A recent executive order has dramatically changed how Catherine McAuley Center is able to serve refugees in the Cedar Rapids area. Through the stories of some beautiful humans, staff and clients alike, Mike will give a brief description and history of the Refugee and Immigrant Services department at CMC, how services have recently been impacted and continue to change, and what the future may hold.
Biography
Mike was born at St Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, IA, a few weeks after Bobbie Kennedy was taken from us. After graduating from Washington High School, he spent a year working on his Spanish as an exchange student in Bogota, Colombia. But Cedar Rapids has remained his home ever since. He left public school teaching after 8 and a half years as an elementary school educator. He didn't know what to do. But he soon found a niche teaching English a few hours a week with Catherine McAuley Center as a volunteer tutor, sometime around 2004. Since May of 2023, Mike has been on the staff at CMC, supporting volunteer tutors and students with their English learning, as well as teaching skills needed by immigrants and refugees to become self-sufficient. Living with his husband Toni Loyal in Wellington Heights, where he also works and worships, making neighborhood development an important focus of his life.