Marina is doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education. She has experience in language learning and teaching. She is currently researching the case of Lincoln Annex, a neighborhood school that, despite community resistance, got displaced to make space for the expansion of the local medical industry. Marina feels incredibly humbled by all the opportunities she had to engage with, learn from, and collaborate with community organizations in New Brunswick, NJ. She worked as an adult ESOL facilitator in different settings, particularly appreciating when that work is aligned with community organizing and advocacy. She also had plenty of opportunities to observe how strong and resourceful community organizers often do the work that the state refuses to do for migrant workers—what she calls reproductive labor, or the work that keeps people alive and well, while also bonding communities together.
Marina’s Mentoring Project
How well do you know New Brunswick? I’m talking New Brunswick that goes beyond Easton, George, and College Age. The city that speaks Spanish, that carries migration stories, and where people often have to luchar (struggle, organize) to access basic needs. This project is an invitation to engage with that comunidadthat inhabits French street and beyond. We’ll do that from a perspective that sees not only oppression or inequality, but that recognizes people and their organizations as strong, creative, and resourceful. We’ll understand what an asset-based orientation to community works means, and reflect on how to enact that. We’ll learn from community organizers, analyze the local socio-political landscape, and together come up with ways to collaborate with the community work that is already taking place in the city. This project welcomes people with different levels of previous engagement with the local community and/or other Latinx migrant communities—but any Spanish proficiency, migrant background, or community work experience will certainly be incredible assets.