Pursuing Dreams: Stories of Refugee and Immigrant Youth in California

Teens Jyoti, Fatuma and Win immigrated to the United States with their families, where they had to overcome lingual, cultural and social obstacles to succeed. Pursuing Dreams is a series of stories of overcoming odds. That of survival, resilience, and cross-cultural friendships. Stories in this series will highlight moments where opportunity was unlocked and a challenge overcome. At Refugee Transitions, we work with refugee and immigrant clients every day who have stories that follow this arc.

I'm thrilled to finally share my latest short film, Pursuing Dreams, produced with Refugee Transitions. I spent two weeks with Jyoti, Fatuma, and Win, three students who immigrated to the U.S. with their families from Bhutan, Somalia, and Burma (Myanmar), and now call Oakland, CA, home.

Refugee Transitions is a community-based nonprofit agency serving high-need, low-income refugee, asylee, and immigrant newcomers from over 50 countries in the Bay Area.

Now more than ever, it's important to get to know our newcomers and welcome them to our country. These students are AMAZING and are working hard to make their communities stronger. It was a privilege to help them tell their stories.