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For many refugees, the road to citizenship is long and arduous. But last fall at ɬ�﷬����, a group of refugees found help. The College partnered with Claremont Canopy, a local organization that serves refugee families in the Claremont area, to host a free legal clinic. 

A trio of lawyers—Isabelle Thacker, Professor Sumangala Bhattacharya, and Sharilyn Nakata—worked with primarily Syrian families. They also supervised undergraduates from ɬ�﷬���� and the other Claremont Colleges in working on the green card application process and communicating with families. 

“There are a number of agencies that do work with low-income people on applications like this, but the lines are long, and immigrants can be preyed on by unscrupulous lawyers,” said Thacker, an immigration rights lawyer who arrived at ɬ�﷬���� in 2023 with husband Strom C. Thacker, the College’s seventh president. “We wanted to create a situation in which they could feel safe and get the help they needed.”