On Friday, Sept. 16, sophomores participated in an assembly with two fourth year law students who took part in UConn Law’s Asylum and Human Rights Clinic. The event was run by sophomores Ysabel Albert, Clara Drag, Zaire Ramiz, Nidhi Bhat, Alex Segal, Nika Garfield, and Joella Asapokhai. During the seminar, these moderators introduced the law students and asked student-generated questions sent in during English classes prior to the clinic.
In January 2020, English Department Chair Catherine Schieffelin and history Department Chair David Baker, along with a group of English and history teachers, initiated this partnership between the UConn clinic and KO, aiming to create interdisciplinary learning opportunities between the two subjects. “We were in a faculty PD session, and we saw the overlap and thought, ‘It’s crazy that we’re not doing something to really take advantage of this,’” Ms. Schieffelin said. She reached out to the director of UConn’s Asylum and Human Rights Clinic, who gave her the names of a few fellows who would be interested in speaking at KO.
In the fall of 2020, the clinic was hosted virtually due to COVID-19, and last year was the first year the assembly took place in person. This year, the assembly remained in person in Roberts Theater.
Each year, two or three fellows have spoken to the sophomore class about their experience with UConn’s program. During this year’s assembly, law students Grace Denny and Hannah Lauer explained their case while still protecting the confidentiality of their client.
The two law students worked together on a case in which they represented a Nigerian woman fleeing gang violence and gender-based abuse. Ms. Lauer and Ms. Denny explained the process they went through with their client: filling out the asylum application, the I-589, getting an interview with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the various other steps towards gaining asylum in the United States.
Sophomore Nidhi Bhat worked with other volunteers to plan the clinic and looked through questions sophomore students sent in to ask the law students. “I wanted to get personal experience, and I was able to meet with the two students from UConn and I really enjoyed it,” Nidhi said.
Connecting sophomore English and history classes through content similarities creates an interdisciplinary learning experience. The summer reading novels, “Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid and “The Displaced,” edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen both highlight the refugee experience. “I think the sophomores have the background that allows them to appreciate it a little bit more,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “Having read ‘The Displaced,’ having read ‘Exit West,’ and having talked about these issues in history and English class, they’re more prepared to really appreciate it.”
Beyond the connections in the summer reading and curricula of the two courses, this opportunity is given to sophomores because of relevance to the age group. Sophomore year is seen as a period of growing into adulthood, a time of maturation, change, and development of an individual’s ideas.
Within the Modern World Studies course, these issues are seen going back hundreds of years. “This topic is something that the world has been dealing with, and something that we as a country have been faced with time and time again,” Mr. Baker said. “The modern era is filled with times when people were ‘othered,’ kicked out of their homes, and had to migrate.”
In the aftermath of last year’s assembly, one of the law students who spoke at KO ran a handful of student-focused workshops through UConn Law School. “She reached out to me directly, and we sent some KO kids to do some workshops at UConn Law,” Ms. Schieffelin said. “It was a great way to make a reciprocal relationship with the law school.”
KO looks forward to hosting the Asylum and Human Rights Clinic assembly next year, as it was a great success for the sophomore class.
