And that's a wrap!: Looking back at the incredible work done by our inaugural cohort of Elizabeth Frankel Fellows.
This past August, our inaugural cohort of the Elizabeth Frankel Fellowship Program completed their 10-week summer fellowship with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. Traveling from as far as California and Chicago to work out of our New York office, the three fellows had a comprehensive Young Center experience learning from each other and under the guidance of our attorneys, social workers, and policy advocates, while significantly contributing to moving our mission forward. Highlights of their fellowship activities included:
Child Advocacy – The fellows were trained and appointed as Child Advocates for individual children in detention in the New York area. They met with children, conducted legal research, consulted with stakeholders, developed theories to support the children’s best interests, and drafted Best Interest Determinations (BIDs) under the guidance of Young Center staff. All three fellows are continuing to serve as Child Advocates post-fellowship.
“The highlight of my fellowship experience was hearing the child for whom I was appointed as child advocate say she was thankful to the Young Center because she felt we were the only ones paying special attention to her case and listening to her wishes. This tangibly demonstrated to me the importance of child advocacy in the immigration system.”
Policy – The fellows researched, drafted, and helped submit a “shadow report” to the International Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination (CERD), which is reviewing the United States’ compliance with the treaty. Their report addressed some of the racist policies that continue to disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian immigrant children and concluded with eight powerful recommendations for ensuring the U.S. meets its CERD obligations when making decisions about immigrant children and youth.
US-Mexico Border – The fellows spent one week in our Harlingen, TX office in the Rio Grande Valley to better understand how immigration patterns, enforcement, and advocacy play out on the ground along the U.S.-Mexico border. They met with Young Center allies including the Mexico-based Sidewalk School, which serves children trapped outside of the U.S., to learn more about children’s experiences; they also volunteered with Team Brownsville to help recently processed immigrants at the bus station.
“The trip was crucial for my learning experience because I grew up in a coastal urban city, which limited my knowledge of border town life to what the major news outlets reported. I had never seen the infamous border wall up close. I got a glimpse at the local politics the NGOs must navigate in order to be able to help migrant people. What I learned and witnessed confirmed my desire to be an attorney and will continue to ignite my passion to advocate for immigrant communities.”
All the fellows bonded in fellowship with each other and with the Young Center teams they collaborated with. Deputy Director Mari Dorn Lopez, who oversaw the fellowship program, noted that each fellow brought their own unique lens to the work that naturally led to complementary learning. This, combined with their exposure to the Young Center’s unique interdisciplinary approach that combines law and social work provided them all an impactful experience that they will carry on into their future careers.
“This fellowship has reaffirmed my desire to advocate for the autonomy and humanity of those in custody and/or detention. This work allowed me to think critically about partnerships that can exist between multiple stakeholders. It has also made me more confident in my ability to advocate for and explain (often very confusing) legal systems to children, a population that I hope to continue to work with. I feel that I am more curious about my goals as an attorney, and feel more open to opportunities that I did not previously consider such as doing policy work.”
The Fellowship program was launched in December 2021 to honor our beloved Elizabeth Frankel, the Young Center’s former associate director and unrelenting advocate for all children. Applications for the summer 2023 Fellowship program will open in January 2023. For more information about the fellows and the program, click here. Please feel free to share the link with anyone who might be interested in next year’s fellowship.