ICIRR immigrant workshop reflection

blog post:
Today I had a oppuritunity to attend a workshop lecture hosted by Malcon X college.  The theme of the workshop was the issues related to protecting and educating immigrants and refugees. in the morning, it started off with a openning ceremony, in which, Congressman Luis Gutierez, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Governor Pat Quinn, Senator Richard Durbin, and House Speaker Michael Madigan spoke at.  They all shared personal stories about how immigration effected them and they invited some people with family experiences to come up and talk with them.  Something they really were pushing on was not just the rights for immigrants, but for them and others to reiceve proper education and opportunities to take them somewhere in their lives.  After the opening ceremony closed, about ten workshops all on different topics opened all around the school.  We were given the chance to go and look at all of the rooms and topics and decide on which we would want to sit in on.  As I visited the different rooms they all had similar themes that were very broad.  I finally came to a room with less people with the topic of Early Childhood development.  This seemed odd, it didn't really seem to tie into the common theme that the workshops were based off of.  I decided to sit in.  What it was discussing was the idea of creating jobs for parents who are immigrants who had not received a good education to go to school with their young kids (jk-4th grade) and become parents mentors in the classes.  The classes were overcrowded, so the mentors would serve as a extra pair of hands in teaching and helpings the kids.  Because of the programs that have started this, these mothers and fathers are soon taking classes and studying to become teachers and then graduating as one.  This program first started in about three schools in  the Logan Sqaure neighborhood.  Classroom reactions were first very unhappy with the idea of having parents sit and help with their classes.  But by the end of the school after the firs year of having the mentors, every classroom was asking for mentors.  I had never heard about this idea and job, and I found it so interesting.  This program has now expanded to seven schools, and soon to eleven.  The most interesting part to me was how they actually had a mentor from one of the schools come up an speak about it.  They also had a kid from one of the 4th grade class speak about having one.  I really appreciate visiting this event and I'm thrilled to have learned about something completely new.