By Hye Joo
New Organizing Project blogger
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Fighting Youth Shouting out for Humanity (FYSH) is a youth-led organizing council of KRCC, mainly comprised of Chicago area high school students. FYSH works to empower their community and peers through organizing/advocacy, education and social services.
This year, our focus is raising awareness about the DREAM Act, a bill that, if passed, would provide undocumented students the opportunity to pursue a higher education and a pathway to citizenship status. FYSH members are also holding various events and fundraisers to raise money for the DREAM Scholarship Fund, which awards deserving students, regardless of their immigration status, funds they can use towards their education expenses. Contact Chris Nguyen (chrislnguyen@yahoo.com) or Karn Saetang (karn@chicagokrcc.org), if you’re interested in checking us out!
To let people know more about FYSH and the youth who participate in the program, we have something called StarFYSH, where we profile members. Youth answer questions, which are chosen randomly, giving us a glimpse of who they are. My profile will be shared soon, but I wanted to show it to the NOP blogging community first! So here is a special sneak peek into my StarFYSH. Hope to see yours SOON.
1.Why did you join FYSH?
I joined FYSH in the summer of 2007. At first it was to fill my service learning hour requirements for my school, but got involved in organizing and advocacy work when I got interested in the DREAM Act. Since then, I have been an active member and still enjoy volunteering as a core member of the youth group.
2.What is one thing you are most passionate about?
The one thing I am most passionate about is following my dreams. My parents decided to come to the United States in order for me and my brother to achieve high education and become successful in life. Not only because I want to make my parents happy, but I truly want to become a successful person where I can help my community become a better place and be known as a positively influential person.
3. If you could have one superpower, what would you want to have?
If I could have one superpower, I want to make everyone in this world care about the earth, be nature-friendly and become aware of the environment so our planet stays healthy and green.
4. Do you feel like you’ve changed in result of being in FYSH?
Since the days I joined FYSH, I have become passionate in advocating on behalf of the Asian American community, and the wider minority community as well. I have improved my public speaking skills through many media interviews and presentations. Last but not least, I feel more dedicated than ever in helping our community become a better place to live for us and for our future generation.
5. If you could have a dinner with 3 people, alive or dead, real or fictional, who would you have it with?
I would love to have dinner with Hillary Clinton, Frank Lloyd Wright and President Barack Obama.
The reason why I chose Hillary Clinton is because she is a strong person fighting for causes that she believes is fair for women. She has been my role model for a long time. Frank Lloyd Wright was chosen because my dream is to become a successful architect. His works amazes me and I would really want to have a nice long conversation with him about what motivated him and how he became a professional in the field. Finally, I would like to have dinner with President Obama because I simply want to talk to him about the DREAM Act and get him to act on it and immigration reform this year.
Well, there it is! I hope that after reading this post, all youth leaders out there living near Chicago will come join our FYSH movement and help us shout out for humanity!
