We have exciting news! This summer PICC hired Chae-Eon, Veronica and Priya for our pilot 8 week summer youth organizing program. Each organizer has been partnered with a local immigrant rights organization in Philadelphia, Phoenixville and Harrisburg (where they reside). Our organizers spent their first week training and getting ready for their local work. They are very excited to get immigrant and refugee youth to attend our Youth Convening and participate in local campaigns.
Meet our organizers!
Chae- Eon Jang, PICC
I am a Civic Engagement Intern at PICC, interested in raising awareness and advocating issues surrounding peoples who are at the intersections of class, gender, race, being undocumented and more. I wanted to work with PICC after seeing what they advocate for and their beliefs as it stands in line with what I believe in. And after protesting the presence of ICE and detention centers in Philly with undocumented folks to bring attention to the unfair deportations of undocumented immigrants with PICC and various organizations, I was able to see firsthand the work PICC and similar non profits do, which both amazed and inspired me to go further in my work in the future.
Veronica Perez Flores, Alianzas de Phoenixville
Hello wonderful world! My name is Veronica Perez Flores and I am the youth organizer for PICC this summer. I am seventeen years old and just graduated from Phoenixville Area High School. I am enrolled as a nursing student at Alvernia University for this fall! To be honest I am really excited to work with immigrant communities because my family and myself are included. My family is from a small town called Chavinda in Michoacan, Mexico. Altogether we have been living in Pennsylvania for fourteen years. Immigration is a topic that is yet to solved and I am willing to mobilize the youth in Pennsylvania to do something about it. I am going to be doing my work from Phoenixville in Alianzas, a Latino outreach program. Most of all I am interested in becoming a leader among my town and incorporating my work with PICC.
Especially, since this is the first time that I will be standing up for immigration rights in my community and those among us. Last year I attended the youth convening and that helped me feel connected to people around me that share the same experiences and motivation as myself. I am really excited to be the youth organizer because I will be in charge of mobilizing the youth to fundraise and help plan the convening. I really look forward to meeting new people and sharing our ideas in order to fight for what our immigrant communities deserve.
Priya Rizal, International Service Center
My name is Priya Rizal. I am 18 years old and I am from Nepal. I am very interested in working with immigrant communities because I want everyone to feel like they belong and be comfortable enough to share their unique ideas and experiences and that’s why I am very excited about my internship with PICC and ISC in Harrisburg because it is not only giving me a chance to learn people’s stories but also giving me a chance to help them with any problems they might be facing. The youth convening is another thing I am really looking forward to. I cannot wait to meet people who go through and have experienced the same thing as me.