Century College to Host Green Card Voices Exhibit and Panel Discussion with Founder Tea Rozman Clark

White Bear Lake, MN – Century College will host The Freedom to Tell our Stories, a panel discussion in the East Campus Lincoln Mall, Thursday, March 7, 12 - 2 pm.  The discussion will be inspired by The Green Card Youth Voices Exhibit, displayed in the West Campus Main Commons from March 1-30.

Inspired by the acclaimed book, Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a Minneapolis High School, the Green Card exhibit includes stories of lost loved ones, life in refugee camps, walks through deserts, and first snow falls. Their reasons for immigrating are vast, but a common thread unites these young people; despite tremendous tribulation, they continue to work toward the futures of which they dream. The exhibit also includes student portraits, highlights from their stories, and a QR code that viewers can scan with their smart phones to watch a video of the students speaking about their experiences.

The Freedom to Tell Our Stories Speaker’s Panel event includes:

• 12 -12:45 pm Refreshments and Story Stitch:The community is invited to enjoy light refreshments (provided by Student Life and the Multicultural Center) and participate in Story Stitch, a guided storytelling game that connects and builds empathy between people of diverse cultural backgrounds
• 12:45-2 pm Panel Discussion: The Freedom to Tell our Stories- Century College Vice President Pakou Yang will moderate a panel discussion with Dr. Tea Rozman Clark, the founder and director of Green Card Voices and Century College students, who will share their stories and experiences as immigrants or refugees.  The panel will give our students a brave space to share their personal immigrant or refugee stories, creating a space for empathy and respect, and a learning experience for all.

Tea Rozman Clarkis the cofounder and executive director of Green Card Voices. Previously, she worked for Reconciliation and Culture Cooperative Network, a New York City nonprofit working with immigrants from the former Yugoslavia. A New York University graduate with a degree in Near and Middle Eastern studies and a PhD in Cultural History, specializing in oral history recording, from the University of Nova Gorica, she is also the 2015 Bush Leadership Fellow.

Born in Yugoslavia, Tea moved to U.S. at the age of 20 after receiving the George Soros Scholarship and spent a year at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. She moved to Minneapolis in 2012 and soon after co-founded Green Card Voices. Through her work, she has interviewed close to 400 immigrants  from over 120 countries, and residing in seven states. Under her leadership, the organization has expanded from Minnesota to North Dakota, Georgia, and Wisconsin. 

Green Card Voicesa 501(c)(3) nonprofit, charitable organization was founded on September 9, 2013,born from the idea that the broad narrative of current immigrants should be communicated in a way true to each immigrant’s story. Green Card Voices aspires to build a bridge between immigrants, non-immigrants, and advocates from across the country by sharing the first-hand immigration stories of foreign-born Americans, by helping us see the ‘wave of immigrants’ as individuals, with interesting stories of family, hard work, and cultural diversity.

These events are sponsored by: Century College Speaker Series with support from AANAPISI, Communication Studies, Economics, ESOL, Gender Studies, Geography, History, Humanities, Psychology, Sociology, Library, English, Multicultural Center, and Student Life.