Learning Takes Flight

Episode 6: Dr. Sarah Graham and Christine Jorgens: Advocacy, Transracial Adoption and Equity

March 06, 2021 Megan Anderson Season 1 Episode 6
Learning Takes Flight
Episode 6: Dr. Sarah Graham and Christine Jorgens: Advocacy, Transracial Adoption and Equity
Show Notes

In this episode I speak with Dr. Sarah Graham and Christine Jorgens. Both of these incredible women have experience with adoption, advocacy, parenting and bringing cultural competency and awareness to the forefront of conversations when working with school and parent groups. 

About Dr. Sarah Graham and Christine Jorgens:

Dr. Sarah Graham is Associate Professor of Music at Lewis-Clark State College where she teaches courses in music and the humanities and conducts the Concert Choir. She has spent her entire career in music education working with students from kindergarten through the graduate level. A life-long church musician, Dr. Graham is also the music minister at the Episcopal Church in Lewiston.


In 2010 she and her former husband adopted three children from Ghana in West Africa. The first five years with her children, she lived in Illinois, but has lived in North Central Idaho for the last six years. 

Dr. Graham  was the recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Diversity and Cross-Cultural Understanding from LC-State in 2020  and has been working on a master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, where cultural competence is woven into the fabric of clinical mental health care. She was instrumental in forming a parent group for supporting parents with children of color in the Lewiston School District after racist incidents at school involved her children. Together they began an action plan to seek change in district policies. A little over a year later the district has implemented the changes that were requested. 

Christine Jorgens is a transplant resident to the LC Valley. She and her family moved here from Kailua Hawaii in 2007. After working for several years with the Lewiston School District with students with Visual Impairments, Christine took a position with the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind, and works as a Consulting Teacher for the Blind.

Christine is the mother of 4 beautiful children. She is a passionate advocate for Autism, Adoption, Foster Care, and Education.

Christine’s background includes finance/banking, probate trust distribution, professional doula, braillist, professional jazz vocalist, and a myriad of other ventures that she has enjoyed exploring - none of which she has mastered. 

Christine's life is lived by the principals of living boldly, and loving fiercely.


In this episode you will learn about adoption, foster care, becoming an advocate and unlearning. We reference some fabulous topics and authors that might interest you:


Ibram x Kendi and his book How to Be an Anti Racist


Don’t Touch My Hair by Sharee Miller 


Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry 


Hair Like Mine by Latashia M. Perry 


Terms:

Transracial adoption: Interracial adoption refers to the act of placing a child of one racial or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another racial or ethnic group. Interracial adoption is not inherently the same as transcultural or international adoption. 


Find: Chad Goller-Sojourner online for advice, 

https://www.adoptivefamilies.com/author/chad-goller-sojourner/


Attachment:  describes a developmental process and a relationship between a child and their primary caregiver. Attachment usually develops over the first two years of life. 


Bonding: is a response from an infant, usually within the first few months of life. 


The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is the main international agreement that covers international parental child abduction.