Newcomers

Companion Script (Andrew Hill) 1

SLIDE 1 - TITLE

Good evening. My name is Andrew Hill and Im the Executive Director of the City of Angels
Center for Newcomers right here in Los Angeles, California. Im thrilled to be here tonight in
front of you, the Los Angeles City Council. Ill be brief, no more than ten minutes. Im excited to
share the work weve been doing in our first year at our school, nicknamed the Angels Center.

SLIDE 2 ANGELS CENTER

Were lucky to be housed in the L.A. Unified Robert F. Kennedy High School, site of the old
Ambassador Hotel. When we sought a facility to house our evening Newcomers program, RFK
High was clearly the perfect place. The location the cusp of Koreatown was practical for our
student population. And the school and district were happy to give us space. We took on two
classrooms and three offices.

SLIDE 3 KOREATOWN

Now: the majority of our students hail from Koreatown. This is one of the reasons that a single,
centralized center was the best choice easy and practical access for students.

Based on recent census data, 115,000 people live in this area. The Asian and Latinx populations
are largest. About 68% of residents are foreign born, and South Korea is the most common
foreign place of birth.






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SLIDE 4 WHO WE SERVE

Now, as you know, we are a center for newcomers. Would anyone on the council like to
venture a definition of this word? [] Very good! A newcomer is an immigrant or a refugee who
has lived in the United States for just two to three years. They have emerging levels of language
proficiency.

At present, each of our students hail from North Korea. In 2004, President Bush signed into law
the North Korea Human Rights Act, paving the way for refugees to resettle in the US. There has
been an incremental influx of these refugees across the country.

Approximately 200 documented North Korean refugees reside here in LA, largely in Koreatown.
That said, there is a significant number of undocumented North Koreans here as well. We serve
students from both these pools.

At present, we have thirty North Korean students, aged 18 to 25. These young adults have
limited experience with English and alphabetic print literacy. They learned Korean while in
Korea, and several picked up conversational Mandarin when they first crossed into China. In
other words: our students linguistic experiences, in addition to life experience, is immense
and worthy of deep deference. We demonstrate this by helping our students retain their
identities while concurrently guiding them across cultural borders, and teaching them new
skills and concepts important here in the United States.

Several of our students have experienced significant hardship. They fled famine and despotic
dictatorship for at first China, where they were labelled illegal economic migrants. They
could no longer attend school for fear of arrest and deportation. Consequently, their formal
education was interrupted.

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Now, I was asked before this meeting how we find our students. Well, quite simply, via
Facebook. Our students do manage to purchase smart phones and they use these to send us
messages. Our page has been passed around our students communities and our Facebook
like count is steadily growing.

SLIDE 5 OUR STAFF

So, our staff. Were fortunate to have two dedicated and creative ESL instructors on staff. With
anyone we hire, we look for several specific qualifications: one, that they have experience
working with vulnerable or diverse populations, and two that they have experience teaching
English as a second language. Familiarity with Korean language and culture is currently a plus.

We also have on staff four AmeriCorps volunteers. They help our instructors prepare lessons,
coordinate our Saturday experiential learning field trips more on that in a bit and manage
our social media.

There is also me and one administrative assistant, a former employee of Los Angeles
Independent School District.

SLIDE 6 TRAINING AND RESOURCES

Our people-power extends well beyond the classroom. Weve built relationships with
organizations at the local, state, and national level.

We engage in trainings and workshops organized by the International Rescue Committee in LA,
Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Services, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and the Church
World Service. Youll notice the faith-based community is doing a lot of great work in this area.


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SLIDE 7 TRAINING AND RESOURCES

Id like to briefly touch on a few of the trainings our staff have participated in. The first: Age
assessment awareness and working with age disputed young people. Many of our students
traveled to the US without identifying documents. Their precise age is unknown but they
generally fall between 18 and 24 years. Per state law, Californians reach adulthood at 18 years.

Its important that our staff have some understanding of how this situation may play out, legally
or otherwise, and effect our students.

Another of our trainings: Emotional well-being of refugee children and young people. Our
students have experienced what the Refugee Council calls pre- and post-migration stressors.
This is in addition to the reality of the life they left behind in North Korea.

Our staff also receive training in trauma-informed care. Our students may be trauma-effected.
The Hogg Foundation at the University of Texas coordinates trainings nation-wide to help us
recognize ways to avoid re-triggering student traumas.

SLIDE 8 LANGUAGE DELIVERY

Given this is only our first year, we currently offer just two courses. We hope to expand and
diversify in coming years. The first, Language and Literacy, has two levels: beginner and
intermediate. These classes meet in separate rooms every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
from 6 to 7pm. We work to expose students to alphabetic print literacy, mindful of these
distinct students performance in, among other things, phonemic awareness tasks.

Our beginner class has 20 students while our intermediate course has 10.

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On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we offer a similarly divided Social Studies course. Last weeks class
centered on the importance of civic engagement. We learned about acts of volunteerism in
Korea and then in the United States. We sought to empower students by making their own
knowledge and skills applicable to life here.

One Saturday a month, students participate in experiential learning field trips. Last Saturday,
we visited the Boys and Girls Club of LA and helped to re-organize and paint their facility. Our
teachers took photos and will incorporate them into next weeks literacy lesson, using what we
call the Language Experience Approach.

These courses are delivered in an ESL format rather than bilingual. The latter is preferred for
classroom populations that speak a common language. Ours do and we are looking to offer
bilingual classes next year.

It is difficult to gauge student progress over the long term. Our students work long hours and
are unable to attend classes with regularity. We are looking at offering classes to interested
students who may be homebound. For instance: mothers with young children.

SLIDE 9 LOOKING FORWARD

Ill close by sharing what lays ahead: the future of Angels Center. Lately Ive been reading about
the Sacramento Newcomers School. It was founded in the 1980s, reaction to an influx of
Southeast Asian Refugees. In time, those students had worked their way through the school
and most new arrivals were Spanish speakers.

We dont know what the future holds. The world is an increasingly uncertain place. In ten years,
we may have five times as many North Korean newcomers in our program. Or, we may have
students from another conflicted region. We are all every one us, no matter where we live
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at the whim of world events. We must consider this, and stay open-minded, as we move
forward.

Thank you for your support and for hearing us out this evening. Id be happy to take any
questions.