{"id":1318440,"date":"2020-02-26T17:20:49","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T00:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=994002"},"modified":"2020-02-26T17:20:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T00:20:49","slug":"immigrant-stories-project-shares-youth-voices-as-part-of-gsms-bilingual-voices-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/immigrant-stories-project-shares-youth-voices-as-part-of-gsms-bilingual-voices-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant Stories project shares youth voices as part of GSMS Bilingual Voices program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Students work together in a circle in Lucia Cambell’s English Language Development class at Glenwood Springs Middle School on Wednesday morning. Through the school’s Bilingual Voices Project, they were asked to share their personal stories as part of Walter Gallacher’s Immigrant Stories series.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The stories are sometimes terrifying and often filled with sadness, while being openly revealing, heart-wrenching and heartwarming all at once.<\/p>\n

And they need to be told, say the organizers behind a joint project to share the voices of Glenwood Springs Middle School second-language students with the larger community through the school\u2019s Bilingual Voices showcase.<\/p>\n

Walter Gallacher of Glenwood Springs has been compiling stories from adult immigrants across multiple generations locally for more than a dozen years via the Immigrant Stories series. The stories appear monthly in the Post Independent, based on transcripts from Gallacher\u2019s audio interviews, which are aired on public radio station KDNK<\/a> and published on his personal blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recently, Gallacher was approached by Glenwood middle school teacher Lucia Campbell about sharing the stories her sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students had prepared as part of a writing project in her English Language Development classes.<\/p>\n

Portions of those stories are shared in this month\u2019s Immigrant Stories feature, which appears in today\u2019s Post Independent Education section.<\/p>\n

The project grew out of the middle school\u2019s expeditionary learning program, which emphasizes learning relevant to the students, and which serves the larger community, Campbell explained in her own radio interview with Gallacher recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guiding question was, \u2018Can sharing our stories help to change the stereotype that we see in our communities?’\u201d Campbell said. \u201cWhen the students share their stories, like understanding why they move here, what are the real reasons? Why are they here? \u2026 it might make you think twice \u2026 There are many reasons why these kids come here.\u201d<\/p>\n

To begin, area immigrant storytellers were invited via the Immigrant VOICES organization to help the middle schoolers develop their stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur core aim was to help Lucia and the other teachers and administrators at (Glenwood Springs Middle School) disrupt negative stereotypes around immigrants by building a story-sharing culture at the school,\u201d VOICES\u2019 Renee Prince said. \u201cWe conducted visual journaling workshops with newcomer kids to help them express big experiences and emotions through art, before sitting down to write their own immigration stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince then worked with Beth Wysong from KDNK\u2019s Andy Zanca Youth Empowerment Program (AZYEP) to record<\/a> each student\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

As many Immigrant Stories as he has shared, Gallacher said the student stories were eye-opening for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids have been through some real stuff, and they\u2019re pretty honest about it,\u201d Gallacher said. \u201cIt\u2019s powerful in that it\u2019s right here in our own community. We see it in the headlines, but here are these kids right here.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir experiences have helped to ground them, so they can start to feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last November, the students also shared their stories with parents during the school\u2019s Celebration of Learning student showcase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the most powerful moments I\u2019ve had at school,\u201d Glenwood Springs Middle School Principal Joel Hathaway said. \u201cThese families and students were both empowered by the work \u2014 the idea that their unique stories matter to all of us.\u201d <\/p>\n

Academically, he said students tend to perform best when they\u2019re presented with opportunities to change the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s what is happening here,\u201d Hathaway said. \u201cStudents have authentic audience, meaningful tasks and a motivating teacher they care about very much.\u201d <\/p>\n

Campbell, an immigrant from Nicaragua herself, added: \u201cThis project would not have been possible without all the parts involved. It takes a village to make good things happen, and I am first and foremost grateful for my students inspiring resilience and the enthusiasm they bring to class every day. And, thanks to their families who supported this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

jstroud@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students work together in a circle in Lucia Cambell’s English Language Development class at Glenwood Springs Middle School on Wednesday morning. Through the school’s Bilingual Voices Project, they were asked to share their personal stories as part of Walter Gallacher’s Immigrant Stories series.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent The stories are sometimes terrifying and often filled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1318440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-05 14:35:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}