Sophomores Ayla Patel and Jack Susman have embarked on a literary journey outside the classroom with aims to raise awareness about the complexities of immigration.
With their collaborative efforts, Patel and Susman have written a novel, which consists of a collection of short stories about the challenges and perspectives of immigrants.
Their common passion for promoting an appreciation of immigrants’ challenges and accomplishments united both students in a completely arbitrary interaction: they independently wanted to create a club focusing on supporting immigrants.
Upon seeing the similarity of their proposed ideas, Mrs. Erica Baker, director of student life and engagement, introduced the two and sparked their interest in partnering to start a new club and a collaborative novel.
“I’ve always been interested in immigrant and refugees’ stories,” Susman said. “I really like to write and I figured out that Ayla had the same passions, so it was really easy to get together and start writing.”
Despite their unpredictable first encounter, the two find that they mostly have a mutual understanding about their plans for the book.
“The writing process with Jack went very smoothly,” Patel said. “Obviously, we’ve had different opinions, but everything is resolved quickly and we had lots of open discussions and conversations.”
Their seamless communication and collaboration has made the difficult process of writing both enjoyable and productive, she said. Not only that, their dedication to authenticity has been able to give an accurate understanding of underrepresented groups.
“The process is kind of like journalism,” Susman said. “We interview our sources and transcribe them. In the writing process, we try to make each short story interesting while also maintaining accuracy.”
Through their collaborative efforts, they have provided a platform for refugees and immigrants to share their stories and challenge stereotypes upheld by many in society.
