Riley Carraher(she/her/hers)
3rd year Biomedical Engineering phone: 404-353-4851 email: rbcarraher@gmail.com My involvement with impact:
My freshman year, I attended the Food Justice trip to Durham, North Carolina. I loved the direct service, but the most unexpected and impactful part of my first trip was the conversations that stemmed from volunteering. I had never experienced service that reflected on and continued the conversation long after the initial work. This idea pushed me to be more intentional and created a strong community that helps me grow in everything I do. My sophomore year, I went to Savannah, GA for shelter and resource access. My biggest take away was learning more about sustainable service as well as the intersectionality of all social justice issues. Why I am interested in my trip's focus? Refugee awareness and immigration in general has become increasingly relevant in today’s political climate. I wanted to learn more about this topic because I realized how little I knew about the process. Coming from a place of privilege, I wanted to understand how I could best support current refugees and use that power to advocate / give them a platform to use their voice. I hope to learn more about how identity is shaped through this and see how different perspectives view the topic. A Fun fact: I have my black belt in karate! |
Nicolas Perez-Carreño (he/him/his)
3rd year International affairs and history with a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies phone: 706-934-1837 email: nrp54873@uga.edu My involvement with impact: I went on a Youth Empowerment trip to Bluefield, West Virginia that made a huge impact on me and I learned a lot about myself and sustainable service. My second year I was a site leader for the Immigration Awareness: Farmworker Justice trip in Immokalee, Florida where we even got to march along with the farmworkers fighting for rights. I’ve learned the importance of the difference of “charity work” and actually fighting for justice and participating in sustainable service, which Impact aims to do.
Why I am interested in my trip's focus? I think the identity of refugee has been politicized immensely and the aspect of humanity has been erased from them. As a child of immigrants, it is important to recognize how others’ experiences are when they arrive to the United States fleeing from persecution and understanding what it means to settle into the US on top of racism and xenophobia. A Fun fact: I met the dog from Men In Black 2! |