Elvis Callejas '13

Since graduating from Calvin in 2013, Elvis Garcia Callejas has been quoted in The New York Timesand was an invited participant at a recent meeting held at the White House.  Both of these distinctions are a result of Elvis’ work as a Case Manager with Catholic Charities Community Services’ Program for Unaccompanied Minors in New York City.

In his current role as Case Manager, Elvis helps children who are looking for protection in the United States after they have been forced to flee their countries due to violence or poverty.  He spends many days traveling to detention centers run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in New York State to give presentations to unaccompanied minors about their rights, the immigration systems and the different reliefs available for immigrant children in the United States. He also conducts individual interviews with unaccompanied children in ORR custody to determine whether they can be protected under United States laws.

Elvis is confident that his education at Calvin prepared him for his work with immigrant children.  “It is thanks to the Christian studies and values through the International Development and Spanish programs that I can see unaccompanied minors for what they truly are: children of God,” Elvis says.  “My semester abroad in Honduras also prepared me to understand why so many children are leaving Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.”

In addition to Spanish and International Development courses, work and internship experiences helped equip Elvis for his professional life.  During the summers of 2010 and 2011, Elvis worked as a Migration Assistant at an immigration law firm in Chicago, Illinois, which gave him the opportunity to assist immigrants through the legalization and naturalization process.  He also completed an internship with the United Nations High Commissionaire for Refugees (UNHCR) in Washington, DC.   This internship gave Elvis the chance to be part of a research report called Children on the Run, which focused on the stories of unaccompanied minors fleeing Central America and Mexico. 

After graduating from Calvin, Elvis interned with a United States Senator in Washington, DC, and worked for a gubernatorial campaign in Virginia before accepting his current position with Catholic Charities Community Services.

Written by Meredith Segur, posted July 2015