His mother’s plight embarrassed him, then inspired his thesis
This story is part of a series of graduate profiles ahead of Commencement ceremonies. Jeromel Dela Rosa Lara speaks softly but with energy, eager to talk about his senior thesis. The son of a migrant worker from the Philippines, Lara chose to focus on an issue close to home. “My thesis looks into how for Filipino migrant domestic workers in the Middle East, ritual practices and the formation of group gatherings through the church are ways for the community to reclaim their agency, their identities, and to a greater extent, to reclaim the labor of care that many of them have to do,” said the senior joint concentrator in social anthropology and comparative study of religion. Lara was born in the Philippines, a nation plagued by high poverty rates. An estimated 10 percent of the population works overseas, including several members of his family. His grandfather first petitioned for his mother to immigrate to...