A sophomore student is working to bring Define American, a non-profit organization targeted toward international students, to ACU’s campus.
Jenna Leigh Bonner, sophomore history major from Pampa, is pursing to bring a Define American chapter to campus. She first discovered Define American while scrolling through Twitter, and began doing research.
Their mission statement reads:
Define American is a non-profit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a changing America.
Bonner decided she would work toward building the organization at ACU for immigrants that may need or want to share their stories.
“I want to create a community for immigrant students from all nations and cultures,” Bonner said. “Even though there are groups on campus that share an overlapping focus on immigration and immigrant students’ issues, there is no group that specifically focuses and advocates on these.”
Although Bonner is not an international student, she says that many of her friends are immigrants – some of which are undocumented. This also motivated her to move forward.
“Simply caring about the struggles of my friends first got me involved, and it evolved from there as I learned and listened more,” said Bonner.
In order to move forward, Bonner continues her search for an ACU staff member who might be interested in sponsoring the organization, and confirm that there is interest among the student body.
