Whitworth University staff and students are coming together to form a community and provide resources for immigrant, refugee and first-generation students as deportation initiatives from the Trump Administration continue.
The Immigration Learning Circle (ILC) is a club at Whitworth that meets every month in various locations on or near campus. Within the last year, the ILC decided that it would not publicly disclose its meeting locations and times.
“We ended up deciding on the closed option. The members of the group at the time felt that would be a safer setting, and then that’s only continued to be more of an issue as, obviously, ICE concerns have kind of escalated,” said Sophia Miller, the faculty advisor of the club and a counselor at the Whitworth health center.
Four years ago, Ayaka Dohi, the previous director of the Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office, reached out to Miller, suggesting the idea of a space for community and reflection on these students’ unique experiences.
“She thought it would be helpful to have a club on campus, like a club slash counseling group,” said Miller, “It’s kind of a combined, because I’m one of the counselors here, and it’s a combined processing group club.”
Alongside providing a space to process the current political climate, the club mainly focuses on building the community they’ve created. First-year student Cher Knyaw said that the club activities and conversations vary beyond just immigration experiences.
“For Valentine’s Day, we were actually here in Mind and Hearth. We made little Valentine’s Day cards, and we just kind of talked about things related to love. So we don’t always talk about, you know, how immigration affects us,” said Knyaw, “But we do try to keep it kind of on topic.”
With a campus population that is 64% white and non-Hispanic, Knyaw said, it’s been difficult to find friends who can understand her experiences as a first-generation university student. The ILC provided a space for her to find those who can.
“I’m a lot happier on campus now,” said Knyaw, “I came here, and I was like, I can’t really relate to my white peers.”
Knyaw talked about how she felt she was able to find a group of peers who related to her own experiences during high school and craved a similar community at Whitworth.
“Finding people who come from the same background – first-gen, underrepresented, underprivileged community – is definitely, like, you know, you just see each other more, and you’re able to relate and you feel better about being on a campus that might not feel like you,” said Knyaw.
To join the ILC meetings, email Sophia Miller at [email protected] or send the club a message through their Instagram page.
