First Annual Vassar College Immigrant Youth Empowerment Conference (VC IYEC)
“Stories of Resilience and Resistance”
The theme of our inaugural conference centers the stories of resilience and resistance of migration that have endured despite the troubled past and present of our immigration history in the United States. The conference will explore the different communication mediums that have been used to tell these familial, communal, and historical stories. How they have been passed on through the different generations in the form of sayings, songs, stories, paintings, books, and other forms of communication that affirm one’s continued presence in lands, communities, and spaces. Despite the xenophobic discourse about new arrivals that sadly persists in the media and across our society, we, the IYEC steering committee, present this theme and conference as a place and time where these stories of resilience and resistance of migration can be told and shared as a way of affirming the human dignity of all people despite their immigration status. And we also affirm that immigrants are not strangers but are our co-workers, our neighbors, our friends, and our families.
Location: Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
Date: Saturday, September 22, 2018
Registration and Breakfast: 8:00-9:00am
Conference: 9:00am – 4:00pm
The annual Immigrant Youth Empowerment Conference hosts numerous workshops that inform and empower undocumented/immigrant youth through a diverse set of sessions and workshops that center stories of resistance and resilience.