Printer FriendlyThe Project:
Lowell has always been a diverse city with immigrant residents, such as Irish and Canadian whose experience has already been documented. In the past 30 years, however, not many stories have been collected.
This project, as part of a bigger project conducted by Professors Robert Forrant, Linda Silka, and Christophe Strobel along with two graduate students, focused on such immigrant groups as Asian, Hispanic and African. The project idea was built from the accomplishments of 2006 CITA team which created a documentary about Lowell’s creative economic development and featured interviews with prominent residents engaged in these areas. Our task emerged from concerns that the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the downtown community share:
- How to increase the numbers of UMass Lowell students and faculty actively participating in downtown.
- How UMass Lowell can increase its links to the growing cultural arts activities downtown.
- How to reduce the barriers (transportation, perceptions of safety) to student and faculty involvement in downtown.
This project was funded by a Joseph P. Healey and Public Service Endowment Grant given to interdisciplinary university faculty programs. Our goals were to:
- Develop a “Best Practices” guide of strategies to promote university-downtown involvement.
- Develop a project website.
- Present an article on what we have learned in the Lowell Sun.
- Identify downtown partners willing to provide space for classes or meetings.
- Identify downtown partners willing to bring an event or service to the University.
- Visit other colleges to learn about their strategies.
To accomplish our tasks, we visited approximately 30 downtown businesses and organizations to see if they were interested in creating partnerships with UMass Lowell. We also met with representatives from: Clark University (Worcester, MA), UMass Dartmouth (Dartmouth, MA), and the Colleges of Worcester Consortium (Worcester, MA), to learn how they promote student interaction with their communities.
Our Team:
Members of the team come from a variety of places including Cambodia, Japan, Ghana, Malaysia and Russia. This gave us a great advantage when identifying immigrants who would share their stories. Events such as the African and Puerto Rican festivals were also invaluable in gathering contact.
The Results:
By the end of the summer we interviewed 22 individuals who
provided us with insightful and interesting information concerning their life experience in Lowell. We were able to learn about their cultures and their lives before and after they came to live in Lowell. We recorded, transcribed and compiled these interviews and used them as the basis for our digital presentation. One of our team members met with musical group One Love which consists of rapper Fee, songstress Ruby and guest MC Lyrical. We are proud of our accomplishments and the experience we had on this project.
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