After we gathered the 15 chapters in the Grow Together manuscript, we became curious about how a non-immigrant will perceive the content of this book.
We’re honoured and grateful that Audie McCarthy – President & CEO of Mohawk College Enterprise (MCE) from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada – accepted the challenge to read the manuscript before it was published. She wrote the following Foreword section, which is included in the published book.
FOREWORD
I first met Gabriela Covaci, one of the authors in this book, through our work with Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario. Gabriela, an employment consultant, assists new immigrants in job placement. As the author of a book on networking, I am a regular speaker in the college’s Occupation Specific Language Training program (OSLT). It was natural that we would meet as a result of our common interest in helping others. Gabriela helped me discover the Immigrant Writers Association (IWA) by gifting me with its first anthology, Building Bridges.
Grow Together is the second anthology. A number of themes run through the stories written by IWA members, regardless of whether these stories are fictional or autobiographical. All provide insight into real people, their dreams, their lives, their challenges, and their successes. As first time writers or ones with more experience, the authors speak to the value the IWA network provides as a connection, a validation, and a place to stretch their wings and tell their stories.
When I asked Gabriela Casineanu, President of the association, why she wanted a non-immigrant to write the foreword, she replied that she wanted a different perspective. I thought I was doing her a favour; she in fact did one for me. This book, as did the first, gave me a different perspective. Although I have worked with, employed, and mentored immigrants in my career, I still have so much more to learn. If I can offer one bit of advice to readers, it is to get involved. Learn the stories of the people in your neighbourhood. Learn their names and how to pronounce them. Be open and understanding. Be aware of how brave are these individuals who took the journey away from everything they know, and how that resilience benefits our communities.
At a recent webinar on unconscious bias and diversity, I took away that you don’t have to know everything to be a champion for something. Be curious, be open to learning. This book provides you with that opportunity.
Audie McCarthy
President & CEO
Mohawk College Enterprise (MCE)
Grow Together is the second anthology written by members of the Immigrant Writers Association (IWA). Both IWA’s anthologies – Grow Together (2020) and Building Bridges (2019) – are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Immigrant-Writers-Association/e/B07Z6NZY11