March 2026
Spring is the time of plans and projects.
-Leo Tolstoy
March!!! My favorite month along with October. It’s not because my birthday is in March. That helps but rather it’s the first month of Spring for me. The sun lingers a little longer, warmth from the sun shines a little more, buds from trees and plants awaken, and in Colorado, it happens to be the rainiest, snowiest month! And this year, we can definitely use more precipitation, preferably more snow for me. We didn’t have much of a winter this year.
And it’s also the month that I start thinking about community organizing. How, who, where … I don’t know yet but here we need to strategize. How do we get the word out - is it social media, posters on school campuses, outreach to organizations? Who is best suited to do this type of multi-level outreach - talk with teachers, send out emails, connect with principals, and schmooze with non-profit organizers? Where is the best space for outreach, especially since we have limited time, money, resources?
And it’s not only for Activism@Work. We also need to share the gifts of our contributors to Aurora Rising. Our mentors, Tsion and Ariel, have been working closely with our gifted students and I want to showcase their work. For some, our work may not seem much - who cares what a small group of immigrant students in Aurora create - but for us, it is meaningful and impactful. We want to ensure our students that they matter and they do! Why? Not because everyone matters. They do but more because we have been bombarded with messages that immigrants are expendable. ICE and the Trump administration have basically declared with their illegal profiling, unwarranted searches, intimidating harassments, and ruthless and heartless deportations, that we don’t matter. We have no rights, we are not humans, citizens of the American and global community.
And we want to say. No, we are essential and we matter. We are people, humans with the creativity to contribute to the larger community. You do not define us; WE define ourselves.
Sam Joo
CEO and Founder
March 1, 2026