Walking in Rakeens Shoes by Jennifer Rumler

Copyright April 2017

Available at Barnes and Noble and online on Amazon, iTunes, iBook and Kindle.
ISBN: 978- 1-942911-70-5
118
Non-fiction, Humanities, Community Engagement, Service Learning, Corporate
Social Responsibility, and Sales Leadership
Published by Front Edge Publishing, LLC


 Table of Contents

1. Press Release
2. Event Flyer
3. Author Biography
4. Interview with the Author
5. Book Excerpt from Elisa Di Benedetto
6. Additional Media Content

























PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact: MARCH 27, 2017
Jennifer Rumler
Main Author and Editor of Walking in Rakeens Shoes
rumlerj@msu.edu, (517) 355-9659

Welcoming Strangers: Spartans Walk in Refugees Shoes

Michigan State University students to release book uncovering the harsh reality of international
refugees

EAST LANSING, Mich., -Refugee. The word has a different connotation for everyone. It is thrown
around in controversial political conversations. It is used daily in the media. Refugee is not just a word,
it is a label forced upon countless men, women and children because of circumstances beyond their
control. They are real people whose basic needs, and often human rights, have been stripped away.
Eighteen Michigan State University students worked with a community of refugees with the goal of
breaking down barriers and destroying the stigma surrounding the current refugee crisis. They have made
it possible for others to follow their journey with refugees from all over the world who land in Rome,
Italy, by creating the book, Walking in Rakeens Shoes. Join us for the book launch on Friday, April
21, from 4-7 p.m. in Room 147 Communication Arts and Sciences Building on Michigan State
University's campus. We will screen the Oscar-nominated documentary film "Fire at Sea", and use it as
a catalyst for discussion and to provide context for what we encountered.

This book narrates Rakeens struggles as an Afghan refugee who was kidnapped, beaten, held ransom and
trafficked out of Kabul. His entire family was murdered and he endured unfathomable conditions while
desperately searching for safety. This book also tells the story of how 18 Michigan State University
students transcended the spectrum of knowledge about the global refugee crisis from ignorance to
advocacy.

This book will show the world how compassion can make a difference, Rakeen said. When my family
died, my hopes and dreams went to the grave with them. As a refugee I felt scared, sad and most of all,
alone. That all changed when I met Jennifer Rumler and the students from Michigan State University. I
found a new family and they have given me life again, proving that there is great power in welcoming
strangers with kindness.

Walking in Rakeens Shoes will be available for purchase through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes,
iBooks and Kindle. Pre-orders will be available through Amazon.com the week of March 27, 2017, for
delivery prior to the book launch, April 21, 2017. The book launch event is free and open to the public
and the authors will be on hand for book signing. Every purchase of the book aids in the effort to spread
awareness of the current refugee crisis.

Follow Walking in Rakeens Shoes on Facebook for constant updates and view the book trailer here.
###
 About the Author
Jennifer Rumler is the Managing
Director of the Sales Leadership Minor, a
combined effort between two nationally-
ranked colleges at Michigan State
University, the Broad College of Business
and the College of Communication Arts
and Sciences. She has owned two sales-
intensive businesses and has worked in
student affairs, academic advising,
recruiting, admissions, instruction,
instructional design, study abroad, and
community engagement. She was a
fellow of the Adams Academy for
Educational Excellence and Innovation,
and is the founder and President of
Welcome the Strangers, a non-profit
organization for the benefit of political
refugees. She has three sons and has hosted four high school
exchange students, one from Germany and three from Italy. In her
spare time she enjoys reading, gardening, listening to music, and
spending time at Lake Michigan.

Student Co-Authors: Julia Attard, Kaila Baroff, Terynee Bradshaw,

Megan Casler, Alyssa Cutcher, Nathan DePelsMaeker, Kendall Eme,
Kyle Gomes, Katherine Harvey, Tyler Kramer, Mackenzie Kreitz, Anna
Mazzara, Trevor Ploucha, Shelby Roland, Connor Simpkins,
Mackenzie VanVleck, Matther Wigglesworth and Zane Wilson







Ask the Author
Where did the inspiration come from to write Walking in Rakeens
Shoes?
In November of 2015 I was in California for training with some colleagues,
one of them being MSU Journalism Professor Joe Grimm. I heard him talk
about the cultural guides he edits with his students, such as 100 Questions
and Answers about Muslim Americans. Journalism students in his class
research and create guides on commonly asked questions about different
racial and ethnic groups who are often misunderstood by mainstream
America. In addition to Muslim Americans, they also have guides for
African Americans, Indian Americans, East Asian Cultures, Hispanics and
Latinos, Arab Americans, and Native Americans. Joe inspired me to share
what my students and I experience on the Made in Italy study abroad
program, since refugees are often a misunderstood and misrepresented
population, so I asked him to introduce me to his publisher,
and I began writing in December of 2015.

What is the one thing you hope readers take away from this book?
I hope readers feel compelled to make a difference. I hope when they finish
reading this book, they feel as if they know Rakeen as well as the students
and I do. I hope they feel moved to do something to make another person's
life better. It doesnt have to be monumental, it can be as simple as a smile,
a conversation, an English lesson, a soccer game. In the last chapter we
ask readers to volunteer to teach English to people who are anxious to
learn, help coach a soccer team for children who may have a difficult time
assimilating to a new culture, take the time to look into someones eyes and
listen to them relate the circumstances that brought them to your country.
Ask them what is important to them. Ask them about their families. Ask
them about their dreams. Ask them what they miss from home. What you
may find is that their answers transcend the rhetoric, stereotypes, biases,
and fear through which we have been conditioned and deconstruct barriers
that separate us to give way to our common humanity. You may find that
what motivates us as human beings, explained most famously by Maslows
hierarchy of needs (physiological, security, love/belonging, esteem, self-
actualization), is universal and transcends religion, politics, language, and
skin color. You might just find that by pushing the limits of your personal
comfort zone that you open yourself to global understanding, and you may
learn more about yourself than you thought possile while you walk a day in
someone elses shoes. And then we hope you celebrate what you have
learned and share it with others.

How do you hope to make this program grow? Michigan State

University is committed to community engagement and service learning,
cornerstones of a land-grant institution. The various Colleges at the
University have been tasked with exploring their engagement initiatives
and I do not see see the demand for community engagement or corporate
social responsibility going away. In fact, I just returned from an Alternative
Spartan Break where eleven students and I worked with elementary school
children, painted their school, and maintained trails in a national park in
Santa Ana, Costa Rica. I would like the initiatives we engage in to grow
with our program, both here and abroad, to teach the next generation of
business leaders the importance of our shared common humanity, our
responsibility to one another, and our interconnectedness.

What can people do to help the refugee crisis?

In the back of the book are local, national, and international organizations
that work for the benefit of refugees: Jesuit Refuee Services, UNHCR,
the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center, and St. Vincent Catholic
Charities Refugee Resettlement, to name a few. There are multiple ways
to help. Obviously financial donations can make the work of NGOs go a
little farther, but giving money is easy. What is difficult is to make an
appointment to volunteer to help set up a refugees new home in the
Lansing area, to teach English at the Lansing Refugee Development
Center, or to tutor school children who are new to the area and are
struggling with their homework, to be a friend and a mentor. But these
initiatives are not specific to the Lansing area; communities all over the
country, and abroad, are dealing with an influx of refugees as a result of
intolerance, conflict, and war. We hope that our readers, wherever they
are, be a catalyst for change in their own communities.

What do you hope for the Sales Leadership Minor with respect to
your work with refugees?
One of my outreach initiatives for the Sales Leadrship Minor is to work with
high school students from refugee families to show them that there is a
great career, professional selling, and that the Sales Leadership Minor at
Michiagan State University can provide world-class instruction while we
give back to the community in which we live and work.

What did you find most challenging during the writing process?
Writing about the circumstances that precipitated Rakeens migration to
Italy was the most difficult, to know that I was writing about a real persons
experience, not a fictitious story. To see the pain in his eyes when he
tells his story, to hear him choke up when he talks of his family, knowing
that his situation is still tenuous. Accurately capturing his reality was the
hardest to write about.

Considering the current political climate, why do you think this

message is important?
Even before heading to Rome last summer, there was a lot of talk from
political candidates about banning Muslims, building walls. It was
frightening to think that our country, founded on principles of acceptance
and compassion, liberty and justice, would now be excluding people based
on their religion or the part of the world they come from. If the same
standards were applied today when my grandparents emigrated from
Poland, I would not be here. But last summer it was rhetorical, now we are
in the midst of executive orders for travel bans. Yet, there are 65 million
displaced people worldwide. If we dont help, who will? Id like to think that
Spartans Will.


Excerpt
Preface written by early reader and honored Italian journalist, Elisa Di
Benedetto

They are referred to as refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers. Their lives
are reduced to numbers, plotted on charts in global reports about migration.

We forget that they are human beings. Back in their home countries, many were
respected community leaders and some were professionals: doctors, lawyers,
professors, artisans and artists. Hidden behind the statistics on global migration are
sons, brothers, fathers, daughters, sisters, mothers, husbands and wives. Each one has
a unique story, a particular set of talents and a dream for the future.

In these pages, you will meet these often-faceless people. You will discover the
personal side of this global news story that usually is underreported in mainstream
media. You will meet Rakeen, the young Afghan refugee I met in Rome last summer
when Jennifer Rumler first introduced me at the Episcopal Church of St. Pauls Within
the Walls. Before that hot sunny afternoon, it had never occurred to me that the side
gate of the church would lead to a place where different languages, traditions and
religions were forming a diverse, supportive community. This is the Joel Nafuma
Refugee Center, providing hospitality and assistance for refugees and asylum seekers
from Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Mali and many other Asian and African countries.

Rakeens story is unique. Its also universal, because his experiences as a

migrant mirror those of countless men and womenpeople we might glimpse in a TV
news report about a dramatic rescue at sea. Across Europe and especially in Italy
where I am based, we often notice migrants in the street, outside the train station or
refugee center, on the bus, or at the supermarket. But, most of us never talk with
migrants so we know next to nothing about their lives.

Our assumptions are based on what we may quickly observe and on the news
reports we see or read. In 2017, those news reports are increasingly colored by the hot-
button political disputes concerning immigration that are simmering in the United States
as well as many parts of Europe. These political debates are reaching threatening tones
in many parts of the world; they wind up spreading anxiety and stereotypes about these
families.

The truth is that thousands of people are in need of international protection, each
year. Many are trying to flee their home countries due to persecution, war and other
forms of misery. This book focuses on immigration to Europe where migrants are either
crossing the Mediterranean Seaon overcrowded boats or are traveling overland across
the Western Balkan Peninsula. Whichever path they follow, they are undertaking long,
dangerous journeys, often relying on smugglers and sometimes ending in death for
loved ones as some of these families encounter unexpected catastrophes. As they
travel, these families cross international boundaries, different cultures and languages
making their journey a pilgrimage that also challenges their sense of identity, culture
and faith. This perilous journey is not over once migrants make it to Europe.

For countless families, Europe represents a chance for a brighter futurea hope
so powerful that it prompts migrants to risk their lives in the journey. When they arrive,
however, they discover a wide range of responses. First, there is the complex asylum
process, which can take up to several years. Meanwhile, migrants must struggle with
new languages and cultural barriers as they try to rebuild their lives. On a daily basis,
they are confronting a wide range of responses to their arrival in Europe from the anger
of xenophobia, Islamophobia and racismto the warm-hearted acceptance of many
Europeans who believe in humanitarian assistance, dialogue and global solidarity.

Through news reports, we hear more about the tragedies and the angry
responses than we do about the acceptance. What makes this new book so valuable is
the welcoming doorway it represents into the incredible network of helpful associations,
charities and individual citizens working to assist refugees and migrants. In a time when
many world leaders seem intent on throwing up new barriers, such positive stories of
peaceful coexistence are inspiring and absolutely essential if we are to see real men,
women and children behind the slogans and statistics.

Rakeens story will help readers understand what it means to face food
insecurity, forced displacement, and all of the enormous psychological and emotional
consequencesof forced migration. Through political debates about immigration in news
media and social media, this year, millions of people around the world are only
encountering images of migrants and refugees as one end of an Us vs. them tug of
war. Walking in Rakeens Shoes helps readers discover they have a lot more in
common with immigrants than we might have imagined. The book is a powerful
testament to friendship, respect and sharing.

Through this book, the Michigan State University students who travelled with
Jennifer Rumler to Italy are inviting us to uncover the commonalities and the compelling
human stories as the students discovered them in their own encounterswith migrants
and refugees. Along the way, Walking in Rakeens Shoes also is an opportunity to see
Rome through Rakeens eyes. In this perspective, the streets, monuments and
geography of Italian and European cities and villages acquire new meanings and
functions, especially in the maps created by refugees according to their needs and
experiences.

Beyond our personal responses to this bookand you will feel that emotional
connection as you move through these pagesWalking in Rakeens Shoes is a
valuable tool for education about what is emerging as one of the most important issues
in global politics and planning today. I encourage you to read the book, then share it
with friends. Consider discussing this book with your small group, perhaps a class or
book club you attend.

Ultimately, this is a story of hope and determination, glimpsed through Rakeens

experiences and through the voices of the students who share their honest responses
with us. In these pages, many different lives are coming together to raise a collective
voice for the voiceless.

As that collective voice rises, we realize that we share many of the deepest
questions that motivate these men and women who risk everything to journey toward a
new life. We discover that all of us are asking: What is home? What is equality?

What are human rights? Together, we are asking: How can we build a more peaceful
world together? How can we continue to live and work with our own families, friends and
colleaguesyet also reach out to the many men, women and children who and
themselves in need?
 Additional Media Content

Rakeen spoke at the US Embassy in Rome about the refugee crisis on

November 7, 2016.
The MSU students pose with Rakeen and other refugees at the Joel
Nafuma Refugee Center after eating a traditional Afghani meal that Rakeen
prepared for the group.

Rakeen shows a student one of the fields that he and many other refugees
slept in when they could not find shelter.


Rakeen poses for a photo outside of the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center,
which proudly displays their banner Migrant Lives Matter.