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By Michael Tessier, Youth Adoptee Services Coordinator
Thanks for joining us for another Holt Adoptee Camp interview! This interview is with Tracy, a member of our leadership staff from Camp season 2011. As you prepare your summer plans, please consider Camp as part of a great support for your family and your child! In addition to our week-long overnight camp, we also have a single day Day Camp at each of our six locations (OR, CA, IA, WI, GA, PA)! See our website here and register for these exciting opportunities!
Michael: Hey Tracy! You and I worked closely this summer, but the readers aren’t familiar with you yet. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Tracy: Well, my name is Tracy, and I grew up in Sharon, Massachusetts — a small suburban town with only 3-4 other Asian Americans in my school. I have a younger brother who is also adopted, Robbie. I am currently acting, and lived in LA after college. I am now living in Atlanta with my husband, and pursuing my acting career here.
M: Awesome! And you volunteered with camp this summer, too! What was your position and what did you do?
T: It was my first time at Holt camp! I originally applied to be a counselor, but then I became leadership [staff managing the counselors]. Being around that many adoptees was amazing — it was an amazing time in my life. As leadership, we were in charge of Continue reading Straight from the Adoptee: An Interview with a Counselor and Camper about Holt Camp – Part II
By Michael Tessier, Youth Adoptee Services Coordinator
 Hey, everyone. I wanted to give you an opportunity to learn about Camp straight from the mouths of our biggest participants: a camper and a counselor who were each part of our program in 2011. What follows are two interviews I conducted on Facebook that will hopefully help you learn more about the program. Look for this interview in Mei Magazine’s upcoming Camp Issue where an editorial about Camp will also appear!
My first interview is with Rachel, an Adoptee from Wisconsin:
Michael: Hey Rachel! Thanks for joining me for this conversation. We know each other but the rest of our readers don’t – could you tell me a little about yourself?
Rachel: My name is Rachel. I currently live in Madison, Wisconsin and I’m 15. I was adopted from Fujian, China when I was Continue reading Straight from the Adoptee: A Two-Part Interview with a Counselor and Camper about Holt Camp
By Steve Kalb, MSW, PAS Social Worker
 As my seventh summer as camp director has come to an end, I sit and reflect on what we’ve learned and how the camp has grown over the years as a program and a Post Adoption Service. We’ve come to expect shockingly real and honest advice about how to navigate the challenges of adoption from both Adoptees and Adoptive Parents, and this year was no exception. We heard stories of struggle and triumph as Adoptees and Adoptive Parents from around the country proudly shared their personal experiences on topics ranging from racism and public perception to insensitive policies in the schools and the neighborhood bully. Each story unique in its occurrence but bound by the common thread of the Adoption experience.
These pearls of wisdom have taught us a lot about the current life of a family created through adoption. Given the safe space and opportunity, the campers and Continue reading Foreign Adoption Languages
By Steve Kalb, MSW, PAS Social Worker
I’m trying to determine how international adoption is portrayed in TV news by examining clips after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Thus far,  I’ve sifted through roughly 80 clips from network affiliates around the country. Preliminary analysis has uncovered a couple major themes in the stories/reports: 1. The adoption process takes time. 2. Child rescue. As I discussed these (extremely) early findings with one of my professors, we debated about how these images and stories shape the conversation landscape regarding adoption. Are themed stories like these adding to the international adoption lexicon? Are the stories benefiting us as an adoption community in any way? After an hour of discussion, the answer was confusingly clear Continue reading It’s Complicated
By Michael Tessier, Youth Adoptee Services Coordinator
Birth culture is oversized in our adoption community. Teaching Adoptees about their birth country’s culture is a significant focus in adoption-targeted events and media and has been for nearly thirty years. Camps, weekend events, magazines, television, and websites are frequently built around the birth culture concept. Unfortunately, birth culture education is often used in place of an equally, and sometimes more important, component of an Adoptee’s identity – race. We all recognize that race and birth  culture are two separate things, but they are frequently lumped together in adoption resources and this generally results in the replacement of race-focused discussion. I’ll illustrate birth culture’s current role, the importance of race talks and offer some tips for talking about race with your child.
Understand that birth culture is a component of Adoptee identity. It is just that, a component – a part of a greater and more intricate Continue reading Birth Culture vs. Race: What to Do?
By Steve Kalb, MSW, PAS Social Worker
As another Adoptee Camp season is placed in the books, the dust begins to settle from the frantic pace of my summer camp adventures. Back in my Eugene office, I close my eyes and take a deep breath, inhaling a sense of relative calm before I begin my article. As I exhale slowly, my eyes open and begin to focus on the blinking cursor and blank page before me. The calm quickly fades to a light panic.
“How?” I ask myself.
How can I possibly describe everything the campers have taught me? How can I convey to readers the beauty and value of the Adoptee community? How can the strength and urgency of their voice be turned into a newsletter? I fumble through several iterations; reading, re-reading, deleting, shaking my head as I struggle to get it “just right”. In spite of my desperate efforts to capture their voice, I sense the soul and poignancy of their wisdom evaporating with each keystroke. Frustrated, I decide to move on to another project. As I close the document, it hits me; Continue reading Ask the Experts
By Steve Kalb, MSW, PAS Social Worker
Raising a “bi-cultural” Adoptee has been the conventional wisdom for Adoptive Parents over the past 30 years. Thi s parenting approach was developed by the adoption agencies to address the growing number of Adult Adoptees who, in spite of leading great lives, expressed feelings of loneliness and isolation as they grew up. It was thought that a solid grounding in birth culture would allow Adoptees to better understand their place in this world; that they are not alone.
As we have given this approach a fair shake over the past three decades or so, we have realized that it did not work as we had hoped. Continue reading Birth Culture: What We Have Learned
By Michael Tessier, Youth Adoptee Services Coordinator
Every child of color experiences racism. It may be overt, prejudicial racism like name calling or it may be more subtle, experienced through social nuances that are felt but unseen. It’s often both. And, for adoptive parent and adoptee alike, seeing racism for what it is can be difficult. Talking about it is even tougher.
Racism is real and it happens. Yes, even today, even in your community. Often adoptees don’t talk about it because they don’t have the Continue reading What Your Adopted Child Doesn’t Say About Race and Racism
By Steve Kalb, MSW, PAS Social Worker
The purpose of this section is to begin bridging the gap between Adoptees in order to create a sense of ethnic and social identity; we want to create Adoptee community. Through Adoptee community, we hope to foster an environment that allows Adoptees to feel empowered… [...]
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