Diana Meza, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, USA

Because of COVID-19 and the impact it is having in the community, I started to reflect on a very unique experience I had from January to April 2018. I volunteered at NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center in Harrisonburg, VA. This organization started in 2000 as a result of demographic changes in the Shenandoah Valley due to an increase in the immigrant population, many of them, refugees (NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center, n.d.). As a refugee relocation region with access to low-skilled employment in the poultry industry, the Shenandoah Valley offers an opportunity for these newcomers.

The focus of the center is to support immigrants in adjusting to their new environment. All services and support are funded through private donors, religious institutions, and the United Way. Additionally, the center offers assistance and advice on issues such as housing options, access to health care, safety precautions, tax preparation, and transportation, and on other consultation services in financial, educational, legal, and immigration matters (NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center, n.d.).

Through my experience with NewBridges, I learned a lot about the variety of services the organization provides and how diverse this community is in terms of immigrants and refugees. I was also able to witness firsthand how important bi/multilingualism and NewBridges are to the immigrant and refugee population. It was rewarding to hear how these services were well received as these newcomers transition into their new community. Relocating to a new environment is challenging, but it is even more difficult for immigrants because of language and cultural differences. Furthermore, those who arrived as refugees may have another layer of complexities, with issues like trauma and emotional disturbance as results of their journey.

The staff, either volunteers or paid personnel, are committed to the mission and vision of the organization. This allows NewBridges to offer excellent services through a group of dedicated staff and their teamwork approach to address complex issues. This experience showed me how important it is to work together and the benefit of collaboration among the staff. Being supportive of bi/multilingualism and bi/multiculturalism helped the staff and community members make languages and cultures part of their lives. It was clear that the work environment was very accepting and aware of other cultures and languages which in turn, made for a great experience for the clients.

The staff at NewBridges and many of their volunteers spoke a language other than English. This allowed them to serve more people in the community, especially those who are nonnative English speakers. The need for bilingual or multilingual speakers is imperative for organizations such as NewBridges. Having many languages represented at this organization emphasizes the importance of and need for more and continued bilingual education. Bilingual education offers the opportunity to engage with those whose first language is not English, especially in important issues such as legal rights, health issues, and educational matters. Furthermore, learning a different language allows our cognitive processes to understand and appreciate cultural contexts that are different compared to our own native language. In addition to serving the immigrant community, the atmosphere at NewBridges also allowed both staff and volunteers to use language as a tool to interact with the clients and with each other and provided an opportunity to learn and grow intellectually as suggested by Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (1978).

Experiencing the significance for the clients of having someone who spoke their native language was something that I will never forget. I was able to see the relief the clients felt when they realized that they did not need to speak in English to explain their issues because someone could help them in their native language. NewBridges’ commitment to bi/multilingualism and bi/multiculturalism made it clear that trust and relationships were being established. This allowed clients to have a positive experience during their interactions with the organization. Looking back, I see that from an early age, I was encouraged by my parents to learn a second language and was told being bilingual was an important skill to have. This internship helped to solidify this belief, and I was able to experience how bi/multilingualism is an essential ability to have and how it is applied to benefit relationships between organizations and their clients. Often, learning a second language is associated with specific professions, such as teaching or international business. However, it is evident that knowing a second language can benefit all types of work environments.

As a college instructor and having volunteered at NewBridges, I now see it is clear that higher education institutions can benefit from partnering with organizations like NewBridges because it allows them to reach the community and provide students with applied and practical educational opportunities. Students get a unique experience when working with immigrants. It allows them to understand and be more appreciative of the community they are in. Another benefit is that students get to use and practice their language skills to improve their language proficiency. These types of interactions also provide students with opportunities to develop their intercultural competencies. In addition, as Vygotsky (1978) suggests, learning is a social endeavor, and the interactions between the students and the immigrant population (and their culture) allow the students to learn and grow.

During my internship, I learned to keep an open mind and to expect the unexpected as well as be flexible about working on different assignments. I was able to use both English and Spanish in a variety of projects throughout the internship, but my main focus was a video project for a fundraising event in mid-March. In addition to the video, I wrote a blog on Temporary Protected Status (TPS); translated many documents from Spanish to English and vice versa; updated an international food guide of Harrisonburg; answered the phone and welcomed clients when needed, depending on language support and staff availability; drafted different types of letters, depending on the needs of the clients; and provided feedback on other projects. In addition to assisting clients, I also did research on current immigration issues and informed the public of what the issues were, the different options that they might have, and things to keep in mind if they or someone were affected by these issues. This internship allowed me to experience firsthand how organizations such as NewBridges continue to provide an excellent service to the community with limited resources and how volunteers can contribute to their success.

At times, when I was translating documents, interviewing the client for the video, and serving as the interpreter for a mock asylum hearing, it was very difficult to read and hear some of the horrific things that many of the clients had gone through both back in their home countries and in their transition to the United States, especially when I compared them with my own journey as a voluntary immigrant. Hearing about these experiences, I reflected on my own privilege as an immigrant and became more committed to be involved and assist immigrants and refugees. I saw directly the impact that being bilingual can have in the community, and I want to use my bilingualism to help those in need of having someone who understands them. The majority of these immigrants are very hard working, and they put a lot of effort toward and use many resources trying to stay in the United States in order to have a better future for themselves and their families. It was also pleasing to know that organizations like NewBridges exist to guide and support the immigrant community.

As mentioned earlier, I always knew that being bilingual has a lot of benefits, but this experience strengthened my commitment to bi/multilingual and bi/multicultural teaching and learning. It also made me appreciate even more the different cultures that exist within my own community. It was rewarding being able to help these newcomers and provide support with issues that we often consider as common tasks or part of our daily lives. For these immigrants, it can be a stressful experience for the simple fact that they are not familiar with the American system. Learning about the different services that NewBridges offers and how dedicated they are to helping the community has allowed me to recommend them to others who I know could benefit from the organization’s services. As our society becomes more complex in terms of cultural and linguistic diversity, the demand for multicultural and multilingual mindsets, knowledge, and competence will increase. As an educator, it is critical that these skills and attitudes are included in our teaching. Regardless of the discipline, all academic fields can benefit from multicultural and multilingual preparation and appreciation.

References

New Bridges Immigrant Resource Center. (n.d.). About New Bridges. https://newbridgesirc.org/who-we-are/

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.