We asked a dozen KASA volunteers the same question: why do you volunteer? The answers were more varied than we expected.

One said she volunteers because her family received help when they first arrived, and she considers it a debt she is paying forward. Another said he started volunteering to meet other Kurdish Americans and stayed because the work turned out to matter to him more than the social networking ever did. A third said she volunteers because her children are watching her, and she wants them to grow up knowing that their family gives back to the community — that being Kurdish American means more than attending Newroz once a year.

One answer stuck with us: a young man who was born in the United States to Kurdish parents said he volunteers because KASA is the place where his American life and his Kurdish identity are not in tension. At work, he is just American. At home, he is Kurdish in a private, family way. At KASA events and in KASA work, he is both, publicly, without apology. It is the only place I feel fully myself, he said. That might be the best thing anyone has ever said about what KASA is for.