Just three months after she graduated with a double major in political science and Spanish and a double minor in poverty studies and Latin American studies, Cassandra \u201cCassie\u201d Chee \u201915 arrived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, to volunteer as a\u00a0victims caseworker and outreach coordinator with Border Servant Corps. Now aiding immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border to apply for different types of\u00a0visas, Chee\u2019s path to service was forged\u00a0at Furman University.<\/p>\n
While some freshmen\u00a0don’t immediately get too involved in student organizations, Chee jumped right in. She\u00a0joined Heller Service Corps, Furman’s student volunteer service organization, and was soon heading up the Corps’ Hispanic Community Engagement wing. She paired\u00a0college students with public schools in need of Spanish-speaking volunteers in ESOL classes, promoting Hispanic organizations on campus to generate student volunteers, and creating connections with Hispanic organizations in Greenville.<\/p>\n
She\u00a0also volunteered at Neighborhood Focus, an after-school program for grades 2\u201312. At the close\u00a0of her sophomore year,\u00a0she traveled to\u00a0Calca, Peru, to teach\u00a0English to underprivileged Peruvian children through\u00a0Projects Abroad. Chee\u00a0returned to campus in the fall, but not for long. When her junior year concluded, she was\u00a0off to another adventure\u2014one that would change her life.<\/p>\n
In the midst of\u00a0the 2014 American immigration crisis when thousands of children fled severe violence in Central America, Chee accepted an\u00a0internship\u00a0with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)\u00a0which\u00a0aims to protect children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border unaccompanied and as a result entered into deportation proceedings in the United States immigration system. KIND’s ultimate goal is to\u00a0ensure that no child is alone in a court of law.\u201cI heard horrific stories about why these children had fled their homes and why they sought shelter in the United States. Many had been abused, abandoned, or threatened by gang violence.\u201d This experience\u00a0laid the foundation for Chee’s post-graduation plans,\u00a0and\u00a0a study away trip her senior year honed that\u00a0focus.<\/p>\n
In the spring of 2015, Chee embarked on a journey that she considers the\u00a0highlight of\u00a0her Furman career. The 2015 Southern Africa study away program, led by sociology professor\u00a0Kristy Maher, Ph.d., psychology professor\u00a0Erin Hahn, Ph.D., history professor\u00a0Erik Ching, Ph.D., and art professor\u00a0Terri Bright, Ph.D.,\u00a0focused on critical issues facing the region such as the the HIV\/AIDS epidemic, challenges to child development for kids living in poverty, and mineral resources\u00a0and the\u00a0economy, among others.\u00a0Students\u00a0engaged with locals through three separate home stays and get to know the culture, history, and people of the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite part of the trip was my homestay in Namibia. The people I stayed with had no electricity, they lived off the land, and they were so happy.\u201d Though joyful at times, the experience was also\u00a0eye-opening. Chee recalls\u00a0a visiting\u00a0an orphanage, \u201cMany of the children I met had special needs and disabilities. They had been left in the streets by their families.\u201d Chee experienced firsthand some of the philosophical ideas she had learned in class, like the\u00a0Ovarian Lottery and the Veil of Ignorance. \u201cYour walk of life is determined by where you\u2019re born\u2014I could have been one of those children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chee discovered Border Servant Corps after returning from Africa. She had missed the deadline while on study away, but by a stroke of luck there was an opening. In August 2015, following graduation from Furman, she headed to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she will live until the end of July 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was first drawn by the BSC\u2019s four major tenets: social justice, community, spirituality, and simplicity.\u201d Chee lives with other volunteers in intentional community where they share their experiences. They also live in solidarity with their clients\u2014not saving them but working with them to improve their lives.<\/p>\n
Her work with BSC is tied to another organization, Catholic Charities Legal Services Program, through which she works with her clients. Chee works in two kinds of cases, U Visa cases for immigrants who have experienced crimes in the United States and cases related to the Violence Against Women Act, which is a federal law protecting immigrants from domestic violence at the hands of residents. \u201cMany immigrants don\u2019t know that even though\u00a0they are illegal, they still have rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most challenging part of my job is getting a client\u2019s declaration. I sit with a client and go through his or her entire story.\u201d This could either mean discussing a client\u2019s relationship to his or her abusive partner by going back to the beginning of their relationship or hearing history of crimes. In some cases, she witnesses the\u00a0transition from helplessness to\u00a0empowerment. In\u00a0one of her cases\u00a0an\u00a0immigrant woman was reluctant to leave\u00a0her abusive husband, but as Chee helped the woman begin the process of gaining independence, she ultimately chose to divorce\u00a0her husband and work toward\u00a0becoming a legal citizen.<\/p>\n
Because the immigrant system is backlogged, Chee won\u2019t see the final results with her own clients. However, she does get to make phone calls to older cases whose visas are ready, and she says\u00a0those phone calls are\u00a0the most satisfying parts of her job.<\/p>\n
Chee is considering going to law school so that she can further a\u00a0calling she\u00a0answered\u00a0while at Furman\u2014improving\u00a0the lives of those who are disenfranchised.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Learn more about internships<\/a>, study away<\/a> opportunities, and service<\/a> at Furman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just three months after she graduated with a double major in political science and Spanish and a double minor in poverty studies and Latin American studies, Cassandra \u201cCassie\u201d Chee \u201915 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":4260,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,26,3,60,58,16,32,27,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-administrative","category-alumni","category-alumni-profiles","category-internships","category-modern-languages-and-literature","category-politics-and-international-affairs","category-student-life","category-study-away-and-international-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33225,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4259\/revisions\/33225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}