1. 3COURANTCOMMUNITY:WestHartfordTHURSDAY,SEPTEMBER15,2016
LOCAL NEWS
Michael Walsh/Courant Community
West Hartford high school students Paul Van Doren (center) and Mugdha Gurram (right) were two of the six who worked on the Memories of Migration
oral history project this summer. Teen services librarian Kari Karp (left) oversaw the program.
are from somewhere else.”
“You see people in a different light,”
Gurram said. “Even though their stories
are different than ours, there are still those
core values that are part of them like
sacrifice, love, and opportunity. That’s
something everyone can connect to.”
To register for the event, contact Karp at
860-561-6996.
experiences and feel emotions like you do.”
Both Van Doren and Gurram said by
participating in the project, they’ll begin to
look at West Hartford differently.
“You don’t get a lot of chances to interact
with people from different countries and
ask them about it and learn about it,” Van
Doren said. “It makes you realize we’re all
more similar than you think, even if they
discourse about immigration, that this
project is very timely and important.
“Recently, there has been a lot of stigma
against immigration and people from
other cultures,” Gurram said. “To expose
people to the diversity in their own
community and see them as people, not
just as foreigners or part of a statistic, you
see them as real people who have had
Six West Hartford high school students
spent their summers documenting the
lives of residents who immigrated to the
United States.
The West Hartford Public Library was
awarded a $25,000 grant to run the
Memories of Migration program, which
was first done by the Santa Ana Public
Library in Santa Ana, California.
“They picked West Hartford for a couple
of reasons,” said Kari Karp, the library’s
teen services librarian. “West Hartford is a
very diverse community. We have 67
different languages spoken here and 20
percent of our students speak a language
other than English at home. We knew there
would be a lot of immigrant stories to tell.”
The project, developed by Historypin
and the National Institute for Museum and
Library Services, trains students on doing
oral history projects. For that to happen,
they needed to learn a gamut of skills,
including how to interview people and
how to edit video. They spent 50 hours
working on the project.
Those videos will be shared with the
community on Sept. 22 at the Noah
Webster Library from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Paul Van Doren, a16-year-old senior at
Hall High School, said it was an
eye-opening experience to hear immigrant
stories. He specifically recalled a story told
to him by a woman from Columbia and
Venezuela who was twice robbed by rebel
army soldiers.
“It makes my problems seem smaller,”
Van Doren said. “We can bring to light
their stories and spread information. A lot
of people don’t know about Columbia or
South America with in-depth details.”
Mugdha Gurram, a17-year-old senior at
Conard High School, said her interview
with a woman who immigrated from
South Africa really stuck out during her
experience this summer.
“In school, I’ve learned about apartheid,
but it’s so different when you hear about it
from someone who lived that experience,”
Gurram said. “She had this really amazing
story. It’s so different when you hear it in
person.”
Gurram said with the recent political
Teens Document History Of Town’s Immigrants
The West Hartford Public Library was awarded a $25,000 grant to run the Memories of Migration program.
By Michael Walsh
Staff Writer
WEST HARTFORD
“We can bring to light their stories and spread information.”