Educator, advocate for immigrants receives ‘Community Champion Award’

For her service to immigrants’ rights and education, Dr. Emma Violand-Sánchez on Oct. 16 was presented with the 2025 Harro & Janie Wulf Community Champion Award.

In remarks to the club and a large number of guests, Violand-Sánchez spoke of arriving in the U.S. in the early 1960s from her native Bolivia knowing no English and her efforts to become part of the American culture while retaining her own cultural identity.

She spoke of her years with Arlington Public Schools working to support immigrant students and their families, singling out Superintendent Robert Smith for his support of the efforts during those years. She also spoke of her personal journey during those years.

She discussed her recent memoir — “Dreams and Shadows: An Immigrant’s Journey” — and the places she has gone and people she has spoken with since its publication.

Violand-Sánchez started her remarks by noting her own connection to Kiwanis, starting at Mount Vernon High School in Fairfax County in 1961 when she joined the Key-ettes, which then was the female counterpart to the Key Club.

It was, she said, another opportunity in her early days in the U.S. to find a sense of belonging.

After arriving in Arlington, she was recruited by Jim Hunter to become a member of the Kiwanis Club of Arlington in the late 1980s, one of the first three women to become part of the club.

“It was a wonderful experience. I was in awe about the power of volunteerism — the sense of humility that is fostered through volunteerism,” she said. And with the club, “there were constant opportuities to volunteer,” she said.

Violand-Sánchez noted that in recent days she had spoken to groups as diverse as a private girls’ high school in New York and the ESL program at the Arlington County Detention Facility. She encouraged all those she meets to embrace their strengths and acknowledge challenges that are impacting them.

“When you have a shadow, it can come to the light,” she said.

She also noted the power of social media, letting the group know that her sister in their native Bolivia had found out about the award she was going to receive by way of a club Facebook posting.

Kiwanis of South Arlington presented its inaugural Community Champion Award in 2024 to former U.S. Rep. Jim Moran. Earlier this year, the club voted to permanently add the names of Harro & Janie Wulf to the award, in honor of their distinguished service to the club.

Janie Wulf, President Andres Tobar and Lt. Gov. Robb Dodd then presented the award to Dr. Violand-Sánchez.

Janie Wulf said she had purchased and read “Dreams and Shadows: An Immigrant’s Journey,” and found it a compelling story.

“It was beautifully woven together,” she said.

President Andres Tobar remarked that he had known Violand-Sánchez for nearly 50 years, as both arrived in the Arlington area in the mid-1970s and found common cause in supporting the needs of a growing immigrant population.