Michaea Vaughn

Senior Seminar Reflection

Connections I

For senior seminars, students are supposed to bring in a community member to speak
about a topic of their choice. Usually, the speaker talks about a career a student is interested in.
For my senior seminar, I hosted a lunch and invited a group of seniors that were interested in
immigration issues. Fadumo Adan came to the lunch to speak and answer questions about
immigration policy and deportation processes. Fadumo Adan was a facilitator at Building
Bridges while I was a participant. During my time in Building Bridges, I got to know Fadumo and
learn about her story as a former Somali refugee. She has a degree in Sociology, and is very
passionate about issues surrounding immigration. Her dream is to work for the UN Refugee
Agency.
I asked Fadumo to talk about the everyday life of an immigrant and immigration policy.
She told a little bit of her story because she is in fact an immigrant herself. She mentioned
members of her family, and mostly talked about her experiences as a refugee since no two
immigration stories are exactly the same. She also talked about the Immigration Act of 1924 and
its purpose of limiting the number of immigrants from each nation to two percent of the
population of each nationality in the United States based on the 1890 census. She also
mentioned the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 which made the original quota system
obsolete. She was very diligent in explaining the historical context and impact of each of the
things she mentioned. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 was passed during the
civil rights movement, which was a time where people were thinking about equal rights and
equality. The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 made it possible for DACA and DAPA
to exist in the 21st century. Although DACA and DAPA are flawed systems, they have brought
more attention to the issue of immigration. DACA and DAPA have caused a lot of resistance,
which will help improve the systems for future immigrants and maybe one day make it easier for
immigrants to gain citizenship in the United States.
I decided to host a lunch because I did not have enough time to plan to hold it in a room
at school. I also learned from my senior service project that presentations get a more positive
response if the people in attendance actually want to be there. So I invited people that were
interested or had personal experience. The students that attended asked a lot of great
questions and were engaged while Fadumo was speaking. A student asked a question about
how President Trumps immigration policy may impact how the Immigration and Naturalization
process has worked in the past and what that my look like for refugees around the world.
In my opinion, the seminar went well and the students were attentive. I couldnt have
asked for a better, more passionate speaker. I appreciate Fadumo taking the time to come
speak about immigration policy. Through this experience, I have become more interested in
immigration issues. I eventually would like to get involved in the Denver immigrant community
and help where I can. Learning about the history behind immigration was useful as well.