#2: First look at my topic – Mexican Migrants in VT
My topic is still on the drawing board right now but I’m planning on using What’s The Story as a way to document my research for my upcoming project. I will be researching the Mexican migrants that come to Vermont searching for jobs and learn more about their working conditions, pay, and freedoms. I’m planning on discovering what the migrants need and want as well as what we can do as a state to help them and stop racial profiling. Class today has helped me further think about what I will do in order to keep up with the research and has given me a new view on how I can use this class to document my interviews and what I learn about the Mexican population in Vermont.
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Hi Justin,
This is Brad, the mentor with whom you ate pizza.
You told me a little about your experiences in Mexico last year, and I’m interested in seeing how your experiences there (and the network you must have developed) will help you gain entry into the world of Mexicans who have made their way to Vermont. It must be a rather closed group, except perhaps for the churches who give sanctuary.
Your topic will certainly be catapulted onto center stage should Mr. Trump become president. (I think I recently heard him say that one of his first actions would be to eliminate sanctuaries for “illegals.”)
In any case, I anticipate your learning since, in a rather diminished way, your learning will be my learning.
Hi Brad,
It was great meeting you and being able to work through my ideas while sharing my experiences from the past year!
Yes, I totally agree! I’m hoping that with 1 year of living in Mexico under my belt I will have a unique perspective on the Mexican population here in Vermont. I visited Chiapas, the state where the majority of the migrant workers come from, I now speak the language and most importantly, I have a deep appreciation for the culture. Now that I have experienced these things myself, I believe it will be much easier for me to fully understand what types of problems Mexicans face here in Vermont and what needs to be done in order to overcome them.
I’ll be sure to keep you informed about my project and I look forward to your mentorship over the next year!
Justin
Hi Justin,
This is Amy Collier—I work at Middlebury and introduced the WTS folks to WordPress at your first meeting. I am excited about your topic and I’m curious to learn more about what strategies you are considering to help you learn more about the lives of migrant workers in Vermont. Besides interviews, what other strategies are you thinking about using?
I’m sure that, with your tremendous experience working with Daniel and on various animation projects, you have thought a lot about empathy. I’m fascinated with empathy. What does it take to help people to develop true empathy? How will you yourself work on your empathy throughout this project?
A