Praxis Course: Praxis Independant Study
Semester: Spring 2026
Faculty Advisor/Professor: Professor Corredor
Community Partner: U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
Praxis Site Supervisor: Mary Lagdameo
Praxis Poster:
PIS Sofia_Platzman_Praxis Poster Final- SP
Further Context:
Over my first semester of interning with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), my entire academic focus has become concentrated on the work I am doing with USCRI and immigration policy. I have always held a deep passion for immigrant justice, due to personal relationships in my life, yet it was not until my sophomore year of college at UC San Diego that I learned about opportunities for immigration-related advocacy, through a course called “The Politics of Immigration.” This course created the foundation of knowledge for immigration policy that led me to intern at USCRI as a Bryn Mawr transfer student.
For the past four months, I have interned for the Development Team at USCRI. When I began this position, I hardly knew the function of grants for nonprofits, much less how to write one. I understood that the Trump administration was targeting organizations supporting migrants and refugees, but I did not comprehend the real-life, painful impacts of these attacks. Now, I understand the immense and immeasurable impact grants can offer, as well as the consequences of the Trump’s administration cruel policy changes.
My internship began with an onboarding process that involved bringing myself up to speed on the current state of immigration policies in the United States. I watched webinars, read briefings, engaged with news articles, and wrote up summaries of all that I learned. Next, I began to enter into the world of grants. I started out by researching potential grants that we could apply to. This project evolved into becoming involved with the work of ending the grants themselves. Through these steps, I began to learn the ins and outs of what goes into writing grants: from the research to the communication with field offices and other teams to the draining of a budget and creation of the grant itself. I am now working on drawing one $20,000 grant to support USCRI’s legal services and one $100,000 grant to fund a virtual ESL program. These two grants have provided me with an invaluable foundation in the work that goes into grant-writing.
As one example of the intersection between grant-writing work and immigration advocacy, on October 17th, USCRI announced the closure of Rinconcito del Sol, a shelter for unaccompanied migrant girls, due to a reduction in federal funding. From my current position of understanding the role of funding in decisions such as this one, I wish there was a grant large enough to have saved this program from the Trump administration’s budget cuts. Given that the focus of my interests is intersection of migration and gender/sexuality studies, this news touched me deeply. It feels like a permanent reminder that the work I am doing at USCRI—actively addressing funding gaps and identifying communities in need of that funding—has tangible consequences. For all the forces out there trying to harm migrants in this country, we need just as many to fight alongside migrant communities.
If anything, this understanding, of the role we can all play in supporting migrants’ fundamental rights and of the countless people working to protect these rights day in and day out, has been my greatest takeaway from this internship so far. It is so easy to become disillusioned from reading the news and looking at actions, such as the closure of Rinconcito del Sol, yet there are so many people out there fighting for justice—for what is right. It is the privilege of a lifetime to witness the endless passion and care and curiosity shown by this community of migrants, survivors, activists, leaders, grant-writers, field office managers, and more.
I am excited to see where my academic focus on immigration justice will carry me. Over the summer, I will be heading to study abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science and will be taking a course called, “International Migration: Power, Policy and Lived Realities.” This focus of study will extend into next semester at Bryn Mawr with the course, “Cities and Immigration.” I will also be continuing my internship at USCRI next semester but working as a branch between the Development Team and the Policy & Advocacy Team; this opportunity will be an incredible new direction to continue developing my grant writing skills, while also learning more about the policy side of immigration work. If there is any message I can leave to readers, please remember: for all of the despair surrounding attacks on immigrants’ rights, there are even more people who will never give up in the pursuit of justice. There is even greater hope in this world than there is violence.