Tyra Paisley, Shana Welch, Chayla Smith, and Molly Parkes, students of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, have developed the Shared Story webpage as a fulfillment of a project for their HIS 480/HON 451/HIS 601 course, Philadelphia Immigration Stories, under the guidance of Dr. Charles Hardy and Dr. Janneken Smucker.  This digital storytelling project explores the stories of immigrants/migrants to Philadelphia in both the early 1900s and early 2000s. Portions of oral history interviews from these time periods come from the Philadelphia Immigration site created by students and faculty of  West Chester University, in partnership with the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries and the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Secondary school students can navigate this website to take a “journey” through these interview stories. Excerpts from oral history interviews highlight important moments such as immigrant perspective, language, culture, schooling, family life, and challenges.  Students will discover the similarities and differences of these two waves of movement, and evaluate similarities in the lives of immigrants/migrants to their own life experiences. Students will take away firmer background knowledge of immigration to the city of Philadelphia and dispel common misunderstandings. By expanding the scope of this digital project to include the experiences of immigrants today, Tyra, Shana, Chayla, and Molly made connections across 100 years of time, comparing and contrasting the experiences of diverse immigrant groups and how the Philadelphia region has received and integrated immigrants into its larger community.

The Creators:

Tyra Paisley is an undergraduate student at West Chester University. She is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Spanish. Tyra is apart of the Honors Seminar Program at West Chester in which, she has had the opportunity to take this course. She plans to attend graduate school to obtain a MA and PhD in School Psychology.

Molly Parkes is an undergraduate student in the West Chester University Honors College, majoring in both Mathematics B.S.E.D. and Special Education. Post-graduation, Molly hopes to obtain a teaching position as a mathematics learning support teacher at the secondary level.

Chayla Smith is an undergraduate student at West Chester University. She is majoring in History on the track of obtaining a Secondary Teaching Certification. Post graduation, Chayla hopes return back to Philadelphia and teach in the neighborhood she grew up in.

Shana Welch is in the M.Ed. program for Applied Studies in Teacher and Learning. She has a B.A. in Sociology/minor in Spanish from Dickinson College and a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from Immaculata University. She has taught at Kennett Middle School since 2001 and currently teaches eighth grade U.S. History.