Mingxue Zheng Capstone

In my life in America, I experienced discrimination, language issues, and other complications just like any other immigrants. As an immigrant, I always wanted to help my fellow immigrants. So, I decided to join the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition during the summer. Every Mondays and Fridays, I helped new citizens with their voter registration. My ability to speak Mandarin allowed me to register Chinese immigrants who were either reserved or ineloquent in English. While volunteering, I gained organization and logistics skills by keeping track of the number of newly registered voters after each naturalization ceremony. 

During the fall, I participated in phone banks every afternoon on Thursdays and Wednesdays for three months. In each session, I connect with advocators and immigrants. I had become increasingly knowledgeable about the current issues that current immigrations are facing. 

As I became more devoted to the program, I was inspired to create my capstone project on immigration reform. I worked with Maria Sotomayor, the program coordinator, and Maria’s coworkers, Sundrop Carter and Taja Towne, to create a website. The website includes information about the immigration histories in the U.S., three PICC staff interviews videos, and a Diversity Photography Gallery that will remind us the importance of immigrants in the U.S. 

As a result of this project, I was able to improve my photography and video editing skills and as well as my leadership skills. I hope this project will educate the public more about immigration and gather more volunteers to support the immigrant communities.

*Bibliography included in website 

Capstone Movie Trailer: https://vimeo.com/128563493

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