At iACT, we have great appreciation for the wonderful staff who make our service work possible! In this Staff Spotlight, Yuki Shinozaki , iACT intern, tells us a little more about herself.
Q: Where are you from? How long have you been in Austin?
A: I am from Japan, and I have been in Austin for one and a half months.
What do you enjoy the most about the work you do at iACT?
I enjoy everything about working at iACT. Since iACT is aiming to bring people from different faiths and communities to one place, i get to interact with many different people which broadens my knowledge, and a very exciting experience for me as well. My university in Japan, is consisted with 50% of Japanese students and 50% of International students, I was struggling often to work together with international students who have completely different views, values and faith. With the experience at iACT, I believe that I can overcome the differences of faiths, communities and become a person who brings peace to people around me.
What do you do at iACT?
Mainly I do assistant work at iACT’s events, and do some research work at the office too.
What’s the most challenging thing about the work you do at iACT?
I think the most challenging part is to understand each refugee’s background. They are all coming from different backgrounds, countries and situations. As iACT is not a big organization, we cannot financially take care of all students needs we have in our ESL classes and sometimes they suddenly stop coming to the class. I found out it is difficult to give full support to each refugee all the time. In spite of these difficulties, iACT has been doing their best to help refugees to settle and succeed in the US and I have been thrilled to be a part of it.
What’s the most rewarding thing about working with iACT that you have experienced?
Being a part of iACT has broadened my global understanding on one of world’s biggest problems and I am so grateful for it. Refugees, has not been recognized as a serious issue in Japan. Many people recognized the issue but not taking any action about it. As I have seen and also experienced the real refugees situation in Texas, where the most of refugees choose to resettle, I came to realize that to change this global issue, all of us will need to take action.
Why would you encourage others to support the work of iACT?
What iACT contributes to the community of Austin by their work is a great thing. It is rare to find an organization like iACT that is aiming to bring different faiths and communities to one and make peace in the US and especially in Japan. I strongly believe that the idea of the Red Bench, where we all can sit no matter what our faiths, Race, Community is, and discuss about various topics is what we need to be able to overcome differences, and can also being use as an effective practice to overcome the barrier among faiths, communities and even countries. In short, I believe red bench could be used as a way to resolve barrier issues in our society.
