What was the process of planning your SIP like? My SIP took much longer than I thought it would because each design required so much thought and reflection. All of the designs are grounded in historical events, periods, myths, and anecdotes so the research aspect was very time consuming as well, although the final project doesn’t reflect that aspect as much.
If you could have done an additional SIP, what would have been the topic? If I could’ve done an additional SIP, it would’ve been a spoken word workshop or performance art workshop for women of color.
Any other comments/thoughts about your SIP that you want to share? I dedicate my SIP to my grandmother, Adoracion. This work is an ode to her and my adoration of strong Pinays.
INTERN: Hye Young Choi POSITION: Common Ground Newsletter & Marketing SIP TITLE: Baggage Check & Claims: Sharing Our Immigration Stories What was/is your SIP about? Baggage Check & Claims: Sharing Our Immigration Stories” was an opportunity for the community to hear each other’s immigration journeys, struggles, and dreams. Through this event, my intentions were to complicate and debunk stereotypes and myths about immigration and immigrants, destigmatize the undocumented community, and celebrate the lives and contributions of immigrants.
Why did you decide to do what you did? I thought about my passions and what elicited the most emotions from me. I cared about immigrant lives. I was curious to know what kind of stories other undocumented students had to share. I thought of doing a SIP on less personal topics, but I kept returning to the idea of a storytelling night. There were not enough counter narratives about
undocumented immigrants, particularly API undocumented people. And many folks still did not know what kind of struggles we had to endure. I wanted people to know about the unjust and arbitrary chaos that we had and continue to have for our immigration system. I wanted people to realize the how powerful borders and exclusive citizenship “rights” were in creating injustices and disparities in our communities.
What was the process of planning your SIP like? Planning my SIP was an emotional journey. I was often driven to tears while excavating stories from myself and my family, especially when incorporating the story of my grandfather who passed away two weeks prior to the event. I learned again the violence of the broken immigration filipiniana: a collection of memories: jolena vergara collas baggage check & claims: sharing our immigration stories: hye young choi
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