Created in November 2018 in Writing for Media Class at Raritan Valley Community College (mostly Re-Edited)“The best revenge is massive success” -Frank Sinatra
I remember in my first semester of Raritan Valley Community College, one of my first couple areas of the campus I started going was the game room. One of the first people I noticed was a flamboyant, yet confident man playing on one of the pool tables that wore metallic sunglasses inside, flashy clothes, and use to play ethnic music while winning almost every single game of pool. Everyone around glamour him with compliments, while trying to be as popular as him on campus. At first I was hesitant to get to know a person like him, judging from his appearance, since it did not appease me. As the next semester came, we had our first couple conversations and I let my guard down. I never realized how someone I disliked at first from appearance could turn out to have been beyond active at college, while sustaining sanity, I know I could never do anything that Kevin Asiain does on a daily basis. Asiain is not your typical RVCC student. This fall semester, he is currently the President of the Student Government Association (SGA) while playing a role in the upcoming play, Gorges Motel, an active member of National Honor’s Society, Chairman of the Game Room, ex-Vice President of Orgullo Latino Club, an active member to the multicultural affairs, and also doing a mentorship at Sanofi. Outside of RVCC, he’s also part of a Pool Table League, and working about 8-16 hours at a Pizzeria. “I try my best not to be stressed over my busy life,” he said, “Depending on the issues that come along, I try to analyze my situation, and try to make the right choice for myself, and for the people around me.” Born in Mexico City, Asiain and his family moved to the U.S around the age of five. Although his family had issues adapting to the culture and language difference, he was able to adapt quickly due to experiencing American education. Around the age of thirteen, Asiain and his family moved back to Mexico, which started creating conflict for himself. Unfortunately, Asiain’s school life was declining toward the last two years of high school. He claimed to have almost got expelled for skipping class almost every day. “In Mexico, there is no push for education, and for me to get into high school in Mexico, I had to take a placement test which meant I had a direct pass to college. Because I was chosen to be accepted into high school, I was threatened to be expelled if I did not change my ways.” For being a person who once cared about his education, the negative outputs of being a teenager conquered his mind. “I felt sheltered all my life, and once I got freedom, I started rebelling, I wanted to be myself while trying to find my identity. I wanted to see where life went, and I realized I did not achieve anything.” With a past like that, you would probably question, “What made him change his life around?” After his mother found out about the potential expulsion, he understood her disappointment and noticed he had to change his values. Even though he had to re-do his last year of high school, he was soon accepted to a college called the Faculty of Superior Studies of Aragon (UNAM) studying the field of journalism. “I was not too crazy about the program,” he said. “The professor’s told me when I graduate I will either become a taxi driver, or die in the field as a journalist.” After a year of college in Mexico, Asiain once again returned to the U.S around the age of twenty and decided to continue his future. After returning and expecting to continue his education, he was experiencing more hardships with his parents becoming unemployed, and having to pay rent since he was the only one who had a job. Working full time at a pizzeria at his local job drained him physically and emotionally. One year, Asiain finally decided to get his GED [because schooling or credits in Mexico do not transfer for the U.S education system] and first applied to Middlesex County Community College, but was not accepted. When Asiain told his ex-boss about his situation, he had an unexpected turnout. “My ex-boss said I was too stupid to go back to school, and it was only because if I attended school, I couldn’t work full-time anymore. It let me down, but I wanted to show him I could be someone better.” Later on, Asiain learned about RVCC from a family member, in which he decided to apply, and got accepted. Asiain is on his third year, and is planning to graduate RVCC with a double Associate's Degree in Communications, and Theatre. After graduating RVCC, he plans to attend Pace University, New York University, or Rutgers New Brunswick to continue his Communications Degree. His future consists with a couple ideas such as either performing or working for Broadway, or within the next ten years decide to create a business. One of Asiain’s most busy academics is SGA, which consists of several other students with government positions plus the workers of RVCC’s Student Life. Asiain and his team members were all elected by the college students of RVCC of March 2018, and inaugurated by the school last May as if it were like any government position. This includes in planning all upcoming events of the college campus, approves them, and setting them up. Senator of SGA Johanna Sailema added her views to him as a member to SGA. “I feel as though Kevin is a very good team member, sometimes I think/feel of Kevin as a father,” she said. “He makes sure everyone in this case [SGA team] is doing well in every aspect, let it be socially or academically. When anyone needs anything they feel comfortable going to him because he deals with things in the correct manner. He is not biased; he tells you how it is. His position entitles a lot of work and I believe he is doing an awesome job, including balancing Sanofi, being present, having a social life, etc. Overall Kevin is hard working and an amazing leader.” As President Donald Trump once said referring to the Mexican population, “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.” In my assumption, Asiain is considered those some that fall under good people, including his SGA team and advisors such as Kiswah Khan. For not being born in the U.S, he pursues himself to being the hardest worker he can be. “Immigrants [such as Kevin] have goals,” said Khan. “They are honest, they work hard and they get where they need to get by from the things they know. They learn the system, they work the system, even if they do not have proper resources.”
0 Comments
Article was made for Writing for the Media class at Raritan Valley Community College. October 2018Immigration; it has always been a controversial subject at any decade of U.S history. With the increase of negative media attention, it has been assumed many of undocumented and documented immigrants have no source of education, or skill for a higher paying workforce. It can be forgotten there are immigrants over the age of 18 that enter the U.S are not ignorant, but a decent amount have not only an equivalence of high school, but also college degrees. Although, a fair amount of immigrants have entered with skills or degrees, most suffer the dilemma of either not having the right documents, degrees/skills not being valid, or lack of communication skills. Instead of the negative part of American society complaining about immigrants not being able to get jobs, it should be easier for the ones who already have experiences in certain career fields to get specific jobs in that career field.
According to Association of American College and Universities (AAC&U), an article was written about Immigrants within Higher education stating, “Almost a third of foreign-born individuals living in the United States have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the MSP—a rate comparable to that of native-born Americans.” Also, the official Census Bureau in 2015 for Educational Attainment in United States even claimed that there may be more people in the U.S who completed an equivalence of high school diploma, but a Bachelor's degree for both American born citizens and Foreign-born citizens is the same equivalence (one-third, as said before). Although, if there are any documentation issues, that is when all the problems start arising. To a more personal story, I wanted to mention about my father who came here in 1991 from Germany, and without any college degree was able to get the Temporary Workers Visa (Form I-129). According to my Father, in Germany, skills and apprenticeships for careers like engineering are well known to countries like the U.S and highly influence people like my him to come to the U.S. Another thing to add, he was already working at an international company called Bihler since he started his apprenticeship. Already having a job, getting the worker’s visa was less difficult, because all he was doing is transferring. He claimed the process already in the 1990s was extremely difficult, and also learning the language, couldn’t have his own place, and even faced discrimination because of the tension post-World War II, plus the collapse of East Germany. The only way he became successful in the U.S was not exactly working hard, but marrying an American a few years after so he could get his permanent residency (Green Card) which helped in live easier in the U.S. I believe my father was fortunate compared to other immigration stories I have heard. I was interrogating some acquaintances of mine who are first/second generation Americans, and two of these acquaintances fathers (one from Colombia, and the second from Turkey), claimed both father's had an engineering degree from their past-living countries and the U.S educational services did not validate their engineering credentials. If immigrants do not come with a Work Visa but finish the process of the Green Card, they may be able to work, but now face the issue if continuing their career-type jobs they had in the country the were living in. When that issue occurs, World Education Services (WES) is suppose to help with those credentials, as those needed to soon work in the U.S. With those services, you would assume everything would be resolved, and now you can live comfortably and support your family, although that is not always the case. In the website itself, every country has different requirements on what degree achieved, coming back to my story, a country like Germany who had presently been associated to the U.S government will not have as many issues with the process with any forms of education, including higher education. In countries such as Turkey or Colombia that do not have much association between the U.S government will most likely have to fulfill more requirements, and will receive more issues. As I was checking out reviews for WES, there were many bad reviews stating things such as, "spending a lot of money on the program" or the documents or verification for the college credentials for the degrees were causing conflicts. It these document errors take months for get correct, this comes back to the issue. I understand how there are different verification for each degree within different countries, but why make it complicated enough to have people having issues for years? If they went to college for at least four years, they are probably not ignorant when it comes to the field they studied (If you want to check out more information, go to U.S Department of Education) ) In any country, communication skills are a great value to conform in anything throughout a society, including jobs. In countries such as Germany, becoming an citizen or to declare residency you are required to take classes on German language, culture, and other communication skills. These classes are required and are charged as low as 1.95 euros per class. If Americans required these classes for all every immigrant wanted to become a resident, there would be a higher success rate when it comes to immigrants having a chance to work regardless of having a degree or not. The U.S has been built up of immigrants for hundreds of years, encouraging people to enter because they had a chance to have the pursuit of happiness, having their form of the American dream. Either these immigrants lived in the toxic meat factories of New York, or a certain group suffers a form of discrimination. In modern-day America, society wants to find a way to improve life for people who suffer mental health issues such as depression, how do you believe these immigrants feel when they are told they don’t belong here. Then becoming residents, they cannot support their families because they have a degree but got stuck working at McDonald’s because it became difficult to accept college credentials? As always, the people who hard will always pay the consequences. |
AuthorJournalist, Blogger, Poet, Future Screenwriter ArchivesCategories |