On June 13, 2023, we welcomed Danielle O’Brien as the Small Business Multilingual Video Series Communications and Community Engagement Intern for the Office of Immigrant Affairs. She is a rising senior at La Salle University who will intern with our office through the 2023 summer Mayor’s Internship Program.

Danielle will work with Alain Joinville, Director of Strategic Communications and Programs on a multilingual video project that will make small business programs more accessible to immigrant business owners in Philadelphia. She will also assist in managing outreach to immigrant business owners, and immigrant communities, aid with developing a communication plan to help launch the campaign, and manage the process to compensate community members for feedback on the video project.

We asked Danielle some questions to get to know her better.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hi there! My name is Danielle O’Brien! I am a senior majoring in International Relations Major with a minor in Spanish, Economics, and Leadership in Global Understanding at La Salle University. I’m very involved on my campus at La Salle! I serve as the politics section editor for the La Salle Collegian, a representative for the Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS), the president of the La Salle Foreign Language Club, and an ESL tutor for the BUSCA program at La Salle University. When I’m not on campus, however, I love to spend my time in green spaces throughout Philadelphia as well as curate graphic designs for social media accounts I run at school. Not to mention I’m very excited to start interning here at the Office of Immigrant Affairs!

Why did you decide to intern with the Office of Immigrant Affairs?

Throughout my life, I’ve had experience working on the non-governmental side of supporting Philadelphia’s immigrant population. I’ve done this as an ESL tutor throughout my secondary education and now into my higher education experience at La Salle University. Last summer I also had the opportunity to intern for a non-profit institution in Philadelphia, the Nationalities Service Center. In reflecting on these experiences, while I truly valued each opportunity and the connections I gained in them, it was working in these non-governmental positions that I began to understand the pivotal role policy and governmental institutions have in impacting our immigrant community.

Thus, I was ecstatic about the opportunity to work here at the Office of Immigrant Affairs under our local government considering in this position, I will play a more direct role in supporting the immigrant community of Philadelphia. After all, the Office of Immigrant Affairs remains a pivotal system of support for integrating Philadelphia’s immigrants into the larger Philadelphia community, while highlighting and celebrating what makes each person different. This is an initiative of which I certainly aspired to be a part of.

How does working with the Office of Immigrant Affairs relate to your future aspiration?

In the future, I aspire to continue positively improving the lives of immigrants, combining my experience in the government and non-governmental sectors to further aid me in pursuing a career in Immigration law. As an immigration lawyer, I will be a direct line of aid to immigrants seeking a better life. Aside from immigration law which would be improving the lives of immigrants on a more individual basis, I also have an interest in pursuing careers in diplomacy or human rights law to support immigrants more broadly by reforming policy.

Why are the plights of immigrants important to you?

My experience acting as a peer ESL tutor throughout my high school career was the catalyst to learning about the plights of our immigrant population and thus becoming empowered to be involved in its solution. Peer ESL tutoring began as a way for me to learn a second language more fluently. Nevertheless, what I learned was so much more than simply a second language. Peer ESL tutoring exposed me to the harsh realities peers my age were being tasked with facing in immigrating to a new country. Seeing their struggles motivated me to make the process easier for my peers in whatever way I could. Originally, that manifested in my peer tutoring, but it later translated into my higher educational choices such as my major in International Relations at La Salle University. My decision to major in International Relations reflects my understanding that policy is the most impactful way we can impact a person’s quality of life.

As an International Relations major, I value implementing the lessons I learn abroad to reform domestic issues here at home. But even domestically, I continue to learn. Every experience I’ve had working with immigrants, from my tutoring experience throughout my higher education, as well as my internship experiences, has exposed me to the different barriers immigrants face in securing a high quality of life here in the U.S. For example, my experience tutoring in college exposed me to the harsh realities my peers at the college level were facing, such as developing their English proficiency skills to secure good quality jobs in an already competitive job market, alongside the struggles of obtaining a higher education in the first place… an affordable education at that.

Furthermore, my work as an intern for the nonprofit – the Nationalities Service Center of Philadelphia – exposed me to the barriers immigrants face in finding secure housing in what is an already foreign home to immigrants. Additionally the problems specific to Philadelphia that an immigrants’ housing situation exposes them to, such as crime, addiction, homelessness, and more. Thus, in witnessing all the barriers Philadelphia’s immigrant population has been tasked with through my previous experiences, it is now that I am emboldened to address said barriers in my work with an already motivated team at the Office of Immigrant Affairs.

What are you looking to take out of this experience?

From this experience, I’m hoping to understand further how the Office of Immigrant Affairs and more generally how the city of Philadelphia as a local government can affect its immigrant population’s quality of life compared to nongovernmental institutions. Additionally, I’m hoping that from this internship I’ll be able to connect with the local immigrant population, understand their needs, hear their concerns, and provide them with the proper services or work toward reform. This is an honor to do, not only alongside this department but furthermore in a city that understands and values the contributions of immigrants as much as I do.