NCC junior can see America through someone else's eyes

When North Central College student Kelsey Staudacher visits her refugee family in Aurora, 4-year-old Ilkham Ibragimov and his brother, Ismail, 6, run up to greet her.

She sits down comfortably with their mother, Gulshan Usmanova, to help with the English classes the Turkish woman is taking at Waubonsee Community College.

The relationships were more tentative when she met the family eight months ago, Staudacher said.

"At first, I had more of the tutor role," Staudacher said. "It's taken time to be more involved."

Staudacher, a junior from Wisconsin and a co-coordinator for World Relief on her Naperville campus, became involved with the organization's Friendship Partner program a year and a half ago.

Her first family was an older Turkish couple, but Staudacher said the wife was unwilling to learn much English and she was assigned a new family at her request.

The Ibragimov family, which includes the father, Umar, arrived in Aurora a little more than a year ago. Meskhetian Turks, they had fled the prejudice they faced in their native country for Russia, where they lived five or six years before being given refugee status, Staudacher said.

"There's quite a large population of these Meskhetian Turks in the Aurora area," Staudacher said. "These Turkish people have a lot of ethnic support."

The support can have a downside because refugees living among people of their own culture may not assimilate into American society as easily, she said.

But the family is doing well. Both parents have jobs in a factory. They are learning English and feel comfortable with their American friend.

Staudacher, who visits once a week, said she has helped the family find the library, made calls for them about computer problems, scheduled doctor's appointments and taken them to the dentist.

"It's really about building relationships," she said. "I've really enjoyed getting to know the family."

A French major, Staudacher said she can relate to the problems of learning another language.

"I have learned about the process of language acquisition and the importance of communication," she said.

Staudacher, who also served an internship in the World Relief office in the spring, said she has gained new perspective by seeing the United States through the eyes of refugees.

"Volunteering with them (World Relief) has been a blessing in terms of being able to meet so many different people and becoming familiar with the refugee situation in the United States," she said.