Global Scholars Year Reflection

Reflecting on my experience in the Global Scholars program, I have to say it began my sophomore year, when, while reading The Sympathizer in English class, I was recruited interview the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, when he came to speak at Poly. Getting the chance to speak with a literary idol of mine and a renowned global writer was truly unforgettable, especially at a time when I was beginning to discover my own passion for memoir writing. On that day, I decided that when I became a senior, I would join Poly's Global Scholars program.

It has truly been one of the most unforgettable, life-changing experiences of my Poly career. Though I thoroughly enjoyed our speakers, from Reza Azlan and Jessica Jackley to Robert English and Kalyanee Mam, the most transformative part of my Global Scholars experience was without a doubt my grant proposal project. Having worked at Inquilinos Unidos over the summer, seeing both the profound good they do for their community and the extreme lengths to which they go to make ends meet, I was really moved merely by the opportunity to financially support them in a significant way. The work the Tenant Leadership Academy is doing to empower the community cannot be overestimated.

Without a doubt, though, bringing the Leadership Academy to Poly for my bilingual panel discussion, "The Housing Crisis: Affordable Cities Start in Your Backyard," was my favorite moment. Though they came late (trouble with the bus we chartered), when I saw the 40-or-so of them, who I'd only ever seen in Pico Union, march in with their shirts and signs, I knew I had done something significant.

Every step of the way, from that first summer meeting to our regular weekly seminars and the time I spent working on my proposal with all of my fellow Global Scholars and friends, was valuable. Not to mention the doors the program has opened for me in recent weeks, from talking housing in Spanish  with Ruben Tapia on Enfoque Latino at KPFK headquarters to talking political upheaval with Werner Herzog at his screening of Meeting Gorbachev at the Nuart. I'm so happy I had the opportunity to be a Global Scholar, and I want to do everything I can to support the program in the future.

Reflecting on "The Housing Crisis: Affordable Cities Start in Your Backyard"

On Tuesday, April 30th,  from 6 to 7:15, Ian Macleod and I hosted "The Housing Crisis: Affordable Cities Start in Your Backyard," the culmination of over 6 months of work inside and outside of our Global Scholars Seminar. The panel discussion that was the main focus of our event featured four guest speakers representing various groups and entities working to combat the housing crisis and promote affordable housing in Los Angeles: Bill Huang, the Director of Housing for Pasadena, spoke about the need for dignified, livable affordable housing; Alice Kimm, a partner in the JFAK architecture firm, which works to design affordable housing, discussed combating the the disturbing rise of homelessness; Clemente Franco, a housing rights attorney and President of the Board of Inquilinos Unidos, compared the relative effectiveness of different legal policies in place to protect tenants; and Jose Felix Cabrera, a Mexican immigrant and community organizer who has fought tenants' rights in the Westlake-Macarthur Park area for over 20 years—even while fighting—brought the human side of the issue into focus with his powerful words.

For all of our promotion in person, on Facebook, and even on the airwaves of KPFK, we got a solid turnout from Poly student and a pretty respectable number of audience members from the Pasadena area and the housing advocacy community. Though I felt truly honored to bring awareness and my passion for housing justice to the Poly and greater Pasadena communities, the most valuable part of the event for me was the members of the Inquilinos Unidos Tenant Leadership Academy who were able to attend (almost 40 of them!). Though they arrived around 25 minutes late due to difficulties with the bus they chartered from Pico Union (causing me a not insignificant amount of stress), inviting them to my school, having them in the audience, and sharing taquitos with them on the senior patio afterwards. During dinner (catered expertly by community member Evi Hurtado), I even got the chance to introduce my friend Noemi, the daughter of one of the women in the Leadership Academy, to all of my friends from Poly.

The attendance of the Leadership Academy tenants compelled us make our event fully bilingual, and with the help of IU Executive Director/my boss Luis Cabrales (who served as a translator on the panel), this ended up being to me one of the most memorable and powerful aspects of the event.

It was a truly unforgettable experience planning, organizing, and leading my event, and I'm extremely grateful to the Global Scholars program for allowing me to make it a reality. In the future, I hope Poly students continue to be aware of housing issues, and that Poly and Inquilinos Unidos can grow their newly-created partnership.

Talking Housing on "Enfoque Latino'

From writing and presenting our grant proposal to finding panelists, organizing and promoting our event, and securing last-minute logistics, my partner Ian and I have been working for almost 6 months on our GIP event, "The Housing Crisis: Why Affordable Cities Start in Your Backyard." On Thursday, with our event fast approaching, we had the opportunity as part of our promotional push to discuss our event KPFK with Ruben Tapia, the host of "Enfoque Latino." In Spanish! Luis Cabrales, my boss at Inquilinos Unidos (Tenants United) and an invaluable part of our event, had set the interview up a couple of weeks earlier, and since that time the notion of going on public radio in front of potentially thousands of listeners in Spanish had been nagging at the back of my mind.

Ian and I showed up at the KPFK building at around 9:30 for our 10 pm interview, and upon entering, we could immediately feel the family the family atmosphere that seemed to accompany the recording of nighttime Spanish talk radio. While "Nuestra Voz" (the previous program) was being taped, Ruben (an older Latino man with a deep, rich voice and a white beard), guests, and radio staff were hanging out in the common room, sharing snacks, and chatting in Spanish. The five-year-old running carefree through the halls of the radio station" seemed to highlight my own nervousness as I reviewed my notes and prepared for the interview.

I was shaking a little as I walked into the booth, and though I'd like to say that after my first answer ("gracias por invitarnos") I just let myself go and enjoyed it, the truth is I was kind of edge for the entirety of the interview. There were a couple of misconjugated verbs, and at one point Ruben asked me whether I had lost any friends in the course of my housing advocacy work. Thinking he was seriously overestimating the stakes of my work, I answered no—after all I hadn't had to testify against a childhood friend or beat up a family member after they betrayed me. Turned out he was just asking whether anyone I knew had been displaced by rising rents, to which I sheepishly answered yes. All in all, though, I think the interview went really well, and I'm extremely glad to have had the experience. I'm looking forward to seeing the fruits of 6 months of labor at my event in 2 days!

Reyna Grande and the Human Side of Immigration

Recently, renowned Mexican-born author Reyna Grande came to speak to the Poly community and Partnership for Success! about her experiences coming to the U.S. and assimilating into American society as child, growing up and finding her voice in America, and then rediscovering her own Mexican roots. Shortly after her father left her family's home in Iguala, Guerrero to find work, Grande came to America at just 9 years old as an undocumented immigrant. In a society where English was the default language, Grande initially struggled to find her place, even being forced by an elementary school teacher to sit in the back of the room by herself during class discussions. She explained the trauma of not being able to express herself during the Spanish-language portion of her presentation. She explained that as she began to master English, enrolling at Pasadena City College and eventually transferring to UC Santa Cruz to study creative writing, her knowledge of Spanish—her first language—was what suffered. In fact, her most recent novel, A Dream Called Home, was originally written in English, and she is working laboriously to translate it into Spanish as she herself relearns the language.

With the current wave of xenophobia directed toward immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants, Grande's story could not be more timely. Just in the last two weeks, President Trump has made multiple threats to completely close the southern border, seemingly without any consideration of the extensive economic—but more importantly human—repercussions of such a drastic action. Hundreds of thousands cross the Mexican-American border each day, and like Reyna Grande, they all have stories to tell. Their reasons for crossing include business, seeing family, going vacation, taking care of legal business, and so much more, and our current discourse risks making this an issue of inflated numbers and fear-stoking anecdotes rather than real people's lives. Beyond expressing her own story, Reyna Grande's work as an Mexican immigrant author is invaluable in our current political climate, and voices like hers must not only be heard, but amplified.

Hate and the Christchurch Shooting

Last night in Christchurch, New Zealand, a lone gunman stormed two mosques, killing 49 and wounding dozens more. The attacks, which were deemed to be meticulously planned, occurred during afternoon prayer at locations 5 miles kilometers apart, and the victims hailed from Muslim communities the world over. Muslims in Christchurch speak of a tight-knit community—there are only 40,000 Muslims in the entire nation of New Zealand—with a diaspora of worshippers and community members whose origins range from Malaysia to Syria to Palestine.

This attack is abominable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. What is not, however, is isolated, anomalous, or in any way a break from alarming trends that have manifested themselves all over the world. The virulent Islamophobia that inspired this vile attack is unfortunately on the rise, egged on and empowered by the xenophobic right-wing populists who have used the most powerful positions in countries from Brazil to Turkey to our own United States to preach messages of hate.

I remember just months ago, when the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was mourning a similar tragedy. To some degree, I know the fear, the anger, the sadness that my Muslims brothers and sisters are feeling right now. I felt it, too. And unfortunately, the two despicable acts of terror that caused these two tragedies are inextricably linked.

Global Perspectives: Last Week's AFS Panel Discussion

Last Sunday, myself and some of my fellow Global Scholar met at the Liu residence for a panel discussion featuring our very own Luca Contino and three other AFS students from Italy, Jordan, and Tunisia living across the Los Angeles area. Over the course of the afternoon, AFS students spoke on everything from their favorite cultural experiences in America to their countries' opinions on the Trump Administration and their nightlife back home. I was amazed to hear that in both Tunisia and Jordan, student take 11 subjects, including three languages (Arabic, French, and English). At the luncheon after the panel, which featured cuisine from around the world, I got the chance to meet Naji (the student from Jordan) and Youssef (the student from Tunisia) and we immediately hit it off. Luca has already become a close friend of mine this year, and I'm looking forward to making good on my tentative plans to take Youssef to a concert.

Arn Chorn Pond's Story

Last week, the Poly community had the honor of hearing from Cambodian Genocide survivor, master musician, and founder of Cambodian Living Arts Arn Chorn Pond, who came to Poly to present his book Never Fall Down (which I am planning on reading) to sophomores studying it in English class and to tell his story at a GIP Night. Arn was born into a family of Cambodian musicians in 1966, and he was just nine years old when the Khmer Rouge, a Communist/nationalist military bent on turning Cambodia into the agrarian Republic of Campuchea, violently seized power. Pond speaks fondly of the days before Khmer Rouge, when he would eat ice cream with his younger siblings and listen to the rock and roll that was a central part of Cambodia's thriving music scene.

All of this changed with the coming of the Khmer Rouge, who, led by the despotic Pol Pot, forced all of Cambodia's citizens out of the cities and into the countryside, where they proceeded to massacre anyone who countered their vision of a perfect agrarian Campuchea—whether because they displayed intelligence, had lighter skin, or even wore eyeglasses. Pond was able to survive by playing the flute in a band whose purpose was to distract prisoners from the sounds of killing, but after being transferred into combat as a child soldier, Arn defected and fled halfway across his country on foot to a refugee camp in Thailand.

At the camp, Arn was adopted by American missionary Peter Pond, who brought Arn back to his home in New Hampshire. Though Arn was grateful to have escaped the genocide in his country, he was driven into a deep depression by social isolation, racism, and loneliness in the United States. It was only through the process of beginning to open up to others about his past that he found purpose—and peace.

Arn currently works promoting and supporting traditional musical artists in his home country, and he travels the world sharing his music and his story. I was blown away by the incredibly optimistic and empathetic way that Arn sees the world and the people around him. I believe it is through survival of the horrors of genocide—and not in spite of them—that Arn projects such a radiant joy and remarkable strength of character.