Ever since she left BYU–Hawaii in 2009, Jen Dean said she has been working to foster change in her community. Originally from France, Dean now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and works for the International Rescue Committee helping resettle refugees. Sometimes her biggest lessons learned, she shared, are the individual impacts each person can make and how she can make connections with everyone she meets.
What is the International Rescue Committee?
“The International Rescue Committee is an international organization that serves people who are in crisis zones and war zones to help them rebuild their lives. We are in 40 different countries in places where they have refugee camps. There, we do things like health classes, crisis management, or whatever the needs may be. Specifically, in the United States, we are a resettlement agency.
"Any refugees who have been approved are resettled in the United States. We will be assigned to a city in the U.S. and work with an agency there that has the authorization to resettle them. In Utah, there are only two agencies that can resettle. Those are the International Rescue Committee and Catholic Community Services. Any refugees who are being resettled will come and be assigned to one of the agencies and we take them from there.
“We pick them up from the airport. They will work with a case worker for about two years. In most cities in the United States, they will work with a case worker for about four to six months, but in Utah, the state has put additional funding to provide case management for two years to ensure people become self-sufficient and have acclimated and can really rebuild their lives.
"In Utah, that is specifically what we do. A lot of programs are for refugees who have been authorized to be resettled. People who are being resettled, which is a last resort, will eventually become American citizens.”
When did you attend BYUH?
“I started in 2004, and I graduated in 2009. I studied political science. I am from France.”
What do you love about the International Rescue Committee?
“What the IRC works for and the people they serve is a community I always wanted to be involved with. I can use my French, and I feel like I’m really helping someone. Yes, I’m doing things on a computer, and there are parts of my job that don’t involve face-to-face contact with people, but there are a lot of parts that do, whether it is with a refugee client, a volunteer, or a community partner.
"Getting to be engaged together to serve a cause and to make someone’s life better and strengthen it really brings me joy. It is why I do what I do. I really enjoy that part.
"I can’t share specific details of stories, but I think the biggest thing out of all the stories is there is always something in someone’s story that, even if their story is very different from your own, you can always relate to something in some way or another. It really shows me how connected we are.
“[One day] I spent the whole day with someone who arrived [the night before], and there were things about their stories that are really difficult, and that I will probably never fully understand because I didn’t go through it. But there are things that in a small way I can relate to and understand some of their pain and their dreams and aspirations.
"I think human connectedness to them makes everything worth it and reminds me that in one small way, I can do something to uplift someone. That’s why I choose to work in this kind of environment.
“Every day is humbling. Every day is a reminder that there is always one small thing you can do that will ... really impact someone. To show up for someone else and show them you can make time for them makes a huge difference, even though you might not think so.
"There are so many stories, whether I was working with the homeless in D.C. or in Salt Lake with the refugees, where you can truly build friendships and relationships filled with love, compassion, and understanding.”
How was your journey from BYUH to the International Rescue Committee?
“I moved to Washington, D.C., I worked for a nonprofit there that served the homeless. We moved to Utah five years ago for my husband’s work. I quit my job in D.C. and we moved here.
"I stayed home with my son for a little bit. This past March, I wanted to go back to work. They had a job opening at the IRC doing stuff I did when I worked in D.C.”
What did you learn at BYU–Hawaii that you have taken with you?
“Something I have retained from BYU–Hawaii is the fact that every single one of us can do something. We can find a cause that matters to us, whatever it may be, and get involved and help change things and help uplift someone.
"I think people should get involved with the International Rescue Committee. There are plenty of places people can do that. There are also so many worthy organizations people can get involved with.
“If people can reflect on what matters to them and find a way to make an impact there, if there is anything we are taught at BYUH, it is we are of worth and we can show people they have worth as well. We can guide them and remind them they have worth as well, no matter what they have been through or what their story is.
"Everyone has worth. That is something I was always reminded of at BYUH because of the relationships I built there and all the different cultures there remind us of how rich the world is.
“Every single one of us has something to bring. It is important to be able to remind other people of that, to be able to look in their eyes and see they are worth it and see there is something special.
"The richness of BYU–Hawaii and the diversity of the people, all the cultures, are some things you can’t go without after you graduate. In some way or another, all of us in our different jobs look for that richness.
“I found it in working in the nonprofit world in being able to be exposed to so many different stories and cultures in a way that reminds me of being in a classroom with 15 students who have a completely different story than me.
"With different opinions, at the heart of it we all have things we can share. That’s what I get out of working at IRC, is being able to have human connection at a deeper level no matter what.”