Economy creates unique challenge for undocumented immigrant’s

Posted on April 21, 2011 by comm5775

Watch a multimedia video about undocumented immigrant’s struggles with the economy.

Story and multimedia by FLOR OLIVIO

The immigration debate often gets heated. In an effort to humanize the politics of immigration we see storytelling that some have classified as melodrama.

“I think it’s a very important part of the story, but I don’t think the opposition cares about that part, and why bother talking about something that is not going to get results,” says history teacher, Jodi Lopez.

We regularly find the faces of the people who this debate is really about buried in piles of statistics and dramatic stories. The turmoil between state and federal action is very clear even at a personal level.

The figures and facts both nationally and locally show a picture of an undocumented immigrant who among struggles, perseveres through American values.

Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. not only exist but they are here in the thousands.

Their contributions come in the billions. Regardless of immigration policy these people have the same basic necessities.

“A third of the children of unauthorized immigrants and a fifth of adult unauthorized immigrants lives in poverty,” according to the Pew Hispanic Center, “this is nearly double the poverty rate for children of U.S.-born parents (18%) or for U.S.-born adults (10%).”

Taking into account that undocumented children and families do not qualify for basic needs assistance like food stamps (SNAP), or traditional medical care (Medicaid), according to the Utah Department of Workforce Services, community resources and family help become essential for undocumented families.

The Pew Hispanic Center found that “most unauthorized immigrant adults reside with immediate family members- spouses or children.” “Almost half (47 percent) of undocumented immigrant homes are composed of couples with children,” a considerably different picture from households of US-born residents (21 percent) or legal immigrants (35 percent).

The stories that remain untold are of families helping each other and their sacrifices through unceasing work that gets these new American families through the days, weeks and months.

“I sell everything that I can.” said Milvia, an undocumented immigrant woman who migrated to the US from Colombia. “I sell nutrition products. I clean offices at night, I earn about seven hundred a month doing that, and even with all this we could not afford to pay rent, and everything else the kids need. My husband had to travel out of the state to find work and has been working there since October of last year, with no hope to return.” Milviaʼs full name is excluded because of her current immigration status.

The facts that undocumented workers pay property, state, food and federal taxes as well as Medicare and Social Security pay-ins that they can never apply for or benefit from are also frequently left out.

A study published in April 2011 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, non-partisan research organization that works on federal, state, and local tax policy issues, found that in 2010, “unauthorized immigrants paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes. Which included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property, and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.” The states receiving the most tax revenue were California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois. Utah received, 105 million in total revenue from undocumented immigrant taxes.

Regardless of their hard work, immigrant familiesʼ income is notably less than nonimmigrant families, and so immigrant children live in families with lower levels of income.

In a report by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan economic and social policy research organization, nationally “the median hourly wages for all wage and salary earners in immigrant families were lower than the median wages for native families,” $14 versus $18.

“The current Utah economy affects these undocumented children directly,” says Elisa Bridge, a coordinator and family support worker for the Salt Lake School District, “jobs are not in abundance, and if you are undocumented itʼs harder to get a job.”

She explained the on-going situation with two parents working outside the home, two or three jobs at a time to be able to support families and provide their children with very basic necessities.

Students suffer when their basic necessities are not met, “This can affect their learning,” said Bridge,” when Iʼm talking about basic needs Iʼm talking about food, clothing or families struggling with bed bugs,” which is a big problem for undocumented families we come in contact with right now. It comes down to “a lot of people just living in horrible situations.”

These are very negative effects but hope seems to be abundant for the undocumented.

“There are students that see their parents struggling, so that might motivate them to fight harder to become something in life and obtain and education,” says Bridge.

Even with this motivation, these same students currently have no hope to actually go on to receive a higher education or to be able to work legally.

Legislation like the “DREAM Act” is geared to close some of these gaps for undocumented children who want to pursue a higher education or serve in the military and successfully navigate through American society.

Some programs that currently help undocumented youth are kept under the shadows in the same places these children reside. Northwest Middle School has an after school program where children receive homework help. The school also provides a dinner option for any student that decides to participate and because school districts do not inquire about immigration status these programs are sometimes the only way some of these students can get a good dinner.

In reality it is hard to document a group of people who live in constant fear of having their livelihood destroyed. It becomes just one more daily struggle.

Regardless unauthorized immigrants continue making it through the values that most Americans identify with hard work, honesty, family and the pursuit of happiness, these undocumented people continue living, surviving and in most cases creating a community of perseverance and hope.

Filed under: Immigrants & Refugees, Organizations, Politics, Utah's Economy | Leave a comment »

Ultimate volunteers: Youth baseball league survives with volunteer efforts

Posted on April 21, 2011 by comm5775

Watch a multimedia video about Farmington Baseball League President John Wendt.

Story and multimedia by JORDON CAHOON

What makes one person willing to do what others are not? It’s hard enough to make someone take a well paying job that isn’t appealing. Imagine just how hard it is to make someone volunteer for a stressful, non-paying position, especially in a down economy. This is a position where the only acknowledgement you will receive is for what you haven’t done or what you did to benefit yourself and your family. Sounds like a winner right?

John Wendt is the volunteer president of the Farmington Area Baseball League, also known as FABL, and has been now for the past three years.

“I’d be lying if I told you it was easy,” Wendt said, “but there is some satisfaction that comes from knowing I can give back, and help kids today play ball.”

The league is led each season by a group of parents that are elected by their peers for the positions of league President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and Umpire Director. All of these positions are unpaid and take quite a toll on the members’ time.

“I kind of fell into the role of president,” said Wendt, “we had attended a leadership meeting where the former President and Vice, both announced they were going to resign.”

Wendt, having two young boys ages three and six at the time, both just entering the league, was a perfect candidate for FABL’s next President. After a few hours of pointing out how and why someone else would make a good president, all that had attended the meeting had come to agree that Wendt would take over the following year as the next league president.

“To be honest I didn’t know what I had just got myself and family into,” Wendt said. “Not to mention that I had no idea of what I was going to do and how I was going to do it.”

FABL began in 1991, when a group of parents were unhappy with the way their city-ran league was being led. They put together the money and organized a self-sustaining league that over the past twenty years has seen a meteoric rise, becoming and maintaining the standing of one of the top leagues in PONY Baseball since 2000.

“The parents just weren’t happy with what was and wasn’t getting done,” said Gaylen Perry, former FABL vice president, “so the parents took over and the league has never looked back.”

FABL has its opening ceremonies April 16, which means there is a lot to get done in short time leading up to the events. With the weather the way it’s been this year, the task of getting the fields prepared for opening day is becoming even more time consuming for these volunteer parents.

“There were weeks where I spent a good 40 plus hours working on the fields just trying to get them going,” Perry said. “Between leveling out the fields, to building new dugouts, even just getting rid of the water to make it playable is a lot of work.”

Wendt and his son have been spending a few hours each day, after school, work, and practice to get the fields prepped for the events on Saturday.

“It’s kind of amazing how the whole thing just comes together, for a long while it just looks and feels like you are getting nowhere,” Wendt said.  “Then, next thing you know, you are laying chalk down and marking your batter’s box and ready to play ball. “

Aside from just trying to get the fields ready for opening night, Wendt and his wife, Becky, spend a considerable amount of time preparing for the season and planning out concessions and fundraisers to help generate some revenue for the league.

“We’re going to have a radar-gun-challenge, people from the Salt Lake Bee’s, our own FABL merchandise, as well as our concession stand running for opening day.” Becky Wendt said. “The whole process of planning it out has been a lot of work but should turn out worth it in the end.”

The Wendt family as a whole is generally at the fields five nights a week, whether playing in games or not. The total amount of hours worked each week by the family is on average 60 hours between John, Becky and their eldest son.

“Sure other places do it different and that may in fact be easier,” Wendt Said, “but this gives you a sense of ownership and accomplishment. Plus at the end of the day hanging out at the ball park isn’t that bad of a place to be anyways.”

Volunteering that much time doesn’t come easy, let alone in an economy like the one we’ve seen the past few years. Running a league and having to field the complaints of what isn’t going well and what should be fixed, and little Joey’s coach doesn’t play him enough, is sure to take a toll on someone. How much longer is can or will someone continue holding the torch?

“The former president was here for quite a while and did some really good things,” Wendt said. “I’ll probably stick around as long as my kids are playing or wanting to play in the league, unless someone else decides they want to step in and run it.”

For a league built and maintained by volunteers, it’s not easy to find the time and funding to keep a league running as smoothly as FABL does. Despite a poor economy, so few volunteers, and having to work themselves, they get it done.

“The league has taken off and seemed to be able to carry itself,” Wendt said, “sure it would be easier if we could have some positions paid, but when it comes down to it we almost always are ready for the games.”

Filed under: Organizations, Sports & Recreation, Utah's Economy | Leave a comment »

Student programming a victim of budget cuts

Posted on April 14, 2011 by comm5775

Story by JANITA BADON

Cotton candy machines, face painting, photo booths, and every other activity that you could enjoy with your friends. Bringing the student base together, meeting new people—all sounds fun, but it could be a victim of budget cuts.

Crimson Nights is a place where a young adult could simply be a kid again.

Last Friday was the first Crimson Nights in about four months. Crimson Nights is a school dance put on by the student body that’s filled with activities for the students to enjoy. Every Crimson Nights is themed and just built for the students to come out and enjoy. But lately there hasn’t been that many Crimson Nights to go to, and the students at the University of Utah are worried.

Junior Iwalani Rodgruies has been attending the University of Utah for three years now and claims she has never went this many months without Crimson Nights.

“When we went on our Crimson drought, I felt like something was missing,” Rodgriues said. “I kept asking people when the next Crimson Nights is.”

People at the University of Utah really missed Crimson Nights, and noticed differences from previous years than the times now.

“When you’re at a certain place for three years, of course you’ll notice differences,” Rodgriues said. “But I thought it would simply be differences and changes for the better. But speaking about Crimson, its gotten worse.”

With fewer activities Crimson Nights still continues, but only so often. Jamie Matteiu, a junior at the University of Utah, wants Crimson Nights to continue but is worried about the budget that the University of Utah has to work with.

“We love putting on Crimson Nights but we like doing other events as well,” Matteiu said “ Crimson is our best event but if we spend all the money at one Crimson Nights, than we don’t have enough for more than Crimson.”

With the budget being cut by one-fourth, the future for Crimson doesn’t look too bright.

“That’s when we have to think, do we have less Crimson Nights during the year and more activities during it, or do we have like three a year, with the best activities any event can offer,” Matteiu said.

Filed under: Education, Organizations, Utah's Economy | Leave a comment »

U’s communication department rebounds from tough times

Posted on April 5, 2011 by comm5775

Watch a multimedia slideshow about the department.

Story and multimedia by SCOTT WISEMAN

The University of Utah’s department of communication is unique in the fact that it is constantly adapting its curriculum to new developments in technology. Along with the conflicts of adjusting to increasing technology, the future of the department was in jeopardy when the recession struck just two years ago.

The department of communication is responsible for teaching approximately 1,500 undergraduate students the ins-and-outs of several different fields including media, public relations, journalism, speech communication, argumentation and conflict studies and organizational communications.

In the present day, the communication department is seeing signs of a healthier economy. The department will not see any budget cutbacks for the upcoming year, as the Utah legislature stepped up state funding.

“Two years ago, we lost many faculty members and their positions,” said Craig Denton, a professor in his 34th year in the university’s communications department. “That’s the way we made our budget cuts.”

Although the department never laid off a single employee, employees who retired or quit their jobs were never replaced. The department spends almost all of its funding on faculty, and the staff was asked to teach extra classes and take more students into their sections without a raise.

“Two years ago, personally I agreed to teach an extra class to help out,” Denton said. “I would’ve preferred not doing it, but I’m a member of a team. Everyone stepped up in a different way, including teaching more classes and taking more students into their classes.”

The recession not only affected faculty, but students as well. The department placed a restriction on the amount of paper each student was allowed to print in the computer labs. The students were asked to bring their own paper to print assignments, said Louise Degn, associate department chair of the communication department.

“This is the first year in two years, projecting into next year, that we will not have any budget cutbacks,” Degn said. “The legislative session just ended and the tax revenues were up enough that they were able to provide funding.”

This is great news for the department, which will look for replacements in the positions lost during the recession. The department can also use extra money to increase the budget for technology and classroom development.

“Our future is looking good, because while we gave up all of those positions to the budget cuts, we’re starting to get them back real quickly,” Denton said. “The university has always seen us as a very important department, so it has always been very supportive in moving new resources to the department.”

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the university’s communication department is the smaller class sizes. Since the department offers a lot of smaller classes, the demand for faculty rises. If the economy is in a stable state, the availability of faculty to teach small classes rises, therefore making it easier to accommodate more students.

The reason that the class sizes are usually 20 is because they’re writing intensive, Degn said. The classes are kept small for the benefit of the students so they can receive individual attention from professors. The computer labs are also physically limited to only 20 slots.

Students in the communication department regularly enjoy smaller class sizes for a variety of reasons.

Chris Leeson, a junior in mass communication, said he enjoys small communication classes because of the individual attention he received from his professors. He said this method of teaching was conducive to learning.

While the communication department focuses on making small classes available to students in media and writing classes, the larger lecture hall style classes are also prominent. Whether one is more effective than the other is up to debate.

“About 5 years ago, I would have said the small classroom setting is by far the better teaching method,” Denton said. “Now, I’m not so sure because of the problems that I am experiencing in the computer labs due to students’ access to the internet. I feel as if I have more attention in a large lecture hall without electronic distractions.”

Along with small and large classrooms, the department offers two to three online classes per year. The department is currently striving to improve in its online department, Degn said.

“Online classes are effective for some people in some classes,” Degn said. “Classes where you have to interact, think critically and give opinions are strained.”

Offering online classes does not save the department money. Instructors are paid the same amount to proctor an online class as they would receive to teach a live classroom.

Another distinguishing characteristic of the communication department is the wide array of technologically advanced equipment available to students. Students involved with photography, video production, convergence journalism and several other classes are given the privilege to borrow equipment for the semester.

“Funding for technology is crucial— we couldn’t do without it,” Denton said. “Although in the past few years there haven’t been any equipment budget cuts, there hasn’t been any new money flowing into it.”

Equipment funding tends to come from a variety of three main sources. These include soft money, money generated by the communication department, or special requests sent to the U tech committee or the research vice president. The main source of funding in recent years has been the generous donations from benefactors.

“We’re really hurting right now for equipment money, and if it wasn’t for the good will of our donors, we would be in very serious straits,” Denton said.

The gracious gifts from donors have provided the communication department with several technology improvements such as two new Mac computer labs, an entire set of portable digital video cameras and a few cameras, all available for students to use.

“The new Mac lab is absolutely gorgeous,” Leeson said. “I had three classes in there, and I loved being able to use them.”

Technology is a crucial tool for all mass communication majors to develop skills applicable in a job, Leeson said. Without the ability to practice concepts learned in class, students would not be able to gain as much experience.

The one underlying issue is that donors do not usually provide financial support to help provide repairs and service to the equipment when needed, Denton said.

“Without the technology, you wouldn’t be able to gain experience by working hands on with the equipment,” Leeson said. “A lot of jobs and internships are looking for prior experience learned in a university setting.”

The department of communication has seen its tough times in recent years due to the recession. The faculty members survived potential layoffs, minimal funding, overtime work and shortages on items as miniscule as paper. Due to the increase in funding from the Utah legislature, things are looking up for the department.

“The guiding circumstance seems to be the economy, although tuition increases every year, the legislature drops the percentage of the cost of education because they have competing interests,” Degn said. “Students still see the value of a college education and continue to come to learn.”

Filed under: Education, Media, Organizations, Utah's Economy | Leave a comment »

Homeless kids have their work cut out for them

Posted on April 5, 2011 by comm5775

Story by PARKER LEE

Kids at the Palmer Court Head Start preschool in Salt Lake City spend their weekdays learning from teachers in their classrooms and playing on the playground. At the end of the day their parents pick them up and take them home- to a room down the hall.

What is unusual about these families is that they are homeless. Palmer Court is a transitional housing facility for homeless families in Salt Lake.

This building, formally a Holiday Inn, has about 200 apartments. These converted hotel rooms provide long-term housing for homeless people who have been staying at the Road Home or other homeless shelters in downtown Salt Lake.

When the children leave the on-site preschool, they are essentially going home to a hotel room shared by their whole family. They have a roof over their heads, but they are still technically homeless.

Kids who are four years old and younger have the Headstart program available to them. Palmer Court has its own Headstart site, so the parents don’t even have to leave the grounds to take their kids to preschool.

This Headstart site currently has 37 children, 15 in the preschool-age class and 22 in the early Headstart classes (6 weeks to 3 years old).

Headstart is funded entirely by the federal government. They have been funding the program for one year and have committed to continue funding Headstart.

But the early Headstart classes could be in jeopardy. The government will decide in the next two weeks whether or not to cut that funding.

“It would be devastating to the tiny ones and their families. It is such a good resource for them,” Pett said. “It just doesn’t make sense for the government to fund it and then change their minds the next year.”

Families at Palmer Court have to meet certain criteria to stay. They have to be chronically homeless, which means they have been in-and-out of homeless shelters multiple times. There is also an application that must be completed. The families then must wait for a spot to open up. There is currently a one-year waiting list, according to Tammy Pett, family partnership coordinator at Palmer Court. That makes it a challenge for new homeless families who have lost their homes as a product of the down economy.

But once they are in, families can stay as long as they want. They have housing supplement money available to them; so coming up with rent money isn’t an issue. They just have to follow the rules. This includes no drug use or distribution, according to Pett.

Fighting is also not allowed- a rule gets broken more often than others.

“There are sometimes lots of brawls,” Pett said. “But they don’t get kicked out if they get in one fight. It is kind of a three strikes and you’re out situation.”

Assuming the Palmer Court residents stay out of trouble, they can be there for an extended period of time. Some of the children at Palmer Court don’t know anything different. Some probably never will.

“Not only are these families chronically homeless, but some are generationally homeless,” said Tess Otero, family advocate at Palmer Court. “For some of these people, their parents have taught them how to get by being homeless, like teaching them how to get welfare money.”

Pett said a lack of competence makes it difficult to get out of that rut. “Some of them have extremely low life skills.”

Getting a job and renting an apartment is the only real alternative for these families. Otero said just 15 to 20 percent of adults at Palmer Court are actively looking for jobs. It could be less.

There are a portion of residents with disabilities like mental illness who might be challenged to find jobs. There are others who could be looking but are not.

For the residents who do want to be working, they have resources available to them. Otero said she personally helps people write resumes.

Residents have other resources at their disposal as well. Palmer Court has its own set of caseworkers to help families get what they need. Each family has a caseworker assigned to them, Pett said. These workers help the families to apply for food stamps and Medicaid.

As for the Headstart program, whether it sticks around for these children or not remains to be seen. But regardless of that decision by the feds, these kids will still be at Palmer Court. Homeless shelters and Palmer Court are the only homes that some of them have ever known.

Otero said it is so normal to them that they do not even think about it.

“I ran into one of our preschool kids from last year at one of the shelters,” Otero said. “He ran up to me and gave me a hug and said, ‘I didn’t know you lived here.’ To them living in a shelter is normal and is somewhere that anybody could live.”

Filed under: Education, Organizations, Politics, Utah's Economy | Leave a comment »

Alternative options for adoptive parents can curb costs

Posted on March 17, 2011 by comm5775

Story and photo by FLOR OLIVO

For parents expecting to adopt the process can be long and expensive, making alternative options that can cut down costs attractive.

With agencies claiming to help and facilitate the process and couples desperate to parent, high emotions can cloud judgment. In Utah, where fraud is a common problem, the adoption realm has not remained immune to the trend.  Agencies like Adoption.org and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation provide checklists to aid those interested in adopting.

Mom and her young son holding hands

For some parents the idea of paying large amounts of money creates a moral dilemma.

“We didn’t want to feel like we were buying a baby so we ended up doing a non-conventional private adoption,” Diana Olson said.

When they decided to adopt they told a couple friends and family, visited some agencies and paid one for their services. They were quickly disillusioned with the traditional methods. Instead, they began telling those around them about their desire to adopt, relying on word of mouth. One day they got the call. They would soon be parents. “The process was inexpensive and smooth from there,” Olson said.

Many adoptive parents are not as fortunate as the Olson’s, paying thousands into scams or waiting for years to get the opportunity to parent.

The Utah Foster Care System provides an inexpensive alternative. The process according to Cesar Mendoza, a former foster parent is very simple.

The Utah Department of Child Services has an open invite to expectant parents. According to AdoptUSKids.com,  a cooperative agreement with the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children & Families, and the Department of Health & Human Services, on any given day in the state of Utah there are 2,100 to 2,600 children in state custody and guardianship. On average 13 to 18 percent of those children will not be able to return to their families, and will need a permanent home.

In the United States, the numbers are magnified to 424,000 children in the system and 115,000 waiting for adoption.

Expectant parents and children waiting for a forever home make an ideal combination. Although officials say there are set backs through this process, such as behavior problems or adjustment issues, they parallel those experienced through private adoption agencies. There are resources, parent groups and parent networks that have been set up to serve as a support system for the foster parent community.

Another benefit, the cost that can often reach the thousands through private adoption is significantly reduced with the choice to foster parent first. Foster parent agencies provide health care and pay the parent a basic expense stipend each month to cover the additional costs of foster parenting.

The foster care process begins with an initial consultation. More information can be found at Utah Foster Care Network website, Utah Department of Human Services, Utah’s Child and Family Services Adoption Connection and through the US Department of Health and Human Services Child Welfare Information Gateway website.

Filed under: Organizations, Utah's Economy | Leave a comment »

Utah dance groups teach younger generations about their Filipino heritage

Posted on December 2, 2010 by comm5775

Story and multimedia by DANA IGO

Get a glimpse of Likha’s traditional dance costumes

Manny Evangelista grew up in the Bicol region of the Philippines on the tiny palm tree covered island of Burias.  In 1979, he moved to California to attend Stanford University on a scholarship. An avid skier, Evangelista took a trip to Utah where he broke his back in a skiing accident. During recovery he took a liking to Salt Lake City and made the valley his home.

Though he has spent the majority of his life in America he still remains close to his Filipino heritage through an appreciation of traditional dance and the Filipino language.

Unlike Evangelista, his children lacked knowledge about their heritage. They had trouble straddling the line between American and Filipino culture. “They had fully integrated but there was something missing,” Evangelista said.

In 1996 Evangelista started Likha, the Philippine American Cultural Ensemble of Utah. Likha is a cultural and educational organization focused on teaching children about their ethnic backgrounds as well as teaching the community at large about the Philippines. “There was a need to promote the Filipino culture,” he said.

Likha means creation in Filipino, a fitting title given the organization creates a place for Filipino-Americans to learn about where they came from and who they are.

Dance, which is a major facet of the Filipino cultural identity, is Likha’s signature program and currently includes 37 performers of all skill levels, many being children and teenagers. The dance group performs at festivals like Living Traditions, an annual event in Salt Lake City showcasing cultural traditions from all over the world. They also perform at school assemblies.

Many former dancers of Likha who have gone on to attend universities across the country travel back to perform.  They also teach younger generations about the power of knowing the culture they came from. “They say, ‘I’m in this university because of the fact that I’ve learned to understand who I am,’” Evangelista said.

Like Evangelista, Eunice Jones, 51, grew up in the Philippines. She was the daughter of a farmer and a seamstress who lived in a small village nestled between the mountains and the ocean with their 11 children. In 1986 she moved to Los Angeles for a job opportunity. Later she moved to Las Vegas and finally to Salt Lake City.

Jones, a community leader who heads the Asian Advisory Council and started the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce, has seen a lack of unity among Filipinos in Utah. She says she wanted to pull them together into one organization. In August 2010 she started the Kulturang Pinoy (meaning Filipino Culture) Ensemble (KPE).

Along with traditional dances, KPE tries to incorporate Tagalog, the root of the Filipino language, into its lessons. Jones doesn’t want children to lose the linguistic connection to their families’ homeland. She says when her own children speak their native language (they were born in the Philippines but moved to the U.S. before age 5) they sound funny because they have become Americanized.

Agnes Higley, the vice president of KPE, said teaching Filipino culture to children is the main reason why she participates in the dance group. She felt Filipinos weren’t represented enough at cultural festivals and KPE was a way to both teach about the culture and give representation in the state.

Currently, KPE has around 35 members composed of children, teenagers and adults. It’s grown fast and has garnered interest from the surrounding community. In September 2010, KPE hosted a fundraiser to help purchase costumes and props for its performances. Donors from all cultures were invited to attend and together they raised enough money for KPE to begin purchasing the items it needs to enhance its dances for festivals, weddings and other events.

Filipino dances reflect the different parts of Filipino heritage, Evangelista said. There are dances that hail from certain geographic areas of the Philippines and dances that are performed for special events. Likha performs three types of dance: ethnic, rural and folk.

Evangelista said folk dances are “Hispanized” or influenced by Spain in both music and style. Ethnic dances are traditionally Filipino and reflect the origination of dance in the Philippines. Rural dances incorporate western images and themes.

Costumes are a big part of Filipino dance performances. A video of Likha’s 2009 performance shows a dance called Polkabol. In it the women wear sunset colored dresses with long, wide brimmed skirts, which conjure images of toned down flamenco costumes. Underneath they wear petticoats, giving the skirts a full appearance. As the women dance they swing their skirts in fluid motions with one hand as they hold fans in the other.

In the Tinikling dance, some women wear knee-length blue skirts with red tulle layered over the top. Other women wear the colors reversed. They all wear blouses of different colors and styles. The men wear white shirts with black pants.

All of the dances, regardless of origin, express aspects of the homeland and the cultural identity of the Filipino people, providing an opportunity for children and community members alike to learn about the Philippines.

Filed under: Arts, Entertainment, Culture, Asian American, Education, Organizations | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Chinese-language classes in Utah schools gaining popularity

Posted on December 2, 2010 by comm5775

Story and multimedia by Karen Holt Bennion

Watch Chinese teacher Jim Groethe work with students at Bingham High School

Listen to Shelley Huang talk about Bingham High School’s Chinese Club

 

It’s Monday morning and James Groethe is gathering up his teaching materials for the week. He’ll arrive at Bingham High School by 7 o’clock. However, at the end of the day he will be packing up his things in another classroom from another school.

Groethe teaches Chinese at four different high schools in the Jordan School District. “I like the exposure to various schools, students, and such, but it is exhausting,” He says. He currently must drive to Bingham High, Riverton High, Copper Hills and West Jordan High School each week.

Groethe racks up plenty of mileage on his 2002 Acura traveling from one school to another each week — approximately 110 miles for which he does not get reimbursed. He enjoys teaching Chinese and is surprised more students aren’t taking advantage of learning the language.

He learned Chinese while on a mission in Taiwan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When he returned he studied Chinese and worked in Salt Lake City on the Chinese Client Services team for a major financial firm. After eight years with the company, Groethe decided to pursue his longtime dream of becoming an educator. Currently, he is teaching history (in addition to Chinese) at Bingham High School to fulfill a student-teaching internship through Weber State University.

Although he enjoys teaching history, he is grateful for the opportunity to be able to teach a new language to high school students and is surprised at how quickly the students are catching on.

“Learning any foreign language is beneficial to students, but I believe that Chinese is one of the best decisions a student can make. Over a lifetime, Chinese will open doorways and opportunities for these students that are incomparable to other languages,” Goethe says.

Bingham High senior Nikki Mackert agrees. She is taking Chinese II and says learning the language will help her in the future job market.

“I would love to visit China. Right now, with China almost passing up the U.S. in the market, just about any job you want, you’ll be more likely to get if you speak Chinese or have been there,” Mackert says.

She thinks learning Chinese hasn’t been as difficult as most people think. To her, it’s the same as learning to speak and spell English. Although she is happy with Groethe’s teaching technique and likes him as a teacher, she admits having a full-time teacher at her school would be more beneficial for the students. She’d appreciate being able to go to Groethe during the school day to get help instead of having to e-mail him. She also says Chinese classes and clubs are still in the growing phase and trying to make a name for themselves at Bingham.

“It seems like the Chinese classes and clubs are almost invisible in the schools, or have always had problems. I would love to see it much more emphasized,” Mackert says.

Gregg Roberts is the World Language Specialist in the Utah State Office of Education. He and others in his office are confident that Chinese will soon be as common a language to learn in our schools as more traditional languages.

“In fact, statewide we are almost there, for the 2010-11 school year, Chinese is the 3rd most taught foreign language in Utah school behind only Spanish 1st and French 2nd,” Roberts said in an e-mail message. “Hopefully, Jordan School District will be hiring several full time Chinese teachers in the near future.”

Right now, schools in the district receive state funds through the Critical Language Program and the Dual Immersion Program. Money for these programs was available in 2008, when the state legislature passed Senate Bill 41—International Initiatives. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper.

Roberts was hired by the Utah State Office of Education in 2006. His job was to lead the newly formed World Language Program. In a 2009 interview for the Mandarin Institute, Roberts noted how important it was for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to bring Chinese into Utah’s schools.

“During my initial meeting with Gov. Huntsman, he looked me straight in eye and said, ‘One of the very first charges I am giving you is to get Chinese language programs into our secondary and elementary schools as soon as possible,'” Roberts said in the interview.

Since then, Roberts has been working steadily towards Huntsman’s goal. The former governor, who speaks Mandarin Chinese fluently, is now the U.S. Ambassador to China. Roberts attributes the entire Chinese language program in Utah to Huntsman and Stephenson. “Without their support, Utah would not be one of the recognized leaders in Chinese language education,” he said.

Top companies around the country also are glad to see Chinese introduced to schools. Employers often respond positively to applicants who are fluent in a second language, especially Chinese. Chad Cowan is the director of Lean Business Development for Nike Inc., which has its headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. Cowan has been on countless business trips to China and other regions of Asia such as Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore. His job includes process improvement and systems alignment work. On his trips to Asia, Cowan constantly meets with business leaders who are citizens of the particular country and at times, must rely on a translator to help with meetings.

“In my experience, the ability to speak Chinese, or any other Asian language for that matter, is most beneficial when working with external business partners such as sub-contracted manufactures.” Cowan said in an e-mail interview. He is currently in the process of hiring an employee who can travel to Asia and speak Chinese. He believes that knowing Chinese is an invaluable asset on a résumé.

“In any case, it certainly couldn’t hurt and may very well be the one variable that positively distinguishes one candidate from another,” Cowan said in an e-mail message. “This boils down to a given company’s business model. For NIKE, we’ve got a lot invested in China and it’s a significant component of our source base. Having a Chinese language skills resident inside our organization is key, which we tend to leverage through bi-lingual Chinese employees,” Cowan said.

Meanwhile high school student Nikki Mackert will keep studying Chinese and will dream of the day she travels to China, for a vacation or for a business trip. Groethe will keep teaching Chinese because it’s what he loves to do. Even his mother has caught her son’s enthusiasm for the language. She is a native of Japan and still speaks broken English, Groethe says. However, she is currently taking Chinese II at a junior college near her home in California.

Groethe will continue driving to all four schools for the remainder of the 2010-2011 school year. However, he hopes to land a full-time position teaching Chinese at just one high school next year. “I plan on teaching Chinese and history until I am dead. I love it,” he says.

Filed under: Asian American, Education, Organizations | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

The birth of the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce

Posted on November 23, 2010 by comm5775

Story and photo by TAUNA LYNNE PRICE

The Asian American community maintained their lives. They worked, ran their businesses, supported their families and were contributing members of society. However, no business network existed among the Asian culture in Utah. There was no business community in place to help them stay connected and support one another.

In 2005 Gov. Michael Leavitt, under the auspices of the Utah Office of Ethnic Affairs, called all Asian leaders together. Eunice Jones, one of the attendees, said the leaders were divided into four groups: health, education, legal and economic development. Leavitt’s goal was to have an Asian directory created.

Jones, 51, a successful businesswoman who was born in the Philippines, was sought out by Leavitt to assist in bridging these cultures. She witnessed the importance of networking and local cultural support first hand through her volunteerism.

Jones was a real estate broker and therefore placed herself in economic development, where she knew her skills would be most useful. Jones recalls only roughly 10 Asian leaders who were involved in this assignment.

The group brainstormed for months. Jones said eventually all Asian leaders quit attending the meetings, with the exception of herself and Raymond Uno. Uno is a retired judge and currently a board member of the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce.

Jones began researching the Western United States and looked at Arizona, Colorado and California for any Asian Chamber of Commerce currently active. She discovered that each state has its own Asian Chamber of Commerce. She started printing and reading all available articles to gain ideas to move Utah forward in starting its own Asian Chamber.

“I said judge, can we call all of our business owners, all the Asian business owners, and we all come together and start the chamber,” Jones said, “and he said that’s [a] great idea, let’s do it.”

In 2005, the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce partnered with Jones and Uno to help them launch the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce.

Jones remembers Zion’s Bank stepping up to be the first donor and founding sponsor for the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce with a $10,000 donation.

According to the chamber’s Web site, “The purpose of the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce shall be to promote social, economic, and other business resources to enable its members to become successful entrepreneurs and professionals. This will be done by training, education, sharing of information, networking and other resources that will be made available through the Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce and Asian-owned businesses.”

The Utah Asian Chamber of Commerce is involved with and hosts many different events to promote camaraderie among the Asian culture and educate the general public.

According to its mission statement, the chamber strives “to foster Asian businesses and professionals within the state of Utah, particularly small businesses, with activities that result in a prosperous and economically healthy Asian community, and to promote international trade with Asian and other countries.”

Filed under: Asian American, Organizations | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

Gay minorities in Utah can face double discrimination

Posted on November 16, 2010 by comm5775

Story and multimedia by KAREN HOLT BENNION

Watch Jerry Rapier direct a reading of “The Scarlet Letter” for the 2011-2012 season.

Listen to Jennifer Freed talk about Jerry Rapier, director of Plan-B Theatre Co.

Jerry Rapier has made a name for himself in Salt Lake City as an award-winning producer and director.

This is the 11th season of Plan-B Theatre Co. which he founded in 1991 with Cheryl Cluff and Tobin Atkinson. Rapier has been given many honors, including the Salt Lake City’s Mayor’s Artist Award in the Performing Arts in 2008. In 2009, he was given the title of Alternative Pioneer by Salt Lake City Weekly. With many successful plays, a rewarding career and a loyal partner who has been with him for 15 years, some might say that Rapier is living the “American Dream.”

However, despite his current success, he still remembers facing trying times in his past. Jerry Rapier is Asian-American and he is gay. Consequently, he faces a double hardship in Utah.

He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, to an alcoholic mother. When he was 8 years old he was adopted by an American family and went to live with them in New Mexico. Life with his new family was trying at times because his family was “very, very LDS,” he said in an e-mail interview. When he was 23, he mustered all of his courage to come out to the family. Rapier says it was difficult for a few years because they needed time to adjust. “They are great now,” he said.

As a minority who is gay, Rapier is part of a small number of gay minorities in Utah. He says the main reason for the low figure is due to demographics. “This is not a very diverse place, period,” he said in a recent interview. On the other hand, he believes that minorities who are also gay fear coming out because they could be ostracized from their families. “But I will say that I believe this to be changing, slowly, surely,” Rapier said.

“I think it’s almost impossible to live your life now and not know a gay person — and that changes your perspective,” he said in the e-mail.

He remembers how isolated he felt as a teen and is upset by the bullying that is escalating against gay teens today across the country, with some ending in suicides. As a result, Plan B joined 40 other local Outreach Partners to put an end to bullying. The event on Sunday, Nov. 14, was called “Different is Amazing.” The fundraiser included theater, songs and dance. The festivities opened with a short dance by the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Step Up group, which consists of dancers from Salt Lake City high schools. All proceeds went to the Human Rights Education Center of Utah.

Another advocate for civil rights is Cathy Martinez. She is the director of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center at the University of Utah. She agrees with Rapier about the small number of gay minorities in Utah. While she acknowledges that Utah is predominantly white, she says gay minorities are trapped in a stigma of being “a minority within a minority.” They are virtually forced to live in two communities.

Her experience with international students at the U has led her to realize some Asian families do not embrace or encourage members who have different sexual identities. “We need to talk about race too when we talk of sexual discrimination,” Martinez says. She recounts helping a  gay couple, who were international students studying at the U from China and Korea. When the Korean student’s family found out he was gay, they immediately st0pped paying for his schooling. Without money to continue his studies,  he was forced to return home.

“Not all cultures look down on homosexuality,” Martinez says. Thailand is the Asian hub for sexual reassignment surgery. Moreover, before missionaries arrived in early America many Native American tribes respected gay and transsexual members. They believed them to be two spirited.

Plan B’s latest production, “She Was My Brother,” which was directed by Rapier, is about a government ethnographer who is sent to study the Zuni Tribe of the Southwest in the late 1800s. The government official becomes attracted  to a male transgender tribal member. The tribal member is revered by the Zunis as very wise. Ironically, the Native American calls people in the “white society” uncivilized because of their intolerance to its citizens who fall outside of what society deems normal.

Martinez feels that education about race and sexuality and ability level (blind, deaf and disabled) must filter down to more high schools, junior highs and communities. She is working hard to educate people at the college level.

Brandi Balken, executive director of Equality Utah, says her office is working on educating the public as well. She says that being a gay minority is enduring “double marginalization.”

“There is not state for federal protection in housing and employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” Balken says.

Protection is available for those based on race, age and gender under the Civil Rights Act. Moreover, the Americans with Disabilities Act helps those with different levels of ability. However, people at Equality Utah are continually working with local legislators to pass state and federal laws to help all citizens of Utah gain the same rights to fair housing and employment.

Gay and transgendered citizens in seven Utah cities and counties have some protection regarding employment and housing rights.  They include: Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Park City, Summit County, Logan, Taylorsville and West Valley City.

With the help of Jerry Rapier, Cathy Martinez and Brandi Balken, the future could look brighter for people of all races and gender identities who are in need of support.

Filed under: Arts, Entertainment, Culture, Asian American, Education, Legal Aid, LGBTQ, Organizations, Profiles | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »