A little goes a long way
Coming into capstone, I already knew I wanted to help someone who was going through a similar situation as my parents did. Once I decided to help a Syrian family I wanted to know everything that was going on in Syria. Something the refugees and we have in common is that we share the same enemy. Everyone knew about the continuous War in Syria but no one was really doing anything about it. I felt that people were blaming Islam for what ISIS was doing when that wasn’t the case.
Once Trump became president his feelings about refugees being let into the country became clear. He thought that not allowing refugees will decrease the amount of terrorist attacks. The intention behind my paper was to clarify how much of an impact we will have if we stopped allowing refugees and immigrants into the United States. In my paper I state in paragraph 3 "Since President Obama's role in office came to an end and President Trumps began it came to America’s attention that he was not so fond of the idea of welcoming so many immigrants. Instead as a country we started to go backwards instead of forward. President Trump has set the limit of refugee admissions at 45,000 each year! Which will impact the refugees who seek asylum and are being forced out of their own country." I gathered information focusing on how the war started and how America’s policy regarding immigration and refugees will impact those seeking asylum across the world.
The hardest thing I faced when writing my paper was keeping my own bias. The more I read about the topic and the more I wrote, the more I wanted to help these people in some way. In my second paragraph I state "Some lost hope while the others tried to flee the country to find a better life not only themselves but for their children as well. At that point anything would have be better than the situation they were in. The war has left many Syrians without homes, jobs, and most importantly their children without education." From the stories my own parents have told me and the struggles they faced really pushed me to reach out to the Marri family and provide my support.
My main goal in capstone was to reach out to my classmates, school, friends, family and community to understand the situation the Marri family was in. I wanted to reach out so all of us can contribute and help by giving donations and even money. That is exactly what Selma and I did. When I meet the Marri’s I couldn’t believe how much they went through and how much their story impacted me. I helped them as much as possible and I plan to continue to. As I researched more, the more I learned that a smile can hide so much pain.
Beyond connecting my research paper to my capstone I connected it to myself. After helping the Marri’s I could never take anything for granted. It’s different hearing my parents story and their experience with the Bosnian War when I wasn’t alive. But physically seeing the Marri’s struggle and the constant news on Syria really has changed how I treat people and even my parents. I value what I have and could never judge a cover without learning the story.
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