 Hi, my name is Ann Smith. I work with Project Pizia. We do a lot of different outreach programs with youth in the community. And today I'm here with two young men from Portland High School who are new arrivals in Maine as of about just about a year ago, right guys? And when they came to Portland High School as students, and I'll introduce them in a moment, they were completely unfamiliar with the United States. And one of the people they connected with was Glenn Nürbach, who runs the Portland Mentoring Alliance at Portland High School. And in fact, last year Glenn was flooded with people from Africa and the Middle East. Many, many immigrants came last year and as students. And he needed a lot of mentors and he couldn't find them. So he came to Project Pizia and we started our program. We had wanted to start for some time. We call it, actually we'll talk about that in a minute, but one member of the group, Daniel here named the group, and they call it Bright Future. As you can see they're in uniform and they'll tell you why that's so, but let me introduce each of my now friends. I feel like they're my sons. I walk down the street with them and they are both twice my size. I feel so safe. I've got these big gentlemen in uniform guarding me. The gentleman on the left is Steven Irocosi. Steven is from Burundi and he is a senior now at Portland High School. And this is Daniel Semucanya and he is from Rwanda and he is also a senior at Portland High. And I know I'm going to cry when they graduate in June. We're here primarily today to tell you about Bright Future because it's continuing this year. We have about seven or eight new members. And then of course the regular people come back. This is not all of the group. We didn't have room for everybody. But I'm going to ask Dan and Steve to tell you a little bit about some of their experiences in Bright Future last year. And so I guess we could start with Dan. Why don't you tell us about the name? Why did you feel that this was a good name for our group? Well, I chose the name Bright Future because they told us what they're going to help us get more involved in activities here in America since we were new. So I took this like an opportunity to have a bright future here. So that's why I gave an opinion for the group to be called Bright Future and it was accepted and the group was called Bright Future. And I think it's a good name because we do a lot of different things. Bezier, whom some of you have seen in other videos, is also from Africa and knows a lot about the institutions in the United States and feels that newcomers really need to get to know the United States in a lot of different ways. And one way we do this is by introducing these people to various institutions like law enforcement or the political system. And we'll talk about that in a moment. We also go on trips to various work sites so that you can learn about a career possibility should you decide you want to stay here. After you graduate from high school, you might continue in school and you might want to know what is it like to be a businessman, a banker, a doctor. What is it like to live here in the United States? Steve, I think one of the first things we did, which was a lot of fun, and I'm going to make a little joke. The expense that you and your brother, who is almost your size, Ben, they told me and during the first meeting that they were going to join the NBA. And I said, oh my goodness, how much experience do you have playing basketball? And they said none. They had never played. So I had to find someone to teach them. So Steve, tell us a little bit about how you learned to play. What it was like learning to play basketball at age, what, 17, 18? No, 18. 18 at USM. Yeah, that was like a good experience because first of all basketball wasn't my first sport. It wasn't my favorite sport before. But when I came here and I see every kid, all the people here like to play basketball, I was like, yeah, let me just try it. And it was fun. We have coach, Mr. Davies and coach Keith. USM was wonderful to you guys. They really were supportive. Yeah, they were really good. I really sucked in dribbling and all the stuff and shooting, like in lay-up, alleles. Yeah, lay-up and alleles. And we learned, we were like 50 kids, 50. Yeah, 50. It was kind of fun. We played some games with like all the people, like people who have like a great experience, like who know how to play basketball and they like show us like how some moves and it was a really fun. Yeah. And I used to drive them over there and sometimes I'd sit and watch them. And I have to say the first couple lessons, you guys must have had sore backs. Yeah. Because learning to dribble when you are fully grown means that you are dribbling like this because you wanted to control the ball. And I used to watch your brother. He would be bent completely over and dribbling and I'd think, oh my gosh, he is going to be so sore tomorrow running up and down the court. But it was fun. Yeah, it was fun. Are you going to try out for the team this year at Portland Eye? Yeah, I'm not going to do it. You're not going to do it? No, I'm not good enough. Oh, they'll be so modest. Nice good, but I play football so it's fine. All right, we'll talk about that maybe in a minute too. At the end of the year, we talked to all the people in the group, what they liked and what they felt was worth doing. And I guess I was very surprised, pleasantly surprised when I took the survey. One of the things we did was these gentlemen obviously are big strong boys and so they helped a organization here in town call Furniture Friends. We'd go out to breakfast on a Saturday morning and then they would get in a truck with other people and move furniture into the houses of people who didn't have good furniture, donated furniture. What was that like, Dan? Well, I like that because I got to help people because I like to help people. So when I get the opportunity to walk with the furniture friends down in Westbrook, we used to go down there like every Saturday, help them park trucks and we take furniture down to the families, needy families that they were in need of furniture. So we helped moving the furniture in the house and people are giving out furniture so I really did that and I'm so willing to do it when I have time, some Saturdays. So it was like a, I like that because I used to help people and it's good. I like that. Yeah and when I asked that in the question in the survey, I was surprised. Every single person in the group said that that was one of the most meaningful things. They did, plus you made some wonderful friends, some contacts with some really interesting people from all over the greater Portland area and furniture friends doesn't help only African or Middle Eastern refugees. It helps all kinds of people in need and it's a very good organization. We like to give a plug for the other non-profits in town who are getting people to work together and help each other. And then in January, you guys all met a gentleman named Ralph Carmona. Probably remember Ralph. Ralph is hard to forget. And he said that you should definitely go to Augusta and experience what the government looks like up there. So what was that like, Steve? We went to the state house to Augusta. They were like bullying laws about different stuff and it was fun. We went there. It was like interesting because we met a lot of people, a really important person and it was fun. And then I remember when they were voting, the person who was telling every... The moderator? The moderator, yeah. He said in the middle of the voting, he said we have here some students from Poland High School and they're from Burundi. They came here to learn everything that our laws, like how things goes here. So I would like everyone here to give some applause, like give them applause. And they all stood up and then they applauded. That was really fun. It was like really deep. I really liked it. You felt like you were very welcome there. It was really nice. And then you also met Justin Alfon, who's here from Portland. And there are some pictures we're going to put in this interview. And this one in particular, I would love to see that one in there too. And finally, I think the climax of the year was why you are both sitting here in uniform. And this started when was it maybe April? We had Sheriff Joyce and Deputy Joe Schnupp and some other people from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department come to the high school and we talked about the laws and we talked about the difference between Sheriff and police and state police and all that. And Sheriff Joyce kind of jumped on you guys. And they said, wow, we need your help because they have a cadet program. And Steve, oh no, sorry, Dan, you want to tell us a little bit about what that was like, what that involved, becoming an assistant deputy sheriff or cadet? Yeah, so we, like Ann mentioned, we went to the cadet program. It's one week long. So you just wake up and have physical exercises and then we go into classes to have classes about law enforcement and how it's done and the laws here in Maine and mostly in Cumberland County. So we went to the academy and it was kind of hard, but it was fun. We got to have new friends from Scarborough, Saco, and Wyndham. So we were like one family. We learned a lot. And this was where? What campus? St. Joe's? St. Joe's College. Which is a nice small campus, so there wasn't a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, so we learned a lot about law enforcement. And that's not over? Yeah, I remember we went through the boarding stuff. We went to the boat. All right, now I have to ask you, were you nervous? Because I know Steve does not know how to swim and he worries about the water. Yeah, I was like really kind of, he was like nervous before, but after he kind of made me comfortable. I was like, yeah, it was nice. Did you wear a like? Yeah, yeah, all that stuff. Yeah, he was nice. And we did the traffic laws. We did the traffic stop. Yeah, it was really helpful. And like she said, we are still like going to the meetings because we have meetings like every other Wednesday. We have meetings up in Stendish. So we go there and like plan stuff for the month. And actually I think you missed one opportunity to direct traffic was a football game not too long ago. But you were playing football. We were playing other games. But later this year, I'm sure they will say, get your uniforms ready, you're going to direct traffic at some event. And your presence will be greatly appreciated. I guess I have one kind of unplanned question. It is fine. Well, that's all right. Good. What would you say to somebody who was new coming into Portland High School? And they said, what's the bright future? Would you say you should go? I will tell them it's a really good experience. They have to try. We have like a lot of opportunities and we want to have like to be a big family. It's something if you're new and you kind of lost anyone, like you know everything, we kind of here to help you to show you, give you direction, direction, everything. I'm going to ask you to talk about the man who's not in this room, but who's a big part of bright future, Bezier. Tell me something Bezier taught you last year because I know that's his whole goal in life is to help young people. Yeah, Mr. Bezier is a good man because he usually advice us like every time we meet or every time we gather together, he like wants to give us advice about like how to behave, how to like walk in this country because it's not easy as we all think. So he likes to advice us how to like live here and I think that's good because it helps. Do you remember the first meeting when he talked about looking in the eyes? He said one thing you have to learn a lot of you. I will tell you, there's a big change since you walked in a year ago. You were all looking at your shoes most of the time and he said look up. He said in this country looking at a person's face is respect. It's opposite, right? In Africa, when someone's older than you, a person of respect, you're not supposed to stare at them like that. But here, every culture is different. Everybody thinks a little differently about what is appropriate and I think in this country, if you don't look someone in the face, they think you are hiding. So what about you? What would you say about Bright Future? Would you urge someone to come and join and you think the group is welcoming? I think so. Yeah, I think it's welcoming because like Steven said, I mean now I know some stuff about Portland Main so I can help you or maybe I can tell Anne Smith to help you more because she's been here more than me. Yeah, a few more years. Yeah, a few more years before me. So I think this program like really helped me and I believe it can help some other people too. And the birthday parties were fun too. Yeah, we had fun. We did a lot of eating. Well, if you are new to the community and you attend Portland High School or even if you don't attend Portland High School but you attend one of the other high schools and you would like to attend a meeting, you can contact Project Pazia. That's www.projectpazia.com. That's our website. Or you can call me and my number is 699-9649 or you can talk to Glenn Nürbach. His name I think will be on this program too and he's at Portland High School. Any one of these contacts could connect you with Bright Future. And Bright Future's blog will also be up and we're adding more to that. Maybe we should put some more contact information, very clear. Most of our meetings are Monday afternoons, but sometimes like yesterday we took the people who are new to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and they got to tour the jail and meet all the people that you worked with last year. So thank you very much for helping me and I must tell you, really it was a wonderful experience to getting to know you and I am going to cry at your graduation. Thank you.