The following comes to us from our newest intern, Matt Pribis. Matt is a graduate student at Pitt and a Navy veteran!
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Hey everybody, Matt Pribis here, the summer intern for the Reception and Placement division of the JFCS Refugee and Immigrant Services. The first thing I have to say is WOW, I sure am grateful to have this vocational opportunity in the current pandemic context. Second, if someone would have told me in March or April that I would be working with refugees this summer in Pittsburgh to help them integrate and acculturate into American society, I wouldn’t have believed it.
You see, I had BIG plans to go overseas to Uganda with one of my professors at Pitt and do a sustainable development project involving micro-loans and business skill workshops with survivors of the Ugandan Civil War (also known as the LRA war). Little did I know that fate, the universe, or the Deity of your choosing had different plans for me! After hundreds of hours of research, intensive project planning and a $1500 flight, all Pitt summer study abroad programs were suddenly cancelled, without exception. This hurt, a lot! As a Navy veteran, I take a lot of pride in being proactive with my life and career and always being prepared, but I just never saw a pandemic which completely prohibited international travel coming, not even in my wildest dreams.
So overnight I had to switch gears and come up with another plan, just like everyone else affected by the COVID pandemic. Luckily, I knew about JFCS and their work with refugees, so I sent out some emails and asked a connection I had in the agency to ask if summer internships were available (thanks Dana!). Shortly after, I met the wonderful Reception and Placement team and the rest of the Refugee and Immigrant Services team, and again, WOW, I was impressed. The team was organized, professional, welcoming, and most importantly, unwaveringly dedicated to helping refugees and immigrants. It was clear at that point that I was extremely lucky just to get an interview, so of course I accepted, and I started working on May 12th.
Since then, it’s been an amazing and wild ride. At first, everything was virtual, and I was helping teach Cultural Orientation and English lessons over Zoom using Dari, Burmese and Swahili interpreters. Since Allegheny county has entered the “green” phase, I’ve been able to start working with clients in the field (using masks, lots of hand sanitizer, and proper social distancing protocol of course). A typical day looks like driving to a client’s house, sorting through their mail to help them decipher what they need to keep versus throw away, taking them to the bank to set up a checking account or to the DMV to get their state ID’s, and showing their children (if they have them) how to use YouTube to learn English. I can’t underestimate how rewarding and enriching this experience has been. It feels like every day I get to travel around the world, because I am interacting with clients from Burma, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and more. I also feel like I get to be a tour guide of Pittsburgh, which just happens to be my favorite city and one I am always excited to share!
As a graduate student at Pitt studying International Development and Human Security, I have spent a lot of time reading about different humanitarian situations, wars, natural disasters, etc., but I can honestly say I have learned more in 4 weeks working with refugees in my community than I ever could in the classroom. I’m extremely grateful to have this opportunity to take the theory I have learned in an academic setting and test it against the reality of the refugee experience here in Pittsburgh.
So, in closing, thanks JFCS for letting me intern. You weren’t my first choice, but after working with you for a month, it’s clear that you are my BEST choice by far. I am reminded of a TS Elliot quote which very accurately portrays how I felt after realized that the vocational experience I had been looking for overseas was right under my nose in Squirrel Hill:
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
All the best,
Matt