Casey Plach ’15

Casey during her ARC days

Casey during her ARC days

Year of Graduation: 2015

Major: Political Science and Hispanic Studies

Current Address: Niles, Illinois

How were you engaged with ARC? Not just the seminar/internship/fellowship but describe the type of project.

In the summer of 2013 I was an intern in the Community Partnership Program. My nonprofit partner was Heartland Head Start where I helped Spanish speaking families enroll their children in preschool.
I also took the Spanish for Social Justice class my Senior year where I worked for The Immigration Project on citizenship applications.

Where are you now?

I am a legal assistant at an immigration law firm in downtown Chicago. I work on citizenship cases and adjustment of status.

Where did ARC take you professionally? Are you doing work that connects back to ARC in some way?

ARC gave me the opportunity to do real work in the community, which prepared me for the work I would be doing post-graduation. For example, I had my first phone conversations in Spanish while interning with ARC, and now that’s a daily occurrence.

Where did ARC take you personally? Are you engaged in community work that is ARC-like?

ARC gave me the chance to take interests that emerged from classroom discussion and apply them to real situations in the community. Making these connections helped me see what kind of work I really wanted to get involved in.

Did ARC teach you what we were supposed to teach you? Did we teach you anything that was a surprise or outside of the learning objectives?

Yes! Classes at IWU teach you how to analyze and think about problems, but ARC teaches you how to gather resources to solve the problem and make real change

Share a great memory about ARC/IWU.

Too many 🙂

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