By Jack Wynn
University of Maryland students gathered to listen to a panel discussion featuring topics pertaining to perspectives on adoption justice on Tuesday afternoon in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union.
The panel was a joint effort between the Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy (MICA) and the School of Public Health (SPH) as part of National Adoption Month.
The panel featured four speakers, Beth Douthirt-Cohen, Jennifer Enriquez, Emma Shainwald and Hope Fagundes, who each have personal experience in the adoption process. The event was moderated by Jillion Cordial, the Carillon Program Manager.
Each panelist told deeply personal stories, some about being adopted into unique situations and others about complications that come from being involved in the adoption process.
“We are looking at this event to challenge some of the false narratives around adoption and the experience of being an adoptee,” said Hana Zewdie, the Coordinator for Multiracial and Transracial Adoptee Student Involvement and Advocacy. “Particularly, there’s a lot of myths, there’s a lot of misunderstandings… we wanted to have a panel centering conversations about justice in adoption, what that looks like.”
There was also a discussion about navigating relationships with an adopted child’s birth parents. Each situation is unique, and Douthirt-Cohen shared how her experience collaborating with her child’s birth mother, for instance, has helped her grow into a more caring parent.
The adoption process can be long and difficult for some. The panelists discussed this topic and emphasized how people of various backgrounds have different experiences when trying to adopt.
“It’s all very complex,” said Eli Rossini, a senior philosophy, politics and economics major. “You can’t generalize a group of people by any sort of metric. There’s complexity and layers… There’s people that have struggles in adoption and people that have more passive experiences. So I think that was pretty interesting.”
The panel also discussed how the future of adoption may be facing new challenges following the result of the previous election, as families with international adoptees often deal with additional struggles.
Stories shared about growing up as a transracial adoptee, which can be defined in many different ways but typically pertain to an individual who is adopted by a family of a different race or ethnicity, touched on just how challenging this process could be.
“I’ve always felt very supported in being adopted,” Cordial said. “But I think again there’s things that, even afterwards, like I’ve been to therapy because of this trauma about being adopted. Also, as a transracial adoption adoptee, that brings an extra layer to it… so I’ve had to work through that my whole life.”
The panel detailed the historical context for today’s adoption processes. They explained how it has become more inclusive of diverse family structures while noting that there is still significant progress to be made.
“Most [of] what people know about adoption comes from the movies or inspiration articles or whatever,” Zewdie said. “And a lot of times it is not a good representation of what the experience of adoption is, which then can lead to a cycle of… misunderstanding what [adoption] is. That could end up perpetuating a cycle that we would like to not perpetuate.”
Featured Image: “Understanding Perspectives on Adoption Justice” panel on Tuesday in Adele H. Stamp Student Union. Photo by Jack Wynn.