Critiquing a Campus Event

Storm E. Fort
GSW 1110
Jay Jones
1 December 2015
Immigrant Ohio: Past, Present, Future
It was a special feeling when you walked in the door. It was not an internal feeling, but n external feeling. The entire room was strangely quiet but calm. There were people talking but from my perspective I could not make out anything the other people were saying. But the feeling was back. As I looked around the room there were several people amongst different racial backgrounds. There were a variety of different race in attendance, such as: African American, Asian, Indian, Italian, Dominican, etc. The feeling of so much diversity in one room made me comfortable. I did not feel like the odd one in the bunch because we were all individually different and that is what brought us together. The Immigrant Ohio panel overall was very warming and impactful.
Immigrant Ohio would have been the perfect experience for students that are interested in history, ethnics, and primary sources; however the event was not well promoted on campus. Although this event took place during international week I do not think people were informed on the amount of events that were being taken place. Students like me were informed of this specific event through their professor. Dr. Nicole Jackson, a history professor, had been lecturing about immigrants in the U.S. and teaching them the power of primary sources. This event was a good way to connect the world with the classroom. Students were able to listen first hand and ask questions if anything that took place was interesting to them. In my opinion, the most significant part was after the panel went through their stories spectators also got to speak face to face with the guest speakers if they were not comfortable talking out loud.
Bowling Green State University hosts a weeklong of events for the International Education Week. One event that takes place is the, “Immigrant Ohio: Past, Present, Future” where a series of panels take place all day. I got the honor to sit, observe, and take notes on three Bowling Green, Ohio residences that migrated here from their homelands in other countries. The immigrants were asked to share their stories about their countries, why they moved to America, what life was like, and any struggles they did not mind sharing. These stories were all unique, but yet so similar because they all had one thing common. All members of the panel migrated to upper mid-west of the United States to live a happier life for their family and themselves. Another significant piece is they were all females from different ethnic backgrounds. They all mentioned the difficulties of being woman in other countries. The women also mentioned their adjustment to American and America’s adjustment to them. The places these women lived in were predominantly White-American communities that were unfamiliar with people outside of their racial background. When they stepped outside of their homes people would give them strange looks or not acknowledge them at all. They all did not expect to be socially accepted immediately so that was not their biggest issue at the time. Their biggest issue was blending the American culture with their individual cultures. When they visited the grocery store there was not the proper food and materials for them to purchase. Sometime they felt excluded from the world because it was hard for them to comprehend their surroundings. Life eventually got better for the families and they’ve never reconsidered moving back to their homelands. Each individual immigrant gave positive feedback to their community and their living situations in America.
Everything about the event went really swift and smoothly. Not only did the event work out well because of the immigrants, but because of the choice in venue and time. The event took place in Bowling Green State University’s Bowen-Thompson Student Union on the second floor in its multipurpose room. The room was seemed oversized for the amount of people that were in attendance, but I understood at the end. Before I got into the room there was a panel already taking place. From my perspective, I could see through the large windows outside of the room. The room rows of chairs in the back for spectators, round tables and chairs besides them, and a long rectangular table in the front for the members in the panel. The room almost looked like it was set up for a wedding reception. As I sat outside of the room and everyone inside was ready to exit, the venue did not appear as small as it once did. When each body got up to converse with another, the empty space in the room began to fill. Whoever was assigned to organizing the Immigrant Ohio event thought long term. The only problem that the event ran into was the volume and quality sound on the microphones. Half of the guest speakers spoke with very deep soft accents, but the microphones made it hard to depict what each person was saying. A lot of students, professors, and journalist were there with pen and paper ready but Fellow peers and strangers whispered to one another to repeat the information that was said. To avoid this problem, the organizers of the event should have checked the microphones after each panel session that took place that day. Although Immigrant Ohio ran into some minor issues they were able to still put on a successful event for International Week.
One thing that this event lacked was the promotion of leadership; however the panel members did not. As the panel members explained their lives they enabled us to act. One panel member shared a brief story about the catering service she had established and how it was a success. She explained that it was success because she tested out of her comfort zone and interacted with new community members that they were unfamiliar with. At the end of her story she mentioned to the audience to be active members of our communities and explained to us why. The individual immigrant told the group about branching out within the community made a difference in her American experience because being other citizens are familiar with you family, you’re familiar with the citizens, and the community is familiar with you as well. Another panel member mentioned times when she was disrespected because of her religion and someone fired rocks at her place of worship. A person in her community offered her and the people of her congregation if there was anything they could do for them to help lift the issues they were having.
There were several pieces of information to take away from this cultural presentation. Although the audience purpose was to respectively listen to the members of the panel, I believe there were some impactful materials to leave with. When the ladies were explaining their stories, they all mentioned how Americans reacted to them being in their communities. They said that the strange looks did not bother them, yet the lack of feeling wanted took control of their emotions the most. In the future, the spectators should remember the information that was given and take them into consideration. Students, faculty members, and people of the Bowling Green, Ohio community should want to make people feel included. Although this message was not their intentions to give, it was good lesson to remember in the future.