Since IWR’s earliest days, Susan Tarrow has been a valued member of its volunteer core. Susan recalls attending a meeting at the First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca in 2015, where around 100 community members had gathered to respond to the Syrian refugee crisis. This meeting led to the emergence of IWR as a grassroots effort and, eventually, a registered non-profit. For Susan, that pivotal meeting was one of many instances over the years when she felt impressed with the way Ithacans come together to address challenges.
Since then, Susan has given her time and skills through a variety of voluntary roles as well as making monetary donations, helping people who are experiencing hardship as they resettle in the area. Many have left everything behind in search of safety and survived crisis situations along the way. Having retired from a career as a linguist at Cornell, she began interpreting for French-speaking refugees and helping families with a range of resettlement hurdles and needs as part of an IWR Response Team. Finding your feet in a new country where you don’t speak the language or know how things work, with few starting resources or networks, can be a long uphill battle. “I’m very proud of the refugees who really make it here in quite a short period of time,” Susan reflects.
Some of Susan’s experiences have been especially memorable. Early on she supported an Angolan family who had made their way to Ithaca by road all the way from Brazil with four children, one of whom was born on the journey. Since they spoke little English at first, Susan did a lot of interpreting, assisting the family with all aspects of resettlement. When their fifth child was expected, Susan supported the mother throughout her pregnancy and during the birth. Susan recalls a moment when she was asked to hold the newborn baby, and she said to the mother, “Do you trust me?” She was moved by the reply: “But you are my best friend!” Susan stayed in touch after the family relocated to Kentucky and hears that they are continuing to do well.
Appreciating the opportunities she herself has had in life, Susan feels very strongly about the importance of supporting people who have been unlucky enough to have to flee their country. She was born in Birmingham, England just before World War II was declared by the British government. Her father was drafted, and she was first able to meet him only at 5 years old, when he returned from the war. She benefited from scholarships throughout her education and graduated from Oxford University. It was a fellowship at Berkeley that first brought her to the US, and she later married an American and settled here. In contrast to the long, uncertain process that most immigrants today go through to get a green card, Susan notes that she was able to get hers quickly due to the policies at the time. As the family moved for academic jobs at Yale and, in 1972, Cornell, they raised two children and made their home in Ithaca. At Cornell, Susan taught in the French Department and was Associate Director of the Institute for European Studies in the Einaudi Center.
Volunteering for IWR, Susan hopes to protect refugees from people who would not wish them well. There is no shortage of challenges to work through, not least helping people through long and complex Department of Social Services (DSS) forms, though she comments that the DSS in Ithaca is very helpful. Ultimately, the work is always rewarding: “To see them gradually become accustomed to the American way of life, which I had to do myself many years ago, and to hear their English improving, to see the children doing well in school – that’s all very satisfying.”
In the current political context, Susan notes, it can be frustrating if you feel that you can’t do anything. However, as she points out, we can in fact do something. “Whether it brings the impact we would desire is another question, but in the long run, it may have served the purpose.”
