Ten young teenagers from the Mississippi Delta crowd around a conference table in the heart of Washington, DC, sharing junk food and friendly horseplay after a long day’s work. Like interns all over the Capitol, they’ve tackled jobs from filing to lugging boxes to simply finding their way around on their first urban subway system.

“This is way different from Mississippi,” says Desiree, 16, who spent her summer in the library of the U.S. Supreme Court, working on projects she is not at liberty to describe. What she can speak of, though, are the lessons she learned in this high-powered city.

“Try to be flexible with things,” she advises. “Be aware of your surroundings, because there’s violence and everything, and you have to watch people. And when you see homeless people, don’t be shocked.”

Desiree and her fellow transplants from rural Sunflower, Mississippi have absorbed the shock of new surroundings in job placements at Common Cause, the Children’s Defense Fund, the American Red Cross, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, as well as the Supreme Court. Part of a new internship program called “Freedom Fellows in DC,” these young people, aged 14 to 16, spent six weeks this summer with host families in the city, kept journals of their experiences, and met weekly at George Washington University to discuss their progress and difficulties. Guest speakers also attended the meetings, facilitated by GW student and intern mentor Jamie Meltzer, who each week provided insight, empathy, and plenty of pizza.

Education is the Seed

The Freedom Fellows program, launched this summer by the Sunflower County Freedom Project (SCFP), aims to give students inside perspective on politics and policy. Dedicated to the idea that “education is the seed of freedom,” the SCFP draws on the history and inspiration of the 1960s civil rights movement, when “Freedom Schools” in Mississippi church basements held summer courses for African-American children during the day and citizenship classes for adults at night.

Decades later, SCFP co-founders Chris Myers and Shawn Raymond (both alumni of Teach for America) recognized the need for continued efforts to expand opportunity for young people and organized the SCFP in collaboration with local residents and educators. Since its beginning in 1999, 125 students have signed on for the intensive academic “boot camp” that includes reading, writing, and math, plus projects in journalism, oral history, health, drama, music, and public speaking. Martial arts training and visiting speakers add to a rigorous program that, organizers say, is developing a corps of motivated, disciplined, and socially conscious young people.

As the first class of Freedom Fellows, the ten students from Sunflower and three neighboring towns experience pride and pitfalls, as each faces unique challenges. Claire, 15, upgraded Microsoft operating systems on computers at the Red Cross, while Tiffany, 14, helped organize a summer camp for 40 kids, learning CPR and lifeguarding skills.

At the meeting, Kevin and Elvin, both 15 and Folklife Festival interns, share their frustration with the drudgery of lifting crates, putting up tents, and filling coolers in 100-degree heat. They will go home to Mississippi tired but with renewed ambition to become managers (so they can someday order around their own interns) and memories of the singing, cooking, and martial arts displays of African, Indian, and Afghan folk artists.

Adapting to Foreign Lands

The group discussion at GW is cut short by the arrival of the day’s guest speaker, Sandy Dang, executive director of Asian-American
Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (LEAD). Born in Hanoi, Dang escaped war-torn Vietnam with her family at age nine. She tells students of spending a month at sea and three years in refugee camps before finally arriving in the United States with a burning desire to go to school.

Nothing about her transition to America was easy. “I remember crying outside the lunchroom, because I didn’t know how to ask for a lunch ticket,” she says. “I remember going to history class and looking at the teacher and not knowing what he was saying! I remember putting my head down on my book and crying because I couldn’t read.

“Slowly she taught herself English, copying over and over the words in her textbook. Years later, she founded LEAD to help other young immigrants learn English, leadership skills, and “to adapt and feel good about themselves and where they came from,” she says. “I know how hard it is.”

The Freedom Fellows fall silent as Ms. Dang talks, straining at first to understand her accent, then peppering her with questions. How different is Vietnam from here? Does she ever go back? Is racial discrimination there as bad as when she was growing up? Dang answers in candid detail, describing refugee camps “like warehouses with hundreds of people” and the obstacles to freedom imposed by a repressive government.

She asks how many of the students plan to go to college. Hands go up all around the conference table, as the teens mention schools—Howard University, UNC Chapel Hill—they hope to get into. The ice has been broken; kids from Mississippi and their Vietnamese guest exchange experiences of adapting to a new culture.

'It's Intimidating at First'

Particularly for rural teens in the nation’s Capitol, those new surroundings can be imposing and complex. At Common Cause, Ashley, 16, and Kedric, 14, sit at their computer stations as young lobbyists in suits and ties stride back and forth, scan databases, and make animated phone calls.

Keeping up with the fast pace “was intimidating at first,” acknowledges Kedric, “but when you’re there, you get the feeling of how it is and it doesn’t become as scary as it was at first... It’s like a second family.” Ashley adds, “Everyone treated us as equals right away.”

The summer has brought not just work experience and the satisfaction of acclimating to a foreign place but unexpected opportunities, as well. Ashley and Kedric describe tours of the city and visits to the National African Art Museum and the Library of Congress. A high point, they say, was a personal meeting with Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. “We asked her about her life, her ups and downs, how she got where she is today,” says Ashley.

The interns will go home with polished resumes, journals filled with observations, and important life lessons. “Since I’ve been working here I’ve seen that a lot of businesses in DC are competing against each other, and you have to compete as well, and be on a higher level or they will run you over,” remarks Ashley. “Always be focused on your game, but don’t get overstressed,” she cautions. “The way I see some people running by, they go bankrupt they are so stressed.”

Kedric appreciates the respect he felt from co-workers at Common Cause, and the encouragement to pursue his ambitions. “Respect means giving young people the opportunity to do things. People think young people will drop out, or that they’re on drugs, especially if you’re African-American,” he says. “I am passionate about politics, community, business, and law...and especially about the homeless people. With all the money the U.S. got—we’re the richest country in the world—but there are still so many homeless people on the street.”

Back around the GW conference table, Sandy Dang winds up her discussion with the Freedom Fellows, teaching them to say “thank you” in Vietnamese. They all repeat after her, laughing as they twist their mouths to mimic her accent. Then she sings them a short song in her native language, and everyone applauds and asks what the lyrics mean.

“In the swamp, there’s nothing more beautiful than the water lily
The petal white, in the middle is yellow...
Even though the water lily grows in the mud,
It smells nothing like the mud.”

The students sing her their own native song, spelling out the name of their home state: “M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-humpback-humpback-I!”

Before the Fellows adjourn for pizza, Dang asks them what they’ve learned, from her and their summer in Washington. “We learned to appreciate our country,” Desiree replies. Adds Kendra, “There’s all kinds of people in the world, and we need to learn to respect other religions.”

“We had to come up here and take chances and grow up, because you can’t stay in Mississippi forever—there’s not much down there for you,” says Ashley. “I see now that it’s not so hard to be away from my family for a long time&mdashyou can do it. It’s going to make going away to college much easier.”

“We’re learning how to take risks and how to be responsible,” Bradley reflects, “and how to be flexible with people.”

Soon after, Ms. Dang departs the conference room to a chorus of thank-you’s in Vietnamese.

Resources:

• Sunflower County Freedom Project
• What Kids Can Do

Article provided by What Kids Can Do.