"Global Cleveland is Excited About 2019"
Every “first of” in a New Year gives all of us a chance to re-energize and dedicate ourselves anew to our passions and vocations. At Global Cleveland we are excited at what 2019 is already bringing. The amount of collaboration between local/county/state government and organizations like ours engaged in welcoming newcomers is at an all time high. This year marks the 3rd Year of InterCle , an event GC started by welcoming our International Students across North East Ohio to our community and to the US. Our Global Employer Summit is back this Spring, providing even more opportunities for our companies and our international talented employees to connect in a way that means a more prosperous, robust economy for everyone. Our Welcoming Week Celebration in September is going to be the best yet, and we are so looking forward to highlighting all our international partners in the important work of being an awesomely welcoming community. And we are so excited to host the first ever international Cleveland Sister Cities Conference with and at the Cleveland Public Library May 1-3. More details to follow on all of these, and more welcome mats and chances to work together than ever. Thanks for your input and support, we look forward to making 2019 our best year yet with you.
Joe Cimperman
Global Cleveland President
Connect with Global Cleveland in 2019
There are many ways you can get connected with Global Cleveland - from networking with civic and business leaders to volunteering at a naturalization ceremony. Sign up today!
Naturalization Ceremonies
Help support and welcome our newest American citizens on what is of the most important days of their lives. Interested? Email [email protected]
Community Navigators
Help members of the ethnic communities understand about their rights and learn about the path to citizenship. Interested? Email [email protected]
Public Safety Recruitment
City of Cleveland Public Safety Recruitment Team is working with Global Cleveland to make each sector more culturally reflective of the community.
Professional Connection
Get help with your resume and cover letter, mock-interview practice and sharing job search skills. Interested? Email [email protected]
Bloggers
We are looking for guest bloggers to contribute to our newsletter on topics including travel, global affairs and international issues. Interested? Email [email protected]
Join Friends of Global Cleveland
Connect with the local community and engage with like-minded young professionals visit https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfGlobalCleveland
What You Need to Know About the H-1B Visa in 2019
As we walk into 2019, there is a serious discussion among employers, lawyers and international employees about filing H-1B Visa for 2019. H1B visa is a valid three years’ work visa that can be renewed for another three years. Among all the industries, tech firms have been using H-1B visas to hire international talents that cannot be found at home. H-1B Visa Program has become very crucial to both foreigners who want to further build their career and life in the United States and companies, including tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, who hires international job seekers every year.
Ongoing discussion on keeping or limiting H1B Visa Program has become very stressful for international job seekers with American dream. However, the proposal of changes to H1B program made by Trump administration may increase the number of master’s degrees or higher-level degrees H1B visa recipients. Each year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) opens a total of 85,000 such visas – 20,000 for those with master’s degrees or higher and 65,000 for those applicants who have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. The applications are accepted on first business day of April every year and visa allocation are exhausted within the first week. USCIS will reverse the order by which USCIS selects H-1B petitions under the H1B cap and the advanced degree exempt. Once a sufficient number of registrations or petitions have been selected for the H-1B cap, USCIS would then select registrations or petitions towards the advanced degree exemption. The proposal also includes plans to modernize the registration process by moving it online. USCIS says that part of the rule would decrease costs for applicants by cutting down on paperwork, making the process more efficient for the government.
For more information and the latest news on the H- 1B visa please visit: https://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-fiscal-year-fy-2019-cap-season
Written by Surpriya Tamang
Global Cleveland's Own, Elizabeth Goes to the Mexican Border to Help!
Who chooses to spend a week at a federal detention center run by a private prison company on the border with one of Mexico’s most dangerous cities? I do, and that’s what I did in Laredo, Texas last week through a partnership Global Cleveland has with Jones Day through our work with the National Project for New Americans. Hello, my name is Elizabeth Cusma and I am new the new Administrative Coordinator at Global Cleveland.
A little about me that is relevant to why I had this amazing opportunity: I lived two years in the Catalunya region of Spain for graduate school studying migration policy after having lived 18 months in Phoenix, Arizona looking for work without much success after having lived in Morocco with my young family upon graduation from OSU with a major in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies. It was the Arab Spring and we didn’t feel safe moving further in the Middle East with a new baby to study after my internship with the UNDP was cancelled to remove all non-essential personnel from the region. This is all to say that the Laredo Project opportunity dovetails perfectly with my experience and interests.
My husband and I lived undocumented in Europe trying to find a way to raise our family there, unsuccessfully in the end. We’ve not had to flee any persecution or mortal danger, thank god, but I understand the anxiety and confusion that goes with living in a foreign country with very little context of the larger system and trying to navigate a monstrous bureaucratic process like immigration. From my youngest years I had a special love and appreciation for foreign nationals. My first best friend was a Mexican immigrant we called Frankie. His dad was a substitute teacher in our school district and we loved him. As I grew older the Levantine-American community (Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon) in North East Ohio captured my imagination and I chose to focus on the middle east hoping to work abroad. As luck would have it, I married a Spanish<>English linguist who also was studying the middle east. As the Arab Spring took off we decided to raise our family with at least Spanish, if we couldn’t live in the Middle East, hence why I’ve been slowing improving my language skills over the last 8 years. And now, immersed in world of language access rights, immigration policy and advocacy, I was hired by Global Cleveland in November. Immediately the Laredo Project was brought to my attention and I jumped at the opportunity. You’ve got to make hay while the sun is shining, but I didn’t think that in my first month I’d be flying south to the border!
I will say that the Jones Day pro bono team has this operation down tight. They’ve got a machine pumping a new set of volunteer attorneys, law students, paralegals, and interpreters to Laredo each and every week. Some volunteers are repeats, most are not. Most are not even immigration attorneys, but the material Jones Day provides prepares them sufficiently for the sort of council the project provides to the detained women. Jones Day mission with this project is to do something exceptional in the American migration arena. This is the only project and only attorneys who see women for free at this stage in their immigration process in the entire country and they are serving a specific group of migrants. From a program perspective it was seamless.
From a personal perspective, it depends how comfortable you are with jails, with telling people hard truths about their situations, about hearing some pretty horrible things, and about working long days (12-14 hours). As one attorney said, “they told me this wasn’t going to be a vacation from work, and it hasn’t been.” The biggest take away for me was that most of the women who were detained had practically no understanding of our immigration process, of our political climate, or the reality that they would be put in jail upon crossing the border. Most of the women did not want to come to the US, per se. It is truly challenging and tragic circumstances that drive people to move so far away.
A few notable cases: A Nicaraguan water inspector who was tortured for a month because she is from a political family that is openly opposed to the government and chose not to attend pro-government rallies (but neither did she attend pro-opposition rallies); a Nicaraguan nurse who gave aid to students hurt in protests by government fire and was fired for her first aid care and then put on a government list to be targeted. A lesbian couple from El Salvador who were violently attacked many times, who were threatened with death in ways similar to a trans-family member who was dismembered and murdered. A Honduran woman who left a marriage she entered at 13 years old to try and be with a childhood friend in the US who made some romantic overtures toward her in the hope of bringing her two small children after her safe arrival as a way to start fresh with a man she cared for. A Guatemalan woman who lived in the US, has US citizen children and went back home for a family death hoping to re-cross without problem but was detained and was not allowed to reunite with her United States citizen children.
It was nice to see some of the SW that was not the Sonoran Desert, where one could pay in pesos, where the main language was Spanish, where you could see into Mexico and listen to the Mexican news and get a different version of events. But it was long, it was hard, and it was worth it.
"There Is Always Something For Which To Be Thankful"
This Thanksgiving, I am extremely thankful for our community. I am thankful for the people who make our lives better, more fulfilled, and more worth living: our international newcomers. I am also thankful for being a part of an organization like Global Cleveland that's committed to serving and supporting all those that come to Cleveland in hopes of a better life. Whether they are forced to leave their war torn countries and start over with empty pockets and nothing but the clothes on their back; or they choose to leave behind their families and friends to study abroad, it is not only my job, but our job to welcome them and to be thankful that they are here.
Global Cleveland is committed to making our community more welcoming for our international newcomers. From mentoring our international students and preparing them for careers in Cleveland, to assisting companies looking to fill their ranks with the best and brightest; we are thankful for our international talent. Global Cleveland is helping to create an environment where our refugees feel empowered, and a key part of our city’s resilience. We are connecting secondary migrants to all that our community has to offer, and awakening the latent ties to our heritage across the globe. We are making it known that we make make our community better by welcoming the world.
This Thanksgiving be thankful for all you have and be mindful of those who have not. Next week on Giving Tuesday we ask that you help us, help our international newcomers by making a donation to Global Cleveland. No gift is too big, and no donation is too small to make a difference.
Thank you in advance for your support and have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Joe Cimperman
Meet Zhenting: From China to Cleveland, From Intern to Vice President
As a native of China, Zhenting brings the first-hand experience in American immigration. Zhenting began as an intern at Cleveland International Fund (CiF), then rose steadily up the ranks to Market Analyst, Operations Manager and now serves as Vice President. CiF is a proven EB-5 Regional Center that connects foreign investors seeking U.S. residency (“green card”) to quality real estate projects. The EB-5 Program is an Immigrant Investor program that provides a method for qualified foreign nationals to receive a permanent US Green Card if they make a $500,000 USD investment into a qualified, job-creating project. As of today, CiF has raised and invested more than $248 million in successful projects and thus preserved over 15,000 jobs in Northeast Ohio. CiF was founded in 2009 and Zhenting has been working for CiF since 2010.
At CiF, Zhenting is responsible for the daily management and monitoring of investment projects, investor relations and immigration process. He reviews all the investment offering materials, establishes and executes operations protocols, manages all the project escrow accounts, and ensures the up-to-date account activity and fund flow monitoring. In terms of investor relations, Zhenting leads the establishment and implementation of the client management system, which is CiF’s proprietary database used to maximize the accuracy and efficiency of company operations.
Moreover, Zhenting is a co-founder of Cleveland Chinese Entrepreneur Association, a professional organization bringing Chinese entrepreneurs to Cleveland and Cleveland to China. Together with his entrepreneur partners from both Cleveland and China, Zhenting further established a Chinese network platform ("Sun Tribe", a social media platform on smartphone), which currently covers the whole Chinese community in the Greater Cleveland area. As the new generations are used to do everything on smartphones, Zhenting and his partners are now cooperating with the mobile payment services from China and aiming to help businesses in the US tackle payment barriers to the Chinese consumers, processing and settling cross-border payments into US dollars.
In 2018, Zhenting is selected by Crain's Cleveland Business for the prestigious “Forty Under 40" group. When asked the reason why choosing Cleveland, Zhenting said it is actually his honor to be selected and accepted by this city. This city offered him one opportunity to stay and now it is his pleasure to bring investments and jobs back to this beautiful place.
Zhenting earned his Bachelor’s degree from Nankai University in China and two Master’s degrees in business administration and accounting from Cleveland State University. Zhenting lives in the eastern suburb of Cleveland with his wife from Taiwan and they have a lovely daughter Mia.
The 9th Annual International Holiday Celebration!
Greater Clevelanders are invited to the 9th Annual International Cleveland EXPO on Friday, December 7th – described by past participants as the “best” celebration of the area’s diversity.
This year the EXPO is hosted by La Villa Conference and Banquet Center at 11500 Brookpark Road in Cleveland. The parking is FREE and plentiful.
The event begins at 6 PM and continues until 10 PM. Special features include: a buffet of international foods, DJ Chris Koch with an international dance party, and special appearances by “Paprika” – Russian Women’s Dance Ensemble, the “Cuyahoga Cossacks” – Russian Male Chorus, Lebanese Folk Dancers with Middle Eastern melodies and Polynesian dancers performing the Hula, Tahitian, and other Pacific Island dances to warm up any cold evening.
The event is open to all. Online advance tickets are $10 per person which include food. Onsite admission is $15 per person and students are $5 with a school ID. Cash bars will be available!
Wear your traditional outfits and be part of the International Fashion Show!
RSVP: www.ICC-WIN.org
Credit cards and Paypal available.
Guest Blog: How Studying Abroad Changed My Life!
To expand my perspective and learn from experience and to take a fun break from school, I took the advantage of the opportunity to study abroad twice during my time as an undergraduate at Ohio University. My sophomore year, I participated in a Global Public Health Program in Costa Rica and my senior year I participated in a service project in Jamaica.
These two trips motivated me to view my life and career more creatively, examine my purpose and think about what difference I really want to make in the world. The pieces didn't come together all at once, but the conversations I had, everything I experienced and the people I met shifted my perspective.
In Costa Rica, people speak Spanish, so I was ready to practice my skills every chance I got. My most used phrases were:
"Where's the bathroom?"
"I'll have chicken, please." and
"Party on the beach!"
When I chose the program, my major was biological sciences and I planned to become a Physical Therapist. So I thought it was a great opportunity to study health practices in another country. It was interesting, but I didn't really enjoy learning about it as much as I hoped I would.
Back story: My freshman year, I took the intro biological sciences class and failed literally every exam! I decided to drop the class, to avoid getting an F on my transcript. I thought, "Hey, quit while you're ahead!"
My experience in Costa Rica was so much fun! This was my first time flying in an airplane so I was super excited about that! I got to leave the country! We stayed at a hotel in the capital city San Jose, we also stayed on an island for a few nights where we slept in cool tents and celebrated the New Year. The island was my favorite, we travelled by boat to get everywhere we went. How cool is that!
We participated in some exciting excursions as well, snorkeling in the ocean, visiting a rainforest, zip lining through a forest, dinner at a restaurant on the top of a mountain, hiking through a mountain trail, flying in a mini airplane over the beautiful waters and mountains, it was such nice experience.
While staying on the island, a woman who was on vacation told our group about what she did for a living. She was from England and she got her Masters degree in Education and she travelled around the world teaching. She told us she genuinely loved traveling and teaching, so she created a way to make a career out of her passions. This sounded so fun and interesting to me and I asked more about her career journey, her future goals and plans and why she was doing it all.
My interest was peaked after hearing about how she earned her living traveling around the world, teaching, building relationships, learning and helping people. This was in 2013, when I knew very little about entrepreneurship and starting a business. I thought "That's beautiful, I need to do something I genuinely love doing too." So I switched my major to Communication Studies to pursue a career in marketing and public relations because it would be fun and I could be creative and I'd be able work in any industry, because everyone needs marketing and PR.
However, now that I am a lot further along in my career than I was in 2013, I am honing in on the career that best fits my skill set and personality. I am passionate about seeing families thrive and bypass the barriers of work and bills and experience the mindset shift that empowers them to pursue their true dreams. So my goal is to create tools and stepping stones, in the form of personal and professional development workshops and housing programs, to help people live out their full potential and accomplish their goals.
Moral of the story, my studying abroad experience was life changing! Studying abroad was a great way to take a creative vacation for winter break that was beneficial for my career and I earned class credit hours by doing it! It helped me think about my career path and determine what I really want to do and I had so much fun.
I encourage every college student to take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad. Seek out scholarship resources, talk to family and friends as well as faculty and staff to get funding! Do what is necessary to experience the world through a study abroad program that will help you earn credit towards earning your degree.
