Our amazing semester as Digital Communication Interns at the National Immigration Forum is sadly coming to an end. We can remember our nerves and excitement as we walked off the Metro and up to the Forum’s office building near Union Station, realizing now it was all we had hoped for and more.
Let us introduce ourselves. We’re Annabel (pictured on the right), a junior Political Science major with a Peace and Conflict Studies concentration from the College of the Holy Cross. Working in digital communications has taught me the value of advocacy work in keeping the dialogue alive around key immigration issues, countering misinformation, and creating positive change in our country. And Darika (pictured on the left), a Political Science major with a minor in Campaign Management from The University of Utah. As a first generation, daughter of an immigrant, I always saw my path toward politics and advocating for marginalized people. Both of our backgrounds are so different, but our mission that drove us to intern at the National Immigration Forum was the same: a commitment to advocate for immigrants and an eagerness to learn where we can help more.
We learned so many great skills and lessons that we will carry with us on our future adventures. Here are the top 5 lessons learned that we want to share with you!
1. Immigration Advocacy is a Battle We’re Still Fighting
A lesson we learned early on is change will not happen overnight. The National Immigration Forum has been advocating for immigration solutions for over 40 years. As digital communication interns, one of our projects was to draft a fundraising and advocacy email on the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA). The Afghan Adjustment Act is a bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship to Afghans who were evacuated to the United States following the fall of Kabul in 2021. The National Immigration Forum has been fighting for the passage of the AAA way before we got here, but our contribution cannot be understated. Every email, tweet, or TikTok we’ve created gets us one step closer to the reform we’ve been working towards.
We have learned immigration advocacy needs patience, understanding, and grace. While the fight for bipartisan immigration policies is not over, we were happy to join the National Immigration Forum in their ongoing battle for immigrant rights.
2. Diverse Collaboration Brings Out the Best Work
The battle will only be won if Congress comes together to pass bipartisan legislation that positively impacts our nation and the rights of immigrants. During our time at the Forum, we attended networking meet and greets with almost everyone on staff. It was amazing to learn everyone’s story. It helped us understand the diverse perspectives at the Forum and the need for collaboration when working on immigration reform.
As interns, we learned so much about the work that goes into immigration advocacy and the need for bipartisan support to pass meaningful immigration reform. When creating social media content, we kept in mind the different coalitions the Forum works with – law enforcement, faith groups, and business leaders – and found new and creative ways to include them in the conversation. We pushed to create content, like a TikTok in Spanish, to bring in younger generations and Spanish speaking audiences.
The National Immigration Forum creates a safe space where different perspectives are welcomed and encouraged. This overlap of perspectives and experience is key to passing the immigration reform this country needs to thrive.
3. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Advocacy in Digital Communications
To really understand digital communications, you must first learn the art of storytelling. Stories are all around us, in the music we listen to, the media we see, and the articles we read. They are what bind us together. Digital communications is all about telling a story. We tell stories at the Forum to captivate an audience, raise awareness, and share diverse immigration experiences with our listeners.
There are many ways we tell immigration narratives at the Forum. One way is through the written language. Blog posts, tweets, haikus, and Facebook posts all helped us convey our message about a given issue, whether it be promoting the Dream Act or criticizing dysfunctional border policies such as Title 42. Our personal favorites were the haikus. They were a great way to call out Congressional inaction and advocate for policy solutions in a creative way.
Another way we raised awareness is through our new TikTok platform where we created short videos that were fun and informative. At the same time, they spoke on a deeper level about the immigration issues our country is currently facing. Through digital communications, we’ve learned the power of creative storytelling in broadening our perspectives and building human connections.
4. Step Up, Speak Up
Sometimes interns have the best ideas. A big lesson we learned is to step up and speak up. During our internship, our input was always welcomed and with the startup of a new social media account like TikTok, our input was encouraged. The challenge of producing new ways to convey the Forum’s message excited us and we created innovative content to keep our audiences engaged and reach broader constituencies through graphics, TikToks, and other social media posts. We pushed the creative boundaries at the Forum and became confident in advocating for the publication of our own work. From this experience, we learned the value of speaking up for ourselves and for those who do not have a voice in our political system. We both vow to continue our work in advocacy and advancing meaningful immigration reform.
5. Have Fun
No matter what, make sure to have fun. It can be easy to get caught up in your work and forget about the opportunities around you. D.C. is a culturally rich and historical city. We made sure to take the chance to explore the city, attend hearings and conferences, and network. Our experiences at the Forum would not be the same without participating in these events. The happy hours and coffee chats in particular were a great way to build relationships with others and understand the journeys that led them to the field of immigration advocacy. Some of our best experiences came from getting out of our comfort zones and meeting new people.
While our time here is coming to an end, our journey in immigration advocacy has only just begun. We’ve made friends, learned the power of speaking up for what is right, and experienced the long and winding road that is advocacy work. Change is slow, and the process of passing meaningful immigration reform even slower, but if we celebrate the small victories along the way we will never lose sight of the final goal. While our trajectories may take us in many different directions, our time here has taught us, as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Written by Annabel DeGroat and Darika Verdugo