Note from Executive Director

Dear Friends of Enroot,

It’s with a heavy heart that I reach out again regarding the recent executive orders on immigration. I also come to you with a request for help.
 
When I look at Enroot students and their families I don’t see threats or burdens. I see abundant talent and tireless drive. I see resilience, courage, and bright dreams that cannot be extinguished. I see beauty, generosity and grace that exemplify humanity at its very best. I see my ancestors when they first started out here, and I see yours too.
 
The past few weeks have reminded us how fragile progress can seem and how long the journey to equality remains. They also bring to mind the sacrifices previous generations have made to stand up for our values. This is clearly a time for us to stand up and affirm that Enroot students, their families, and immigrants across this country are valued and valuable members of our community, and that we are more committed than ever to their success.

Many of you have been active in the last few weeks, participating in marches, contacting your elected officials, and rallying your friends to speak out. It makes me proud to know that the extended Enroot family is out there rolling up our sleeves and defending what we believe in. 
 
I hope you'll also consider taking one of these quick actions to show Enroot students they can count on us. Thanks for all you do to support Enroot students and keep our country’s proud legacy of welcoming immigrants alive and well!

Ben Clark
Executive Director

Many members of our community already support Enroot financially. Some donated as recently as last month. But I’m asking you to consider pitching in again to help us raise a $15,000 fund that will help us continue growing to serve more students and connect them with providers of legal services during this time of uncertainty.

We are going to build our own wall in the Enroot office and we need your help. Send us a short message of support for Enroot students and their families and we will tape it up as a ‘brick’ in our wall. We need you to help us build it!

As you’ve heard me say in previous letters, Enroot students are some of the most optimistic and resilient people I’ve ever met. But this is a moment when the safety net of support we surround them with is needed most. Share this letter and encourage others to stand with Enroot and our immigrant community.

Special Note from Executive Director: Sanctuary Cities

Dear Friends of Enroot:

Like many of you, I’ve found this week’s headlines particularly unsettling. Many of the moves of the President Trump administration seem to violate the values our country holds most dear. For the students and families Enroot serves, they create confusion and anxiety about an uncertain future.

While it can be easy to feel disempowered during  such a barrage of difficult news, I feel more grateful than ever to be working with all of you. We are ensuring Enroot students know they are safe and welcome here, and that we remain more committed to their success than ever. 

I'm also proud that our local leaders in Cambridge and Somerville joined dozens of leaders across the country in responding with unflinching commitment to uphold our values and honor our country's legacy of welcoming immigrants.

Joint statement from Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons and City Manager Louis A. DePasquale

Watch or read message from Somerville's Mayor Joseph Curtatone  

Especially right now, thank you for all you do for Enroot students!

Ben Clark

Reflections on the Women's Conference

December 8th 2016 was a special day for me. I got a chance to join the Women's Conference in Boston on that day.There were seven students in total from Enroot,including me. There were about 10,000 women who joined the conference. It was a huge program to increase awareness of rights and woman power among women. I’m glad that I was a part of that program and learned a lot. There were many women such as Annie Clark, Renee Connolly etc. who are successful in their life, talked on stage about their experiences and struggles. They taught me a lot by sharing their speech. I am going to list some ideas that I learned from the conference.

●    Failure brings your gift
●    You don't ask, you don't get
●    Study, forgive, and understand your parents
●    The way to grow your power to give it away
●    A song is not a song until you sing it, A bell is not a bell until you ring it

There were two parts of the conference. In the 1st part successful women shared their experiences and in the 2nd part we joined in a different session and got to know about “ I Am That Girl ” (a community support for 14-22 years old girl). In the end, I’m grateful for having that opportunity to learn lessons of life.

- Samprity, 12th grade Cambridge Enroot Student

“Life can teach you a valuable lesson from your mistakes”

It was a helpful experience I had at the women’s conference. I learned a lot. I learned about woman power. Power is always and everything. I learned that as a women you need your own power which is actually shows who you are person in this world and society. Don’t worry about making mistakes and taking risk. “Life can teach you a valuable lesson from your mistakes.” These words inspire me so much to do anything I want to do without being scared. I also learned self care is so important. You must stand for yourself and speak out. Be educated and free from sexual violence. These are amazing thing to learn in life, and I got an opportunity to attend women’s conference and learned valuable lessons. We can’t go forward without taking some lessons from the past. I will always keep this experience in my mind.  

- Sana, 12th grade Cambridge Enroot Student

MLK Day Volunteering

By: Clauvens, 10th Grade Enroot Cambridge Student

My name is Clauvens and I go to CRLS. I'm originally from Haiti. I went to the City Hall to volunteer for MLK Day. I helped people with sorting books. I served people with food and drinks. I helped clean up after the event. The most interesting part of this visit was when I was serving people because I met new people who came to the MLK day event.

Cambridge Career Panel

By: Spica, 11th Grade Enroot Cambridge Student

In the career panel, we met some amazing people. They work in their own field, have different careers, different backgrounds and different perspective of life. But they all have the same kind of passion for life and their careers. We learned a lot not only from their speech about their experiences as professionals, but also from the life story they provide for us.

Aman Advani used to study engineer major when he was in college. At that time, what he knew about himself is all about engineering. He worked so hard everyday, got his degree and went to work right away. That was a hard time, he had to get on a plane every Monday and visit different places in the world. Although he never get enough sleep, he actually enjoy his time. However, after years, he started thinking, is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? That is when he took a step back, went back to school again. He went to MIT to the school of management and learned new stuff. In there, he met a friend and they started business with him together. They built a company together in a tiny room. For Mr. Aman, he really wants to make something that makes people more positive. So he and his friends try to makes these new clothes easy to move around. 

“If you only judge people by color, or the community they come from, that is not fair for them at all. You should listen to their story, understand who they really are instead of giving them a “tag” when you first saw them.”


The first impressions of Mr. Gustavo Lopez is very obvious. I mean, he looks very serious, also, cool. He stood up and started his speech. He wanted to become a police officer when he was in middle school. So after he graduated from high school, he started his police dream. He also went to college and studied Criminal justice. However, after I chatted with him, I find out he has something special not only just as a police officer. When he took off his police jacket, he is normal person like us. You might see him in Starbucks, the train station or some other place. So we should feel free to talk with them. I asked him about the the police shooting people in the street, he had his own perspective .Although they are all police, they are not the same people. You can not just judge people based on their outfit. For example, if a police man shoots people by no reason, is that means other police will also shoot people? NO. They do wear the same uniform, but it doesn’t mean they are all the same. I actually think about the same way. People nowadays look at problem only on one side. If there is one bad person, does that means all the people in his community are bad? You can’t say everyone is bad and we should kill all of them. Bad people always exist in our life, however, most of the people are good people. If you only judge people by color, or the community they come from, that is not fair for them at all. You should listen to their story, understand who they really are instead of giving them a “tag” when you first saw them.

Denys E.Alvarez's career is support engineer in at Analysis Group. I have never heard support engineer before in my life. After I talked with him, I find out that it is a career that has to work in the back. So what he usually do is when there is a problem happening in the company, he will go and investigate how this problem occur and try to fix it.  When he was small, he was really into computers. But at the same time, he also loved to talk with people and solved problem for them. So he kind of combined his two hobbies together. That is the other thing we can think when we chose career in the future. If you have two things that you really wants to do, try to find a way that you can chose both.

“Never give up what you think you want to do and what you think you can do. Even if people judge you, it is still your life. You are going to live for yourself, not for other people.”
— Pamela Rosario Perez

Pamela Rosario Perez grew up in a small town in the Dominican Republic that didn’t have electricity. However, she didn’t want to follow the steps of her family. Because in some countries, people don’t think letting women to work is right. They think women should stay at home and take care of kids. As she said, that is not right, a woman is also a person, they should have equal rights as men. Women should have opportunities for education and chase their dream. Pamela wanted to go to a college. But her counselors and teachers in high school didn’t think she could go to college. She felt upset and frustrated at first. You know, that is the worst feeling that when you think you can achieve something, others don’t believe in you. In addition, instead of saying something positive and encourage you, they  chose to “pull you back.” After a while, she didn’t give up her dream. She set up a plan to make her counselor agree for her to take AP classes. At the end, she really proved herself and she went to Harvard with a full ride scholarship. She said, “Back then, I can still remember that day how my counselor’s face looked. That is such a different experience in my life.” When we asked her how she got into Harvard even there was no one think that is possible, she smiled and her voice is full of confidence. “Never give up what you think you want to do and what you think you can do. Even if people judge you, it is still your life. You are going to live for yourself, not for other people.”
All in all, I learned a lot in this career panel. It provides me such a good opportunity to know these different career in our life. Because of these people, our life become more ordered. To end up with, let’s go back to the idea of career.  A career is different than a job, it is the thing you really want to do in life. Even if sometimes you are tired, you can still keep the passion. For the future, choose something you really want to do. Never give up what you think you want to do and what you think you can do. “Even if people judge you, it is still your life. You are going to live for yourself, not for other people."

Cambridge student reflects on her internship

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My name is Rode and I am originally from Haiti. I am in 11th grade at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. As part of the Enroot program, I am working at the Harrington Community School. This school is a place where elementary school kids come after school to learn and have fun. I help the teacher make sure that the kids are safe. I also help the teacher to make sure that the kids are following directions and answer questions.

The most interesting parts are playing with the kids. It's interesting because I get to know the kids and they are all very different. For example, some kids are better behaved than others. I learned how to connect with kids. I learned how to be responsible. Also, I learned how to work with teachers and staff. While I am working with them, I get to improve my communication skills. 

Mentoring at Enroot

Vanessa and Wendy build a gingerbread house together.

Vanessa and Wendy build a gingerbread house together.

Hi my name is Wendy and I am a junior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin. I’m from Haiti and my mentor’s name is Vanessa, she works in finance and she likes exercising and going out to dinner with friends. The things me and my mentor have in common is we like  to shop, travelling, dance and we would also like to afford a big house in the future. I talk to my mentor about the college i would like to attend which is Yale University. And my future career which is a pediatric doctor. My favorite part about Enroot is you get to interact with new people and the people are very kind and welcoming.

 

Enroot Visits Glass House

My name is Sawera. I am in tenth grade in Somerville High School. I am from Pakistan.

In the Enroot program, we visit to colleges and also we visit to professional companies. It’s helps us to think about our careers; like what we want to do in our future. In Enroot, we do lots of cool stuff, such as we talk about how to apply to college, how we can get professional job, sometimes we play games for fun, we have tutors and mentors we work with them, and also we do our school work (such as writing a story or essay). We went to the “Glass House Restaurant” on December 6, 2016. The best part of this visit was when the manager was talking with us. He was talking us about how he became a manager. He started his job to clean the dishes. He work hard and studied hard to get on this position. He tell us, “He give everyone equal rights”. He didn’t care about anyone's religion and he thinks everyone’s equal.

On this visit, I learned how we can get better and better by keep trying to get better and nothing is impossible. Whatever, we want we can do it.   

Our Trip to Microsoft

Our program in Somerville is off to a strong start. Students recently went on a career visit to the Microsoft Store to learn more about career opportunities there. Here is one student's account of the day:

Emanuelle and other Somerville students try their hands at coding.

Emanuelle and other Somerville students try their hands at coding.

Hi my name is Emanuelle. I am a sophomore at Somerville High School, and I am from Brazil. This week we went to the Microsoft store in Boston. When we first got there they started to talk about their jobs. They also explained the history of Microsoft and who founded the company. Next they taught us how to code. We watched a tutorial on the computer, and then we made our own code. At the end we played the game that we made with the code.

The most interesting part of this visit was when the employees told us how they got their jobs. For example they explained which classes they took in college and what else they had to do to get their jobs. This was interesting because, it is helpful for people who might want that job.

One thing that I learned is that Microsoft's CFO is the first woman to hold that position. Her name is Amy Hood and she is on Forbes, list of ‘’The World’s 100 Most Powerful Woman’’. It’s great that a woman is in that position because usually we have a lot of man in top leadership positions. Amy Hood is an inspiration for girls who want to be powerful and independent when they grow up.

Our trip to Microsoft was exciting and I learned a lot about different parts of the company.