STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
At FIU’s School of Social Work, our goal is to prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed to graduate and build successful careers in the field of social work. When the pandemic hit, our students rolled up their sleeves to help community partners in a time of dire need. Through virtual meetings, students worked to ensure people received the support needed to navigate the challenges brought on by the pandemic. This dedication and commitment make us proud of our students and excited for the bright futures that lie ahead of them.
Social Work student awarded $20,000 Dissertation Fellowship to support work with undocumented immigrants Maryam Rafieifar, a doctoral student at FIU’s School of Social Work, began her work with undocumented immigrants as a project manager for the International Committee of the Red Cross in her home country of Iran.
I got the idea that I really wanted to work with undocumented immigrants because they’re already underserved in many parts of the world. For refugees and immigrants, there are lots of different organizations with mandates to assist them, but no one recognizes the undocumented as people with rights.” – Maryam Rafieifar
When Maryam began her Ph.D., she found many similarities between undocumented children living in the United States and Iran, including the lack of access to social welfare and medical programs. Maryam wanted to understand better how being undocumented or the child of an undocumented parent or parents affects children’s mental health and what resources they could use or need. So, as part of a class project, Maryam began working with the Nora Sandigo Children Foundation, a Miami-based non-profit that aims to help undocumented parents and their children. She was awarded a Global Civic Engagement Mini-Grant, based out of the FIU Center for Leadership and Service, to help host an event – in conjunction with the foundation— that informed mixed-status families about their rights when stopped by the police or ICE. Today, Maryam is working on her dissertation that explores guardianship as it relates to undocumented families. She won a $20,000 Dissertation Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The AAUW fellowship program will help offset Maryam’s research expenses and stipends while she completes her dissertation. She aims to graduate in spring 2022 and hopes to run a non-profit to support undocumented families one day.
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