Their Story is Our Story, and it can be yours too
There can be a lot more to attending Utah State University than simply making deadlines. Some people choose to add to their college experience by playing sports, running for leadership or attending events.
Tyler Rich, a junior studying finance and data analytics, is an example of someone who is bringing new potential to the Aggie name and working to create social change.
Rich is the vice president of Utah State’s chapter of Their Story is Our Story, or TSOS, a nonprofit organization that works to give refugees a platform to share their stories and experiences with others. The organization publishes refugee stories around the globe in hopes to eradicate otherness and bring people together.
“The thing that sparked my interest was realizing how close-minded I was to it all, because it’s so easy to just live life and not even think about what’s going on in a lot of areas of the world,” Rich said.
Rich was serving a religious mission for his church in Germany when he came across stories that troubled him. Although he was surrounded by people with a different way of life, he wasn’t expecting the differences to completely shift his perception of others’ experiences.
“There were people who said, ‘If anybody knew I was meeting with Christians, my family would be killed; I would be killed,’” Rich said. “And I was like ‘Wow, this is actually going on in the world.’”
The Logan chapter started as a club at USU last year. The focus of the chapter is to hold events that educate people and spark conversations.
Not limited to Logan, TSOS is a global organization with a large chapter in Salt Lake City.
Shurooq Al Jewari has been working as the outreach coordinator with the Salt Lake chapter for about a year. Last year, she helped Rich and TSOS President Ben Walters host an event for USU students with guest speaker Sasha Sloan, whose platform is refugee advocacy.
Jewari teamed up with Sloan and created a presentation to present to schools statewide. The purpose of the presentation was to bridge the gap between refugees and non-refugees.
After moving to America from Iraq nine years ago, Jewari faced bullying and racism in her junior high and high school.
Her experience growing up as a refugee inspired her to have related conversations with students.
“We talked about our shared struggles,” Jewari said. “Not only do we have similarities about loving to shop at Zara, or we both love Chick-fil-A or the same actors, but we all share the same struggles of being bullied in high school, mental health disorders, etc.”
Rich said the USU chapter plans to focus on holding events and educational meetings to teach people about Islam, issues going on overseas and ways to help within the local community.
“This year we hope to do things that cause actual change,” Rich said.
TSOS teamed up with other refugee organizations in the valley and held a Social Action Fair at USU last Wednesday. The purpose of the fair was to bring awareness to the cause and show community members how to get involved.
Rich currently volunteers 3-4 hours a week with the chapter. He said the club has been struggling to find volunteers this school year.
TSOS can be found online at their website tsosrefugees.org and has chapters internationally. The USU chapter is open to everyone looking to build new relationships and be a part of social change.