Category Archives: Women and Family

Creating a Mission for Take2 Mentoring

Richie and I, along with Janet Bauer, decided to create a mentoring program that would efficiently offer tutoring programs for students interested in pursuing higher education. Initially, the we set out to create a program to assist students in college applications, applying for financial aid, and taking the appropriate SAT or TOEFL examination. However, as Richie and I began conducting interviews of Hartford refugee families, we determined that there were a plethora of other educational needs these families had. These ranged from ESL tutoring for parents to assistance and monitoring of students currently enrolled in college. Therefore, Richie and I decided to expand our program. We wanted to take a step back in the college process, as well as take a step forward. In other words, we wanted to assist younger kids with their homework, making sure they were on the right track for college, and assisting kids who are already enrolled in college, and making sure that they stay interested and enrolled, as well as utilizing the available academic services colleges offer.

We decided to call our services “Take 2 Mentoring.” We decided on this name for two reasons. The first being America provided opportunities for these refugee and immigrant families. It was a second chance at stable life. Also, we thought of in-school learning as “Take 1.” As is with most first takes of projects, nothing always goes 100% smoothly, and there are always corrections that can be made. Therefore, our services will be “Take 2.” We will help students and families get the knowledge, tools and resources that. We decided to create a website for our program to encourage the community to get involved, as well as bring some comfort to families. Our official mission began as:

“Take 2 Mentoring is a tutoring program that aims to increase academic success, and set refugee students, or students whose parents claim refugee status, on the path towards higher education. Savahna Reuben and Richie Freckleton, Trinity College students, founded Take 2 Mentoring to address a fundamental issue facing Refugee families: a lack of educational resources. Immigrant parents typically have little to no knowledge of the American school system. Furthermore, Refugee parents often do not know how the college process works, or the necessary steps that need be taken to pursue higher education. Take 2 Mentoring attempts to bridge this gap, and assist students who desire to pursue higher education.”

But Richie and I decided that it was important to get the perspective of actual refugee parents and to see what they needed help with, what they would feel comfortable with, and what they though about our program. In that way could we best create a mentoring program to fulfill the needs of the refugee community in Hartford.

In our first parent interview the father was clear that he wants his children to go to college, get a degree, and then think about marriage afterwards. Furthermore, he was proactive in answering our questions about homework assistance for the younger children, and seemed very eager and interested when we mentioned the possibility of working with the children in their home.  However, the parents prefer that their children live at home throughout their college experience, in order to help with their younger siblings.

Eventually, the conversation shifted from how we could help the children, to how we could help the adults. The mothers said that they could really use ESL help, and that it would be ideal for someone to come into their home. Furthermore, the parents explained that their inability to speak English was the reason that they could not assist their children with any of their work, as well as their inability to obtain knowledge about the college system in America. Therefore, Richie and I decided to broaden Take 2 Mentoring. We wanted to offer services to the parents as well, so that we could make sure that we were offering the best possible services to these families.

In our second interview was with a mother from Burma named who had three sons, ages six to fourteen. She talked about the oldest son’s dreams of becoming a pilot, and the youngest son’s dreams of attending a Magnet school. The mother didn’t speak much English, but enough to answer most of our questions. She told us how she was enrolled in classes at Jubilee House, a refugee center in Hartford. She was excited that she was at level 2, and had finished level 1. She was eager to show us her completed level 1 notebooks, and happily flipped through them as if to show off her proud accomplishments. She asked us for help: to help her sons fulfill their dreams of education. And we promised her we would.

In another interview, and perhaps the most insightful, we spoke to a father named Karin father and his daughter who had been enrolled in Capitol Community College, but had recently dropped out because she wasn’t sure if nursing was what she wanted to do. We questioned her about talking to her college advisor about her academic future, but she said that she was too shy and didn’t want to go speak to her. Furthermore, she didn’t know what her college advisor could do to help. Her father seemed dismayed at this. He wanted his daughter to re-enroll in college and to graduate. He also mentioned an 18 year old son, and inquired about Trinity enrollment. He was very grateful for the program we were starting and were eager to get his children involved. Similarly, his eldest daughter seemed very interested in talking to us and getting a mentor, so that she might be able to apply to new colleges and pursue her passion of the arts. In contrast with the other families we interviewed, this father and daughter both agreed that she should live in a dormitory to focus on her education. The father noted that there are many distractions in the home, and that if she lived away from home she would be able to be more focused on her studies, as well as get more practice with English through submersion.

Through these interviews we realized that our mission needed to change. They were extremely insightful and now we are able to better tailor to the needs of the community. We look forward to putting the program in full motion in the fall, and perhaps taking off and allowing the program to eventually help families with green card applications. The possibilities are endless, and Take 2 Mentoring is excited to get to work.

Women and Immigrant Businesses

As there is a growing female presence in business and politics, there has been a lot of progress towards gender equality. After reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg on empowering women in the workforce, I couldn’t help but think of the increasing role of women in business. How does this happen? There has been a sudden burst of women making the Forbes List, such as Sheryl Sandberg. There’s obviously no right way of doing it, but there is one thing that is increasingly happening and that is that there is an increasing number of women entering the market. As I increasingly hear about woman entering really competitive industries, it’s impressive to see this. The real question is has it been because women weren’t able to do it or because they weren’t given the opportunity due to a law or a cultural norm.

Doing my research on New Britain Avenue, I couldn’t help but think about culture and how it played into the role that woman have in business. I observed the different roles of Spanish and Asian women in business. In about the ten Asian owned businesses that I went to, eight out of the ten were owned by woman or by a couple. On the contrary, the owners at the Spanish owned small businesses were all men. I thought that was quite interesting. I started speculating about why that might be.

In the woman owned travel agencies, the Asian woman was sitting at a large desk in the end of the store. They were the center of attention, right smack down in the middle. There were also men at both of these stores, however the men were either standing or sitting on either side of the store; they were on the sidelines. A thought came to mind of what I learned in one of my courses on authoritarianism in Northeast Asia. Andrei Lankov explains in his book, The Real North Korea (2013) that women in North Korea are increasingly engaging in the black market because they aren’t considered a political threat. Opposed to women, men are forced to work and are conscripted into militias, giving them very little space to engage in any activities that are not administered by the state. Many women are engaging in the black market and selling all types of household appliances and the state allows them to. They are gaining valuable skills and teaching their kids the same thing. The factors that inhibit men while allowing women’s presence and giving them the opportunity to participate in the market in North Korea might shed some light on why so many Asian (particularly Vietnamese-American) women have established businesses on New Britain Avenue in Hartford

By contrast, men predominantly own stores in the other commercial strip that I observed on New Britain Ave. That surprised me. I expected at least one female owned business; however out of the ten businesses I entered on that block, there weren’t any owned by women. Also, Hispanic people owned most of them. I come from a Hispanic background and from personal experience I know men “pull the strings”. The two men that I interviewed mentioned how they left their home countries due to the authoritarian political systems that did not let them pursue what they wanted in their countries (similar to the Asian context). The men I met were very hardworking and ambitious, always taking on new jobs and willing to take odd jobs. They were very knowledgeable about a lot of things. When these men started their business, they weren’t alone. They were the face of the business, while women family members were in charge of the financial aspect of the business. Wives weren’t always on site, but they were mentioned many times as the assistants to these men and critical to the existence of the businesses. Men were the face of the business. They deal with purchasing merchandise and meeting with suppliers, but the women are in charge of the administrative side of the business.

Upon reflection, I realized that cultural differences have affected what role woman have in immigrant businesses in the US. The political situations in the home culture have also shaped business entrepreneurship in Hartford. The men that I spoke to had different experiences that prompted them to be take a chance and start a business. And, in some cases women were given opportunities to create businesses. Overall, I noticed that woman might seem underrepresented in these businesses, but really, they are very present. They are not necessarily the “face” of some immigrant businesses but they do have a strong presence and impact on the success of these establishments. Efforts to empower women around the world are on the rise. These are examples of how women (as business owners or business managers) in Hartford are just as able as men and their example can empower future women to get more involved.