoya a las familias los apoya proporcionando alimentos, suministros de salud, artículos para el hogar, artículos para bebés y niños pequeños, transporte y asistencia con el alquiler y los servicios públicos. Además, les ayudan a encontrar recursos como trabajos, vivienda, clases de ESL, asistencia legal, atención médica, etc.
ISCU tiene un gran impacto en la comunidad. Casi 500 familias reciben comestibles semanalmente. La organización respondió a la pandemia dando paquetes de asistencia con un promedio de $ 70 / familia y asistencia de alquiler / servicios públicos con un promedio de $ 700 / familia. Cooperan con CUPHD y Carle para ayudar las personas que dan positivo y / o necesitan hospitalización. También se proporcionan entregas el mismo día a las familias en cuarentena de comestibles, medicamentos, suministros sanitarios y pañales.
Soy parte del equipo de comunicaciones que envía mensajes de texto masivos a las familias de la comunidad. Planeamos enviar mensajes con información sobre cuándo y dónde recoger alimentos, recursos y la vacuna COVID. Todavía estamos brainstorming otras cosas para incluir en los mensajes. Ben también mencionó añadir más a la página de Facebook de ISCU y wix. Esto puede parecer un diario de los proyectos en los que trabajamos recientemente para la organización y nuestras experiencias. Dado que las horas pueden ser bajas, también tenemos la oportunidad de llamar a las familias para ver cómo están, traducir guías de recursos y otras tareas.
Entrada 3
In the meantime, I have watched the YMCA Friday Forums and videos on teaching race and racism. The Friday forums also discuss race and discrimination. I really enjoy learning about these topics because as someone who is white, there’s a lot of things that I have never (and will never) have to experience. It widens my perspective and understanding of the world around me, which I appreciate. For example, one of the forums talked about technology and discrimination. Lauren Haynes described a project she worked on in 2009 where it was a large touchscreen wall at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. The problem was that the touchscreen detected touch by looking for the contrast in color between the person’s finger and the screen. As a result, the screen would not recognize the difference with people with darker skin tones. Another thing she talked about was using data to see who was at more risk of being arrested. The goal is to connect people to mental health services before they are in crisis. They want to direct them to the mental health system instead of waiting until they have police interactions landing them in jail. I absolutely love this because our prison system and incarceration rates are unacceptable. There are so many people who need rehab and compassion, not jail time.
Entrada 4
One of the University YMCA’s Friday Forums was with Daniel Gonzalez talking about how data is used in immigrant surveillance and management. Daniel started out with a quote from Chris Christie: a politician, political commentator, lobbyist, and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th Governor of New Jersey. Christie said in 2015 that “ At any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is. It’s on the truck. It’s at the station. It’s on the airplane. Yet we let people come to this country, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them. We need to have a system that tracks you from the moment you come in.” I was shocked when I heard this because it is dehumanizing and literally comparing immigrants to FedEx packages. I also find it incredibly uncomfortable and concerning that the government/politicians think it is normal and okay to track peoples’ every move. Daniel goes on to discuss how the border wall is more than just a wall. It includes technologies that we wouldn’t even think about being used to track immigrants. Some examples include border zones/checkpoints, drivers licenses, passports, biometric and facial recognition technologies, electronic monitoring devices (ankle shackles, virtual check-ins), video and voice recording devices (security and traffic light cameras), drones, and satellite and balloon monitoring. Thus, the definition of the border is not just the territorial limit, but these management practices directed at “where the migrant is”. To me, this really highlights the systemic racism and control the government feels it needs to have over immigrants. Migrants are not seen as human, but as a threat, which is really upsetting.
The other major part
of this presentation talked about interoperability, which is the ability for
one software platform to receive and understand data generated by a different
software program. An example of this is PayPal. The government decided to use
interoperability in immigrant governance by creating the National Information
Exchange Model. NIEM is used to achieve interoperability needed to support
sharing of alien immigrant history, criminal history, and terrorist information
based on positive identification and interoperable capabilities of IDENT and
IAFIS (the two agencies that were produced to do this function). The government
also uses data from other places to keep track of immigrants. For example,
immigrants that were participating in nutrition programs became the target of
the Trump administration's deportation efforts. While this was indeed challenged
and overturned, it goes to show the lengths that the government will go to
track people down.
This graph Daniel showed in his presentation
was rather shocking, yet I would also expect nothing less from the government.
It essentially shows the growth of money spent on interoperability. Data
interoperability isn’t used only in the context of tracking migrants but is
also used in the industries of health care, insurance, education, banking, and
both in-person and online retail. Companies are constantly selling peoples’ data
(their everyday actions) without people even realizing it. For example, Rokwire
is an app that gives UIUC students resources, but developers pay the university
for the information the students produce. We always think that things aren’t
happening to us and they’re only happening to other people. This is why I loved
that this personal example was included in the presentation- to show that no
one is exempt from surveillance and information capitalism.
Overall, this was a really eye-opening and informative talk, and I’m so glad I watched it! Friday Forums this semester are especially interesting, and I think more people should watch them because they do a great job of educating people on the intersectionality of race and technology. Especially as someone who comes from a white middle-class family, I feel that it is crucial that I continue to educate myself on these topics as they are something that I don’t experience firsthand. I think awareness is incredibly important! (Also- all Friday Forums are recorded and posted on the university YMCA’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UniversityYMCA/)
Entrada 5
Algo que me sorprendió saber fue que la mayoría de las familias son de Guatemala y hablan Q'anjob'al. Me hace preguntarme qué está pasando en Guatemala en este momento. Recuerdo de otras clases que la violencia de las pandillas es una lucha importante en este país, y me pregunto si esta es la razón principal por la que alguna de las familias emigró aquí.
En general, el voluntariado fue una gran oportunidad para aprender más sobre la gente de CU y estoy agradecida por la oportunidad.
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