Scholar Highlight
Joan Hodges-Wu

Why did you decide to attend Skidmore?
I decided to attend Skidmore because I wanted a school that would nurture my creativity but also provides me with a superior liberal arts education. 

What was your major?
I double majored in art and art history. 

What's the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Anything worth doing is also worth failing at. 

What does being a Palamountain Scholar mean to you?
As someone who personally benefited from the Palamountain Scholarship Fund, I consider it my responsibility to use my education to create opportunities for others. 

What advice do you have for recent graduates?
Resist the urge to commit to a career right out of school, because now is the time to discover your passion. Three months after I graduated from college, I moved to Central Asia as a Peace Corps volunteer. This experience continues to shape my life and gave me far greater insight into the immigrant experience than anything I could have read or studied. This experience also ignited my interest in social work, and I have since dedicated my career to serving low-income, limited English, vulnerable immigrant populations.  

What is your current profession?
I am the founder and executive director of the Asylum Seeker Assistance Project (ASAP). ASAP is the product of my work serving survivors of torture, 90% of whom are also asylum seekers. Asylum is a legal immigration status awarded by the U.S. government to persons who meet the definition of a refugee but are already in the United States. Founded in 2016, ASAP is the first and only nonprofit providing comprehensive services to support the estimated 50,000 asylum seekers living in the D.C. metro region. 

What is one of your biggest accomplishments in life so far?
In 2014, I created the Survivor of Torture Psychosocial Well-being Index (SOT-PWI) as an internal program evaluation measure to track survivor wellbeing in the torture treatment setting. In 2016, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) announced that the SOT-PWI will serve as the first national program outcome measure to advance the work of ORR's $10 million Survivor of Torture program.

What do you value about the Skidmore community?
Skidmore's openness and acceptance of diversity.

Any words of wisdom or advice?
"Have the courage to use your own intelligence" —Immanuel Kant