GC Alumni Spotlight: Merna Ebeid

 

Merna Ebeid '17
Major: Government and Politics & Criminology/Criminal Justice 
Hometown: Bel Air, MD
 
Global Communities: Tell us about your GC Global Experience.

Merna Ebeid: I was an intern at Lutheran Social Services (LSS) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) during the Spring 2015 semester. These two organizations, along with the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) and the Maryland Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), help form the Suburban Washington Resettlement Center located in Silver Springs, MD. The SWRC is a one-stop, collective resource for refugee and asylee services. All four of these organizations collaborate together and rely heavily on one another for resources and referrals, all in the benefit of resettling refugees and asylees, outfitting them with the proper care and public services, and prepping them for their new life in America for the first nine months that we are allowed to work one-on-one with them. 

GC: Did you work with refugees from particular geographic backgrounds?

ME: Indeed, all the refugees I worked with were either Afghani, Iraqi, or Russian. It was explained to me that around 10% of these refugees were fleeing a truly dangerous circumstances or warzone. The Afghani refugees had clearance thanks to their SIV (Special Immigration Visa) status, which signals that one of the members in the family (usually the husband) had worked alongside American troops during the US-Afghan conflicts. Thus, at least one member of an Afghan refugee family spoke English, and they were often fairly well off – some had studied in the US while they were an undergrad, some had lived in Germany and spoke more than five languages, some were already working on getting a job with the Immigration office in Washington D.C. Since the SVI status doesn’t apply to Iraqi refugees, their circumstances were a little bit different. Since it was rare for any Iraqi refugee to come speaking English, I didn’t spend much time with them. Likewise, I only worked with one Russian client, and that was over the phone, using a telephonic interpreter.

GC: Did you feel a personal connection to any of your cases?

ME: Yes, especially the Iraqi and Afghani women. Many of them were already educated in their own right, although they spoke minimal English. Among this population, my supervisor and I were able to be a representation of Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) women who shared a base commonality while getting an education, holding jobs, and making money. I could tell that many of the Afghani women were energized talking about job training opportunities, ESL classes, and more schooling with us. And among the population of Afghani women who were not educated, who spoke no English, and who were saddled with one, or two, or five little children to take care of, I feel as though we, at least, made a possibility more amiable to their imagination, seeing as their families were staying afloat thanks to the services other immigrant women were providing them.

GC: What was the most rewarding aspect of your experience?

ME: By far the most rewarding thing for me was the interaction I got with the refugee families. I’m naturally people oriented, and I wouldn’t have applied for this internship if it didn’t give me potential to meet and help a wide range of people in need. Refugees are a small, isolated pocket of our country. They’re not immigrants, they’re not asylees – they often come with little and expect only the bare minimum.

GC: How did your internship experience further your academic and professional goals?

ME: The internship was especially germane to my academic study of Government and Politics and scholarship in practice. I now have a first-hand account of many federal and local government proceedings, and I’ve been building intimate knowledge of what refugee resettlement actually “looks like”, and how various political actions have impacted this process, be it directly or indirectly. My college scholarship are hardly intangible, abstract concepts anymore. Since I am majoring in Government and Politics, I view this experience as an authentic reflection of much of the ‘theory’ I learn in my International Development classes, and even my Global Communities Globalization and Solving Global Problem classes. I’m also thinking about pursuing law. International and immigration law is somewhat of a potential interest of mine, so seeing some of the failures in America’s current system gives me insight into what needs to be improved. I can get an exclusive look at vulnerabilities lie, vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited in refugee cases. Regardless, this internship has given me valuable experience that will definitely impact my career choice(s) in the future, wherever it may take me.