Following 
the 
reception, 
LSA 
junior 
Ayah 
Kutmah, 
MRAP 
Vice 
President 
of 
External 
Affairs, 
delivered 
the opening remarks, using 
statistics 
to 
highlight 
the 
extent of the refugee crisis. 
According to Kutmah, the 
current refugee crisis is the 
worst in modern history, and 
the U.S. has limited the number 
of refugees to the lowest since 
the 
U.S. 
standardized 
the 
refugee-accepting 
process 
following the Refugee Act 
of 1980. In light of current 
policies 
around 
refugees 
and asylum seekers, Kutmah 
expressed the ability of stories 
to spur social change. 
“The power of stories is 
often glossed over, but it is 
undeniable 
how 
essential 
they are in creating social 
norms 
and 
attitudes 
that 
move generations and give 
the 
leaders, 
the 
activists, 
the policymakers, the social 
workers, 
the 
artists, 
the 
teachers, and the students 
(what’s) needed to galvanize 
international 
attention 
and 
work to create institutions 
and policies that will welcome 
refugees,” Kutmah said. 
The event then premiered 
“Blurred Canvas: Displacement 
at Michigan,” a film created 
by 
LSA 
sophomore 
Basil 
Alsubee and LSA sophomore 
Colin 
Lucero-Dixon 
about 
displaced 
members 
of 
the 
University 
community. 
The 
film featured interviews with 
Soto, Engineering sophomore 
Israa Ali and LSA junior Dim 
Mang and showcased tidbits 
of their daily lives, such as Ali 
teaching her friend to play the 
ukulele and Mang leading a 
student organization event. 
Alsubee said the film was 
directed 
with 
interview 
format to allow the individuals 
showcased to tell their own 
story.
“The idea was to represent 
all 
these 
narratives, 
their 
complicated 
identities, 

backgrounds, 
stories, 

because of how nuanced and 
complicated this issue is on 
a global scale,” Alsubee said. 
“There’s a lot of heroizing or 
victimizing people for a certain 
purpose. Our goal in doing this 
was to present an opportunity 
for the individuals themselves 
to speak.”
Soto spoke about journalists’ 
lack of safety in Mexico and 
expressed how he feels the 
U.S. immigration system needs 
reform, while Mang discussed 
how her understanding of 
her birth country Burma has 
become less idyllic as she 
learns more about its history. 
Ali 
talked 
about 
breaking 
barriers as an Arab female in 
aerospace 
engineering, 
and 
how this discipline has made 
her consider herself a citizen 
of the world.
After the film, the event 
transitioned to a discussion 
headed by panelists Mang, LSA 
sophomore Sumaya Tabbah, 
Hadji 
Bakara, 
assistant 
professor of English language 
and 
literature 
and 
Ruby 
Robinson, managing attorney 
at Michigan Immigrant Rights 
Center. 
Robinson 
discussed 
the 
importance of recordkeeping 
from 
a 
legal 
standpoint, 
voicing his role as an attorney 
is to tell his clients’ stories in 
hopes of the court granting 
them 
relief. 
To 
withstand 

cross-examination 
and 

maintain credibility, Robinson 
explained clients need records 
to 
present 
an 
accurate, 
consistent and corroborated 
account.
“Being able to keep some 
type of record is critical in 
many areas of law… as there is 
a very high burden of proof for 
clients seeking different types 
of relief in the United States,” 
Robinson said.
Tabbah said she has an 
interest in oral history, which 
began when she interviewed 
Flint residents on the city’s 
economic decline last summer. 
The “Blurred Canvases” film 
and photo exhibit was her 
next project, and she voiced 
the importance of showing the 
people behind statistics. 

Business sophomore Bryan 
Sauer is concentrating in finance 
and has already secured his 
internship 
for 
the 
summer 
of 2020 through off-campus 
recruitment this semester. Sauer 
said he spent months reviewing 
technical accounting questions, 
problem sets and interview 
questions, skills he has not 
been exposed to yet through his 
academic classes in the Business 
School.
“I started preparing for my 
interviews right after Christmas 
because the interview process 
does have a very large technical 
portion to it,” Sauer said. “So you 
have to learn a whole bunch of 
accounting and finance concepts 
that they’ll ask you about very in 
depth in the interview that you 
haven’t learned yet in class.”
Sauer was excited to receive 
his job offer, but he said the 
process to get it wasn’t without 
its difficulties. 
“It 
was 
definitely 
really 
overwhelming at first,” Sauer 
said. “I was kind of mad that 
(the banks) moved it up on us 
because that’s six fewer months 
to prepare for the interviews and 
get those technical questions 
down than you would normally 
have. In the end I kind of liked it 
because I already have my offer 

so I know where I’m working in 
15 months. So there are pros and 
cons but it was definitely very 
overwhelming and not fun at 
first.”
Business sophomore Anthony 
Coffie II is also in the midst of 
recruitment while balancing two 
jobs, 15 credits, participation 
in the Michigan Interactive 
Investments club and exploring 
other extracurricular hobbies.
“Tomorrow I’ll be in New York 
City for an interview,” Coffie 
said. “And I have assignments 
due tomorrow … I recognize 
that it is valuable to learn how to 
overcome these struggles … I’m 
trying to keep that in mind.”
Coffie said his investment 
club, 
Michigan 
Interactive 
Investments, 
significantly 
prepared 
him 
for 
his 
recruitment.
“It would be a much more 
difficult process for me had I 
not been accepted into a club 
called 
Michigan 
Interactive 
Investments, 
MII,” 
Coffie 
said. “That club has been very 
finance-focused, very markets-
focused. These are things that, 
if a student hasn’t been exposed 
to it prior to college or prior to 
being in a basic finance course, it 
would be hard for them to really 
understand what’s going on and 
how to apply that to real life 
situations.”
Business senior Scarlett Ong, 
president of Impact Investing 

Group, discussed how student 
organizations 
can 
alleviate 
stress by offering members a 
comfortable space to explore 
their budding career interests.
Ong said the culture fostered 
within a club can be influential 
in 
reducing 
stress 
brought 
about 
from 
the 
accelerated 
recruitment process.
“With regards to this whole 
accelerated 
(recruitment) 
process, clubs definitely help 
students navigate that area,” 
Ong said. “I think it really 
depends on the culture that the 
club is creating and how they 
are approaching the situation 
to support students rather than 
adding more anxiety to the 
whole accelerated process.”
Sauer came to accept the 
stress of recruitment as part of 
his daily life — he said the time 
commitment and demands of 
networking eventually became 
routine.
“I was taking 18 credits first 
semester so it (recruitment) 
was a full workload,” Sauer 
said. “People say doing that 
technical prep is a full-time job 
on top of it because every single 
moment of free time you have 
it’s lingering in the back of your 
mind, ‘I should be doing prep for 
recruiting right now, I shouldn’t 
be hanging out with my friends.’”
Coffie also mentioned how 
recruiting often feels as if it stops 
students from having a more 

traditional college experience. .
“I don’t get to spend that much 
time hanging out, like I feel a 
young college kid is supposed to 
be doing, because I am looking 
forward to my career,” Coffie 
said. “But the sacrifice is an 
investment that we have to make 
… Students are spending so much 
time recruiting and doing this 
recruiting prep that they are not 
studying as much, not enjoying 
life and the college experience 
as much”
Julie 
Kaplan, 
embedded 
Counseling and Psychological 
Services 
counselor 
in 
the 
Business School, said students 
who are unsure of their career 
path typically experience more 
stress throughout this process.
“The students that I talk 
to 
who 
are 
recruiting 
for 
investment banking and finance, 
or who aren’t sure what they 
want to do, I think those students 
might be even more stressed 
out,” Kaplan said. “The students 
who aren’t sure and were hoping 
to have this summer to figure it 
out, but now feel like they have 
to make a decision, or maybe 
they should recruit just in case 
they decide they want to do it — I 
think that’s been really hard.”
In a December press release, 
JPMorgan 
Chase 
announced 
they 
terminated 
the 
early 
recruitment 
process 
after 
considering it may detract from 
a 
business 
student’s 
ability 

to maintain a holistic college 
experience.
“... 
JPMorgan 
Chase 
has 
been recruiting, interviewing 
and 
extending 
early 
offers 
to sophomores for roles they 
would not fill until the following 
summer,” 
the 
press 
release 
read. 
“This 
high-pressure 
environment distracts students 
from learning and does not allow 
them enough time to focus on 
what’s most important: simply 
put, being a college student ... 
going forward, we will no longer 
be extending early offers for 
summer interns.”
Coffie does not believe the 
burden of added stress from 
early recruitment is the most 
dangerous aspect of the process. 
To him, accelerated recruitment 
potentially 
harms 
young, 
impressionable undergraduates 
eager to figure out their career 
by pushing them into business 
fields prematurely.
“A lot of people are pursuing 
things and they don’t quite 
know why they are doing it, 
but they want to have that 
label, that reputation and that 
respect,” Coffie said. “Being so 
young, people don’t realize that 
the name isn’t everything … I 
think people unfortunately are 
prematurely thrown into this 
without having spent the time to 
reflect on themselves and really 
establish themselves in college 
yet.”

“But a scholarship really is to 
prepare you and position you for a 
new set of processes.”
Gilchrist 
discussed 
his 
background, noting his experience 
attending 
the 
College 
of 
Engineering at the University, 
working for Microsoft and, after 
creating the first wave of social 
media networking for the Obama 
campaign, finding his way into 
politics.

Gilchrist also encouraged the 
scholars to remain persistent in the 
face of failure. He discussed how 
after his loss in the 2017 election 
for Detroit city clerk, he initially 
felt defeated. But he continued 
forward, 
eventually 
becoming 
lieutenant governor.
“My story is one of those that 
everything in life — the wins you 
get, the L’s you take — they all 
prepare you for the next thing in 
your path,” Gilchrist said.
Gilchrist finished his address by 
reassuring scholars that he sees a 
potential in all of them to improve 
both the state of Michigan and the 

country as a whole.
In an interview with The Daily 
after the event, LSA senior Mia 
Choe echoed Gilchrist’s message 
of 
scholarship 
opportunities 
preparing students for the future. 
She is a research assistant at Detroit 
Medical Center and plans to attend 
medical school.
“From freshman year to senior 
year, I’ve really seen the program 
evolve, 
like 
the 
mentorship 
programs and just the different 
events — it was just nice knowing 
that I had a community of people 
who came from a similar situation 
that I did,” Choe said.

Gilchrist told The Daily after the 
event that he personally relates to 
many of these scholars.
“I wouldn’t be able to afford the 
University of Michigan without 
a scholarship, and many of these 
Kessler Scholars wouldn’t be able 
to afford to go to a school like 
Michigan without a scholarship,” 
Gilchrist said.
Gilchrist 
reiterated 
Gov. 
Gretchen 
Whitmer’s 
plans 
to 
ensure higher education is a serious 
option for more graduating high 
school seniors, also known as 
the MI Opportunity Scholarship 
Program. Gilchrist also mentioned 

possible plans to get more funding 
for the education system.
“We’re also proposing … to help 
improve and put additional money 
into the foundation lounge for 
helping to fund school districts, 
more money for school districts, 
more money for special education 
and 
at-risk 
youth 
programs,” 
Gilchrist 
said. 
“All 
these 
investments in the K-12 program 
will better prepare students across 
the state of Michigan to have a 
better educational experience, and 
hopefully they’ll all want to come to 
Michigan.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, April 19, 2019 — 3

GILCHRIST
From Page 1

REFUGEES
From Page 1
MICHIGAN E NGINE E RING DESIGN E XPO

Projects on display at the Michigan Engineering Design Expo hosted across North Campus Thursday afternoon.

DANYEL THARAKAN/Daily

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UIGHUR
From Page 1

RECRUITMENT
From Page 1

Robert 
Xu, 
Business 
and 
Engineering freshman, said he 
learned more about trading from 
the competition.
“The 
competition 
definitely 
increased my interest in trading,” 
Xu said. “Even though I knew the 
basic premise of what it was coming 
into the competition, I didn’t really 
know what the industry was like. 
The competition was a great way 
to meet experienced professionals 
who could shed some light on 
that, and also connect with others 
interested in the field.”
Business freshman Benen Ling 
said he joined the competition 
through 
the 
Maize 
& 
Blue 
Endowment Fund, an investment 
management club. The University 
of Chicago extended an invitation to 
the club, and Benen Ling gathered 
a team of coders to apply to the 
event. Once they were accepted to 
participate in the competition, the 

team began preparing.
Benen Ling said he focused 
more on the financial aspect of the 
competition, preparing research 
for the rest of his team to implement 
with coding.
“I just read a lot of research 
papers,” Ling said. “The problem 
with quantitative trading is those 
algorithms you have to use — 
nobody publishes them because 
they’re 
proprietary, 
and 
that 
stuff is worth millions of dollars. 
Obviously not the stuff we do, but 
things along those lines are worth 
a lot of money, so you have to come 
up with it yourself, and most of 
that involves looking at research, 
looking at what’s been happening 
in the field, and synthesizing for 
yourself.”
Engineering 
sophomore 
Bhavish Gummadi said the team 
worked 
on 
their 
algorithms 
extensively in preparation for the 
competition.

The most extreme oppression 
of Uighur Muslims is now taking 
the form of their detention in 
internment camps, where members 
of ethnic minority groups are taken 
for “extremist” behavior— which, 
according to Chinese authorities, 
can include using Islamic greetings 
or choosing to eat halal. Detainees 
in these camps include other 
Muslim minorities in China, such 
as ethnic Kazakhs.
Estimates from various sources 
suggest that between 800,000 
and 2 million people are currently 
detained in China’s internment 
camps.
Ann Lin, an associate professor 
of Public Policy at the University 
of 
Michigan, 
moderated 
the 
event. Lin began the conference 
with a brief overview of China’s 
repression of the Xinjiang region, 
invoking the United States’ history 
of its internment of Japanese 

Americans 
following 
Japan’s 
attack on Pearl Harbor during 
World War II.
“I start with this piece of history 
because when we talk about the 
internment camps of Xinjiang, I 
think it is important to say that the 
Chinese government is not the only 
government that has dealt with 
fears of terrorism and political 
unrest by imprisoning its own 
citizens,” Lin said.
Nury Turkel, a former executive 
director and co-founder of the 
Uighur Human Rights Project and 
a Washington, D.C., staff attorney, 
was the first of the event’s invited 
guests to speak. Turkel is a self-
identified Uighur American, and 
spoke on the urgent reality of the 
human rights crisis in Xinjiang.
He described the extensive 
monitoring by the Chinese state 
that Uighurs experience, such 
as being subject to phone checks 
and data scans and even scans of 
groceries.
“And these are the things that 
are happening in real time, this is 

not a fiction, this is not a dystopian 
science 
fiction,” 
Turkel 
said, 
referencing a statement made by 
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Chinese authorities have stated 
the camps are means of counter-
terrorism, 
meant 
to 
address 
religious extremism in the Xinjiang 
region. However, multiple speakers 
at the conference emphasized 
that incidents of terrorism or 
separatism (of the XUAR from 
China) attributed to Uighurs have 
been almost nonexistent in the 
past few decades, since China 
accelerated its intense crackdown 
on Uighur Muslims.
Sean 
Roberts, 
one 
of 
the 
speakers at the event, is an 
associate professor of the Practice 
of 
International 
Affairs 
and 
director 
of 
the 
International 
Development Studies Program at 
George Washington University 
with a research focus on the 
XUAR. 

CODING
From Page 1

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