All Eyes on IRISE

Meet IRISE, Gilman’s newest club. This fall, Joshua Kim ‘27 founded the Immigrant and Refugee Initiative for Student Empowerment. The mission of the club is “to support immigrant and refugee youth as they navigate through their personal and academic journeys in the United States.” 

To execute this mission, Josh is partnering with Mi Espacio CASA, an after-school program offered by CASA, which is an advocacy group created to educate and empower immigrant students and communities. Starting in the winter season, Josh and his club members will volunteer at Mi Espacio twice a week from 3:30 to 5:00. Ms. Anastasio, the faculty club sponsor, will drive a bus to the Mi Espacio facility in Baltimore at 3:00. Once there, the Gilman volunteers will assist students with their schoolwork, foster relationships, offer personal advice, and have fun with them. This service opportunity would replace the students’ sports requirement for that season. Josh recapped, “It is supposed to be similar to Bridges.” 

The club plans on meeting bi-weekly — Thursday during lunch in CT-12 —but most of the time and efforts of the club will be spent at Mi Espacio “helping other people,” explained Josh. His inspiration to start IRISE first came when volunteering at the Salaam Center in Baltimore through his own church, Bethel Korean Presbyterian Church. Here, Josh states, “I saw that there's a lot more immigrants in Baltimore than I actually was aware of, and that they're actually in need of a lot of help…So I thought, it'd be really good to start something here at Gilman, where we have so many resources, so that we can offer them to help uplift other students in the area.” 

IRISE’s long-term vision is to involve the entire tri-school community, not just Gilman. Josh hopes to replicate the success of the Bridges program and create a club where dozens of tri-school students can give back to their community by educating their peers, while also developing powerful, meaningful relationships. Some upcoming events for the club include volunteering at a Luminus Community Outreach Event in Howard County from 4:00-6:00 p.m. on November 8th, and partnering with First Presbyterian Church on "Warm for Winter" to help donate clothes for immigrant families in the cold season.