About 75 community members joined the Immigrant Story event on Tuesday, March 4 in Hudson Hall of the Rogers Music Center. The event was aimed to raise conversations surrounding belonging, home and inclusivity, despite college campus polarization being on the rise. The four speakers were immigrants from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Afghanistan. In collaboration with The Conversation Project, these events on campus aim to begin the long-winded work of bringing such difficult conversations to Willamette’s campus. While occurring at a polarized time for college campuses, the goal of the event remains clear: creating a sense of community among students.
The Immigrant Story is an Oregon-based, volunteer-run organization that uses storytelling as a method of activism, working to open up conversations surrounding issues of immigration and discrimination. Many of the storytellers described experiences of discrimination in school, living in war zones, and more. The Conversation Project is a Willamette-based initiative to “cultivate capacity for honest, transformative dialogue,” according to its mission statement. There was also a performance from Joe Kye, a Portland-based artist who focuses on “inspiring audiences to compassion and empathy” through his music, according to his website. During his performance, he asked members of the audience to record a message to their ancestors.
This event comes at a time when college campuses are experiencing an increase in discrimination. According to a 2023 survey conducted by the university and reported on by The Collegian, the campus climate of divisiveness as discrimination was on the rise.
Along with localized tension, nationwide reports such as The Hechinger Report reflect college campus divisions on the issues of personal identity and politics, with students deciding which colleges to attend depending on state laws. This is due to changes in both federal and state politics, such as abortion bans in some states, which are influencing where students feel comfortable attending university.
Despite these issues, The Immigrant Story and The Conversation Project are working on fostering an open community and “[being] attentive and receptive of other people's stories,” said David Gutterman, co-founder of The Conversation Project and a Politics, Policy, Law and Ethics (PPLE) professor.
The Immigrant Story’s visit on campus was almost entirely student-organized, according to Gutterman. Gia Patel (’25), a student ambassador, emphasized, “There is something beautiful about applying knowledge we’ve learned in The Conversation Project to events like these.”
The event was held to provide valuable information surrounding the importance of immigrants in communities. Journey Brown (’26), a student ambassador, claimed that “[immigrants] deserve to be heard, and they deserve to be seen.”
This collaboration between the Immigrant Story and the Conversation Project comes at a time when harmful rhetoric surrounding immigrant stereotypes has been perpetuated by Trump in his second administration, leading to loss of immigrant protections and implementation of mass-deportation policies. Additionally, Trump’s recent moves reflect these stereotypes by plans to dismantle Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in schools, seen through the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague” letter.
“We live in this community where it is so easy to villainize each other,” Patel said. The Conversation Project is working to combat binary ideas of what an immigrant is and looks to “reflect the humanity in all of us,” according to Gutterman, which was the aim of an event such as The Immigrant Story.
The Conversation Project is working to facilitate these discussions broadly on campus, and The Immigrant Story is only one step in the process, with a “post conversation” that was hosted on March 11 in Waller Hall. Working with organizations such as The Immigrant Story reflects the group’s desire to build community and belonging. Gutterman believes that “we can amplify voices” and give platforms to those who have been historically marginalized.
Brown noted that “[immigrants] are just human beings that live in our community,” and the goal of The Conversation Project is to create a space of compassion and understanding during a polarizing time.
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