USD Magazine, Summer 2002

Globetrotter Helps Immigrant Children Feel at Home

about 25 kids, and now serves upwards of 100 each week. Although its hard for her co leave the local children, Segal is moving on co another project where she can make a dif– ference for kids. In September she'll begin a one-year stint in the nation's capital at the Washingcon School for Girls, a new academy for at-risk youth ages 6 co 18. Segal, as an ArneriCorps volunteer, will act as liaison between the school and the com– munity, locate volunteers and tucor the children. The prospect of working in a new city and helping co develop a new school is a little scary, but Segal says she is looking forward co becoming more adept at coun-

and Laotian immigrants make the com– munity a microcosm of Asia. Blending her psychology major and her love for chil– dren, Segal quickly became a leader with the university's Linda Vista Kids Project, an after-school program chat offers tucor– ing, counseling and activities for school children.

rowing up as the child of business entrepreneurs who moved from Israel ro Taiwan co Thailand,

Liac Segal didn't really have a country - or a culcure - co call home. But the daughter of Israeli parents, who was born in Taiwan and spent her high school years in Thailand, says she rarely felt isolated or lonely in her adopted city of Bangkok. "My parents made sure I met people and learned about the culture; they wouldn't lee me just be around the other internatio nal students," says Segal, 22, who got co know Thai families through social outreach and house-building with a group of women from foreign embassies. "The country and the Thai people welcomed me." Eager co return the favor, Segal came co USD - she had spent several summers in San Diego, where her grandparents live - and immediately offered co help in the nearby communi ty of Linda Vista, where the amalgam of Vietnamese, Thai

In working with children I learned to take it da!J b!J da~, see what doors open and tind out where I can make a difference.

"I grew up seeing how important it is

co work with kids," says Segal, who volunteered at orphanages in T hailand and witnessed firsthand

the staggering poverty chat forced many parents co give up their children. "A little compassion can go a long way coward shaping a child's life." Segal trained other USD student volun– teers co work in Linda Vista, earning the confidence of parents who ofren crusted her co take their children on weekend out– ings co movies and parks. And she helped the program flourish - it scarred with

seling. She ultimately may attend graduate school and earn a master's degree in social work, but she's not setting chose plans in scone. For now, she wants co improve chil– dren's lives, wherever that leads her. "A mistake I used co make was co plan everything," she says. "In working with children I learned co cake it day by day, see what doors open and find out where I can make a difference."

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USD MAG AZ I N E