Board Members Provide Experience And Compassion
The RESPECT International Board of Directors continues to be committed to its mission of helping refugees around the world. For this issue of the e-Zine, we interviewed two board members, Michelle Saper and Rylee Cyzik.
Michelle Saper
Michelle Saper, who was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, joined the RESPECT Board of Directors in 2007. Her association with Marc Schaeffer, the founder and coordinator of RESPECT International, and his wife Kae led her to become interested in taking part in this great work.
What Michelle likes most about being on RESPECT's board is that this gives her an opportunity to help refugee children in some way continue their education.
"Once they are out of the camps they may be living in another country and may be too far behind in their schooling to keep up otherwise," she says. "Education also gives them some sense of well-being and independence even though they are in a desperate situation."
Though Michelle lived and worked in Ottawa, Ontario, and Victoria, British Columbia, the warmth, friendliness and down-to-earth nature of the people of Winnipeg lured her back to her hometown.
She likes the real sense of community in Winnipeg where people also care about what's going on in the world at large and are known for being charitable.
Michelle works for the Provincial Government of Manitoba managing estates and trusts.
In university, she studied science and arts courses with a major in psychology and minor in philosophy. She later pursued studies in law but didn't practice as a lawyer.
She also speaks some French, having attended French immersion school from Grades 7 to 11; however, she would also love to learn Spanish and Japanese.
Her interests include alternative dispute resolution with the main focus being mediation, human rights and social justice, nutrition, and communication.
Michelle's ethnic background is Jewish and Japanese Canadian but she doesn't embrace any particular religion. She has a young dog named Taiko.
Rylee Cyzik
Rylee Cyzik joined RESPECT's board in 2002 at its inception. Her interest in refugee issues developed one year earlier when her tenth grade science teacher, Marc Schaeffer (RESPECT's founder and president), introduced the Refugee Letter Exchange idea at the end of one of his classes. Rylee stayed to learn more about it and got herself a refugee pen-pal.
Afterwards Rylee started attending meetings with the Winnipeg Refugee Education Network (WREN) and learned more about refugee issues on the internet.
She also attended a few youth conferences – one organised by WREN – and letter writing events with Amnesty International. Through WREN, she spent time with refugees in Winnipeg, taking them on outings and visiting them in their homes.
When the RESPECT board was formed in 2002, Rylee gladly accepted the offer to be the board's youth representative. She helped to initiate and develop ideas for educational materials and later assisted in writing a RESPECT journal and other children-friendly educational materials.
With her interest and enthusiasm to make a difference, she spoke on RESPECT's behalf at the Prairie Theatre Exchange, to educate people about the organisation.
In 2007, Rylee took on the role of secretary on the RESPECT's board, recording minutes at meetings and bringing new ideas to the board as usual.
Rylee currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she was born. After graduating from high school in 2004, she obtained a diploma in graphic design in 2006.
Following that she went to Seoul, Korea, for a year to work on art projects independently. While she was away in Korea, she kept in touch with RESPECT online, and designed some country logos for the RESPECT website.
Rylee recently returned from Korea and is currently looking for a job. In the past, she worked in the customer service industry. In her spare time Rylee enjoys listening to music, playing the piano and guitar, and drawing.
Rylee thinks RESPECT is wonderful and is very proud to be a board member. She believes that RESPECT exists to help refugees through their difficulties and it's great that people who have the resources to help those in need are doing so.
When Rylee hears of others' hardships, she hears a voice in her head saying "somebody has to help them!"
It is clear that both Michelle Saper and Rylee Cyzik are passionate about RESPECT's mission and enjoy serving on its board. They are happy to know that they are involved with something bigger and better. Knowing RESPECT exists adds a smile to their faces.