Amy Saxton: Trump Open Letter

Today, Summer Search joined a coalition of more than 180 nonprofit organizations in an open letter to President Donald Trump.

The letter, published by the Skoll Foundation, respectfully disagrees with the Executive Order banning individuals from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Here are a few particularly powerful excerpts:

“Groups like ours exist to help lift up the poorest and most marginalized with innovative solutions. In our opinion, this ban will make our work to foster peace, sustainability, opportunity, and inclusiveness much harder.”

“Diversity is the lifeblood of social, economic, and political progress, and policies that impede this value weakens our ability to innovate and implement social change.”

“We must continue to communicate the values of inclusiveness and opportunity for all, values that our nation has always worked hard to live and to model.”

Summer Search, led by our CEO Amy Saxton, is proud to be one of the many cosigners of this letter to the President. Saxton explains, “We have students, alumni, staff and board members from almost every country in this ban and this action is creating profound fear and uncertainty in our community and across the nation. Together we are working to support young people to realize their full potential which we believe contributes to ‘peace, sustainability, opportunity and inclusiveness,’ as the letter states.”

Saxton also addressed how this Executive Order could affect the logistics of Summer Search’s program and the well-being of our students, saying, “Our staff is working hard to wrap around our young people and ensure they are seen, safe, and supported to thrive as they travel this summer as part of our program.”

One of our core values here at Summer Search is “Many Voices, One Mission.” So, it makes us extremely proud to see this coalition of so many well-respected organizations come together so quickly (in just 72 hours!), all for one common cause.

We want to thank the leadership of the Skoll Foundation, Room to Read, and Teach for All, as well as the rest of our fellow cosigners, for supporting the values of inclusiveness and opportunity in our country.

#ManyVoices #OneMission