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| Sidney Cobb Class of 2019 |
From my
birth, I was destined to spend my life engulfed in a passion for American
government serving our nation’s people. My parents, at a loss for what to name
me, watched the movie The American President and there she was, the
inspiration for my name—a charismatic lobbyist and, of course, her name was
Sidney. My family always taught me the importance of patriotism. My grandfather
was a Marine drill instructor and my brother was a graduate of West Point Academy
who served both in Afghanistan and Iraq. The study of law and politics has
always been synonymous to service in my life and that is why I was honored to
have been offered a position as a citizenship instructor at Kentucky Refugee
Ministries (KRM), a faith-based organization dedicated to displaced people in
Kentucky.
Through volunteering as a citizenship instructor,
I get to work closely with refugees in my own city of Louisville. Hearing their
heart-breaking stories of oppression, seeing their unbridled enthusiasm for the
United States, and witnessing their passion for citizenship changed my life.
They want nothing more than to become citizens, something we as Americans take
for granted. As I continued my work with refugees, I quickly became an advocate
for them. Too often, refugees in Kentucky and elsewhere are feared and
demonized. However, these preconceptions are founded in a lack of education. The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees defines a
refugee as someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for
reasons of race, religion or nationality... and…owing to such fear, is
unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”. These people are
not terrorists, but victims running from the same fears that we have. Many of
my students are Christians running from the extremist Muslim groups in the
Middle East or they are targets for heinous crimes of ethnic cleansing. I have
seen the destruction that such persecution has inflicted on the lives of my
students and I aspire to help them make a better life in the United States—a
country whose Constitution promises equality and liberty for all people.
Through my work, however, I have also noticed
that there is still much to be done to reach refugees in our communities. KRM
does a great job of serving young children through their summer camps and
after-school care, as well as older adults through citizenship classes and
language emersion experiences. However, they lack comprehensive programs that
are engaging for young adults. After noticing this shortfall, I gathered other
passionate students on the University of Louisville’s campus to help create a
new student organization called IAMLouisville (International Ambassadors of
Louisville).
The purpose of IAMLouisville is to provide a
mentoring service for high school age refugees in order to help them improve
their English skills and become acclimated to a new culture and community. I
have partnered with the University’s language departments in order to pair a
college student with a high school age refugee in Louisville. They will be
encouraged to befriend this student, introduce them to Louisville, and serve as
a resource as they adjust to a new country and navigate the complicated world
of high school. This helps them become successful and college/career ready.
These people want nothing more than to be a part of this great nation. I aspire
to continue to serve refugees to create a better future for them and for our
nation.
This mission is my calling. John F Kennedy said,
“Ask not what your country can do
for you, ask what you can do for your country”. And that’s exactly what I plan
to do; help secure those blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness for those in need.
Sidney Cobb is a sophomore McConnell Scholar from Frankfort, Ky. She studies history and political science.