Berkshire Immigrant Center, Pittsfield, MA
It is one thing to know the basics of immigration law well enough to lead workshops on campus and in local schools and community centers, as I have for several years through an immigrant advocacy student group at Williams called No Lost Generation. It is another thing entirely, however, to be able to listen to the five-minute version of a client’s story trying to navigate within that system and know immediately what questions to ask, what legal pathways might be open to them, and what the red flags might be.
I had the pleasure of interning at the Berkshire Immigrant Center (BIC) in Pittsfield this summer, the only organization in the County providing comprehensive immigration services to the newest members of our community. The organization, with six staff members, has a three-part mission: first, to offer immigration legal services through walk-in clinics and scheduled consultations to help clients adjust status and navigate our complex immigration system; second, to connect clients with other resources like housing, jobs, transportation, language study, and health care; and third, to lead education and outreach efforts to keep immigrants and non-immigrants informed about changes in policy and local demographics, and to assist local agencies looking to better serve their newcomer clients.
This summer has been an incredible whirlwind helping with a range of projects related to this mission. As an intern in a small office, I did not have one supervisor, per se. I was instead self-directed, adding to an ongoing list of projects given to me by various staff members, determining priorities myself, and updating my to-do list as I went. This was a wonderful set-up for me as I had almost full autonomy—even able to come up with and implement my own projects as I identified needs—and gained a broad sense of the workings of the office.
In addition to the typical intern tasks like filing and making thank you calls to donors, I led a number of special projects. I met supporters who came in for office tours; connected with every faith-based organization in Berkshire County and updated their contact information; and coordinated a MailChimp campaign to identify inactive subscribers with a “We Miss You” eblast to eventually whittle down our list of subscribers to avoid maxing out the free subscriber allowance. I led weekly office tours in July for groups of Williams Summer Humanities prefrosh; helped set up for and coordinate a number of events; and corresponded with many dozens of volunteers to overhaul BIC’s outdated volunteer list and oversee their placements in various capacities at the Center. For the BIC board, I came up with fundraiser venue options and contacted local venues to discuss pricing for a future concert. I also completed USCIS applications for clients, distilling extensive client files to help newcomers adjust their immigration status or sponsor relatives; and revived and coordinated the Translation Project so clients could obtain translations of documents such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, and diplomas within one week’s time—a major accomplishment that I will continue to oversee during the school year.
In addition to my regular workday in the office, I set up and celebrated with clients at the summer Naturalization Ceremony; led tours during BIC’s Open House; accompanied an undocumented client to Hartford for an ICE check-in; attended an evening Know Your Rights workshop; learned alongside hundreds of other organizers at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition’s Democracy School in Springfield; and gave input at monthly team meetings, volunteer meetings, and fundraiser planning committee meetings. I was also given opportunities to sit in on many walk-in appointments between caseworkers and clients who were hoping to naturalize, sponsor relatives, or adjust immigration status. The caseworkers were enormously welcoming and eager to facilitate my learning, introducing me to clients as their “colleague” and patiently sharing their expertise when I stopped them daily in the file room to ask the meaning of some new acronym I had come across. And when a pastor called me wanting to know whether his undocumented congregant could renew his driver’s license, or a donor was looking for legal help for an asylum seeker her daughter was housing, or a client I ran into at Marshalls started asking me questions about public charge, the knowledge I was absorbing every day in the office became tangible and directly applicable.
All the staff and volunteers at BIC are incredibly dedicated, and the amount of good this small organization manages to accomplish is astounding. They are also wonderfully appreciative of each other, making the day-to-day experience in the office supportive and enjoyable even as we deal with tough cases and an increasingly chaotic legal landscape. This internship has given me a valuable understanding of what caseworkers actually do and what full-time advocacy work looks like, something I could not learn just from my efforts on campus. As I met clients who had to wait thirteen years for a sister or child to join them, or our caseworkers needed to ask clients, “Are you dating anyone?” because there is no legal pathway to offer besides marriage, I have gained a much more visceral sense of the brokenness of our immigration system. This internship has cemented my desire to pursue advocacy in some form after graduation, and working as an immigration caseworker at an organization like BIC would be a dream.
I am enormously appreciative both to the Kraft Family and to the ’68 Center for Career Exploration for making this opportunity possible. Small non-profits like the Berkshire Immigrant Center are precisely the organizations for whom one intern can make a big difference, and which can provide some of the most enriching experiences for students; it is also an organization that gives back to the Williams community every day as it supports newcomers and their families right here in Berkshire County. Thank you for your generosity and your commitment to students like me, and to our campus and community.