CRIS Intern urges others to volunteer as well

Sarah Taylor was our summer Communication Intern and is currently studying abroad in France.  We wish her the best of luck in her adventures and travels! Read below about her experience at CRIS this summer!My name is Sarah Taylor.  I am a rising junior at Davidson College in North Carolina.  I have had the privilege of spending the last seven weeks of my summer as an intern with Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS).  CRIS serves refugees living in Columbus, Ohio with job placement programs, English as a second language (ESL) classes, and cultural orientation sessions, and by providing new arrivals with temporary housing, furniture, and transportation.I am the organization’s Communication Intern.  I write blog posts, update the Facebook page, take videos and photos of events, and attend community gatherings.  In addition to my communications work I volunteer two times per week teaching English in our beginning ESL class.The best thing about interning at CRIS is the novelty of each and every day here.  No two days of my internship have been identical.  Each class leaves me humbled by the focus and determination of my students, and I leave class with their calls of “thank you” of tips to finding a husband (the search for which they expect to start now) still ringing in my ears.  I may spend one day researching into the legal status of Central American unaccompanied minors, planning a World Refugee Day celebration, or polling the entire office as to their predictions as to which team would win the World Cup.  The next I may help organize the donated supplies closet, pick up food at Ginevra, a local Somali restaurant, and sit in on a staff meeting.I have traveled throughout Columbus to meet with refugees from all over the world (Somalia, Iraq, the Congo, Ethiopia, Iran, and Bhutan to name a few).  Their journeys to reach America are full of hardship and loss, but they are happy to have made it to America, which is a land of boundless opportunity for them.Volunteering and interning with CRIS is the best way I could have spent my summer.  The staff is welcoming and friendly and the refugee clients are appreciative of the help they receive, and, as a result, I feel that my contributions have made a positive difference in the lives of others.  I urge others to do the same!  CRIS is always looking for enthusiastic volunteers who want to get to know a new side of Columbus.  Contact Hannah Hartshorn (hhartshorn@cris-ohio.org), CRIS’ Resource Developer, to learn about the latest volunteering opportunities.