More Than Just a Welcome for Arriving Immigrants

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Maya Jones. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Five years ago, in eighth grade, Maya Jones started volunteering with JaxTHRIVE. As the daughter of an immigrant, the idea of helping people who make the U.S. their adopted home adjust and feel welcome was an attractive mission. JaxTHRIVE supports refugee students in the transition to their new home with initiatives like financial literacy training and both virtual and in-person tutoring. While they consistently host around 40 students from the Jacksonville area, they’re always looking to welcome more students and volunteers.

Maya’s introduction to community service was through scouting. She has been in Scouts since middle school and, last year, became an Eagle Scout with a conservation education initiative designed to protect a local river. Given her lifelong love of sailing, protecting the water was personal. It’s where she and the varsity sailing team she co-captains spend much of their time. This fall, Maya will head to Dartmouth, where she plans to begin her path to medical school and, like her mother, become a doctor.

What inspires you to volunteer?

When scouting opened its doors to girls, I became one of the founding members of my troop. That was my entryway into community service. Through scouting, you have opportunities to do things like park cleanups and serve outdoor areas.

Tell us about your volunteer role with JaxTHRIVE.

As co-president, I help galvanize over 150 volunteers from across 11 different high schools in Jacksonville. I do a lot of behind-the-scenes work, coordinating and making sure new volunteers know what to expect and what to do. On Super Saturdays, which are our in-person tutoring sessions, I usually welcome everyone and give a speech about what we do, who I am and my availability for questions. We divide students into three age groups and offer ESL, science, math and art instruction they can rotate through each week.

I’m also the founder and president of JaxTHRIVE at my high school. I essentially do the same thing there, but on a smaller scale. This year, I also started the EmpowHer initiative, which is our female empowerment chapter. It involved self-defense clinics, financial literacy workshops, a mind-body wellness clinic and a hygiene product drive. We also went to see the Barbie movie. We’ve increased our volunteer recruitment by 20% over the past year, mostly through word-of-mouth and by creating fun volunteering opportunities.

In many of the countries these students have come from, being a girl is hard. They deal with a lot of oppression. Learning more about our culture, embracing being a woman and getting to go to school, seems to help them adjust.

I also co-authored a children’s book last year, called Serena of Kandahar: An Afghan Girl’s Journey to Change the World. It’s a true story about a young refugee who came to the U.S. from Afghanistan. She was never involved in JaxThrive, but she’s helped us out a lot.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

The mission is meaningful to me, because my mom is an immigrant. She was born and raised in Mumbai, India and then decided to immigrate to the United States in her early twenties to continue studying. I can relate to how coming to this country can be a really unsettling process. JaxTHRIVE is all about making our students feel like they belong as they start their new life here.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

I think starting a JaxTHRIVE club at Dartmouth could be a really great opportunity, and we offer virtual tutoring, so they could be involved with that. I just hope to see the program grow and continue to flourish.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

It’s watching students go from kids who can barely say a sentence in English without pausing or forgetting a word to fully conversing with them with enthusiasm and confidence. It’s amazing to see how fast they pick it up over the course of our tutoring sessions.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I’ve learned the importance of patience. It can be challenging not to jump right in, try to fix everything and make changes all at once. But if you’re a steady pillar of support for another person, over time, they’ll open up even more.

Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.

We have some fun, camp-style activities planned for the summer. We’ll kick things off with a drive and ask volunteers to bring in summer reading books and different items–crayons, chalk, bubbles and fun things like that–for goodie bags for the kids.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

When you do something you’re passionate about, it takes form so much better than something your heart’s not in. I’ve seen the passion our volunteers have for working with these kids and how much they enjoy spending half of their Saturday with them.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

In areas with higher refugee populations that don’t have resources like JaxThrive, it’s important to understand the barrier in language and culture. Be patient. This is a whole new world for them, and it’s important to be there to help with whatever they might need.

Often, our refugee students are put in a grade in their school based on age, not knowledge and skills. The education transition can be really difficult coming from one country to another. I think schools also should recognize that and be there to support them.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

It’s always easier to show kindness to someone than to ignore them. Often, our refugee students feel isolated. That’s a hard feeling at such a young age, to be so new to something and not be welcomed. I want people to learn to lead their life with love and kindness. We are all in it together, and that sense of community is so important. Spread love, not hatred.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Maya? Find local volunteer opportunities.