Who do you want to help?
Andres’s Story
While Riya solved a problem that was systemic, Andres’s story shows us that inspiration can come from the desire to help people in a specific circumstance. Focusing on who you want to serve is crucial to ensure that we are creating value for people, not for profit or for clout.
“It was obvious to me there are a lot of issues around immigration.”
“My grandparents are immigrants from the Philippines and hearing about their stories, some of the stuff that my dad has told me, and looking at the news and other current events, it was obvious to me there are a lot of issues around immigration.
The difficulty of trying to start a new life when a lot of families are forced to leave their home countries to come here made me want to impact that in some way to make it more of a welcoming process.”
“One of the first moments that I knew this was going to be my project.“
While Andres had a focus area, he wasn’t sure how to take action and put his ideas in motion. This is a challenge that many students face, especially when tackling HUGE problems like immigration, poverty, and discrimination. In these situations, finding the right partners and supporters is a critical next step in the process.
“I knew immigration was an issue and I knew I wanted to specifically reach out to immigrant or refugee families, but it wasn’t something that I completely knew how to do. One of the first things that I started working on was actually reaching out to different support groups and different support programs throughout Delaware.
I think I kinda got lucky because I reached out to my mentor, Joel, and he was able to, you know, give me a couple of connections. Zack knew a couple of different organizations, but then I stumbled upon the Jewish Family Services myself.
I reached out to them and they were immediately able to point me towards the refugee program that they already have and I was able to create a nice partnership with that. That was really cool and one of the first moments that I knew this was going to be my project.”
“Knowing the audience you’re trying to impact”
“It was difficult to narrow down the initial idea because I think one of the first things, when you’re making any project, is knowing the audience that you’re trying to impact and making sure that you’re aware fully of what the issue really is.”
Since Andres was addressing a large issue, with many potential audiences, and many potential ideas, another struggle was imagining what new ideas he was bringing to this issue. It is common for students to feel that their ideas need to be unique, and extremely creative, but Andres reframed his thinking to be easier on himself, and more open to ideas. He received advice from his mentor that:
“You’re not the first person to be working on this issue. Try and learn from other people. You don’t even have to come up with a new idea, but maybe come up with a better way to do it. Come up with a unique way to tackle it after reaching out to different people and learning about it.
While it’s natural to feel like we need to come to our projects with brilliant ideas that no one has ever thought of before, in reality, just the fact that YOU are showing up to this problem means you will bring something unique. Because you are unique, and you have never tried to solve this problem before.
“The overall goal is to make them feel more welcomed”
“I was able to partner with the Jewish Family Services of Delaware with their refugee support program to create what I call the American Holiday Experience Project. It was a way of connecting refugee families who had arrived recently to the United States with the different citizen families to support them over the holiday months to make their transition easier.”
The Jewish family services have the RISE (Refugee Integration Support Effort) program and they help families to move to Delaware and give them a home and when they come here. They were already one of the families who were in that program. So that’s why the connection with the Jewish Family Services was so valuable.
Through that, another really cool experience was that I was able to actually go to their home and personally interview them and ask them about their story and ask them about their culture and what they may be interested in learning about.
They were really open to anything. So I was able to connect them with a couple of different families to go ice skating, to share a family dinner, and to go to Longwood Gardens.
The overall goal was to make them feel more welcomed”
“I could really tell that it had an impact on a lot of people in that room”
“I think one of the greatest ways that you can make a difference is making sure that stories are shared and that as many people as possible can understand and have empathy for the different situations that people might be in.
I decided to hold a community presentation where I invited people from my school, family, and friends and then just various people from the community to come in and listen to the story that the refugee family had to share.
It was a really cool experience because not only, was I able to show my work and show everything that I’d been working on in the past couple of months, but it was really cool for the father of the refugee family to share his story.
I could really tell that it had an impact on a lot of people in that room. And I think for him to have that opportunity, to be able to express his words, it was a really powerful moment.”
“Just start little steps at a time”
“I think a lot of times you can be held back from achieving what you want to, or held back from starting a big project because you might be intimidated by pressures, it seems like something super difficult or it may not be a popular idea.
Whatever the circumstances, don’t let that hold you back. Everyone faces a little bit of anxiety when wanting to start these things or they may face different pressures, but it’s just about finding the right people to talk to to be able to start you on the right track and just start little steps at a time.”
Conclusion / Activity
Andres’ story shows us that knowing WHO you want to help is a great place to start a project. As you’re thinking about the project you want to start, spend some time understanding who you want to help. What audience do you want to serve? Brainstorm 5 potential groups of people that you would be inspired to help. For example, first-generation college students, recent immigrants, people who want to learn piano, or people trying to exercise more.
