1. An admissions counselor at a California State University was reviewing an admissions application submitted by a Vietnamese refugee student.  Sections of the admissions application requested parental information and specific questions about the family history.  Because these sections were left blank, the student was requested to make an appointment with the admissions counselor.

 

During their meeting the counselor learned that the student and his sister were living with an aunt and they had no knowledge of the existence of their parents.  The student hesitantly shared with the counselor that his parents were taken as prisoners by the communist regime in Vietnam and he was left behind with his younger sister.  Through VIA and the Refugee Program, the student was able to locate his aunt in California.

 

It had been ten years since he last seen his parents.  The student expressed that it was important for him to go to college because with a college degree he would be able to take care of his younger sister and not be such a burden to his aunt.

 

2. A Hispanic social worker in Colorado was assigned a client who had been raped by her employer.  The client was a twenty-five year old Mexican woman who came to the United States so that she could work and save money to pay for an operation that her son needed.

 

The client had answered an ad in the paper to work as a live-in nanny.  The employer was a successful dentist, married and had two children.  Within days after the Mexican woman had started working, she was raped by the dentist.  Unable to speak English and fearful of the consequences of deportation, the woman could not report the incident to authorities.  In desperation, the woman went to see a priest for help.  The priest contacted a clinic who later contacted the social work agency.  It was discovered that the woman had been raped on eleven different occasions within a five day period.