A Celebration of Welcome: Student Projects
In November 2022, our focus on experiences around the value of “Welcome” culminated in an event titled “A City of Welcome.” Held at Oklahoma City’s Yale Theater, “A Celebration of Welcome” was an immersive and interactive experience for visitors focused on:
Encouragement in the ways welcome is being practiced in our city
Inspiration for a more welcoming city
Insight into tangible ways to practice welcome in our own lives
Offering food, drink, storytelling, and hospitality
Curating original exhibit contributions of students who have both experienced and offered welcome in Oklahoma City.
For the our team, centering student voices was key to this event as for many of us students and young adults are the group of people we have learned the most about welcoming from. Additionally, students and young adults who have immigrant backgrounds are often individuals who are balancing and holding the tension of multiple experiences, perspectives, and cultures as they make their way in the world– a group of individuals who have a lot to teach. Our call for projects focused on students between the ages of 18 and 30 who are first or second generation immigrants. The ten finalists chosen had their work presented at the event along with a stipend award for educational expenses.
With the prompt “How do you practice welcome?” students could answer creatively from whatever experience they chose, lending to a 3-dimensional understanding of their pathways. Some students chose to focus on a specific cultural practice, and others discussed spaces where they practice welcome such as work, school, or church. What our team found through all projects was the need to listen and learn from students of the realities of our world, but we also learned about practices of welcome that foster more hopeful futures.
In June, our team put out the initial call for projects to the Oklahoma City community, with students finding out about the opportunity through social media, emails, and group texts. In informational sessions, students could also work with an adult mentor to help develop their ideas for their project before a final submission in July. In August, an outside committee chose the ten finalists whose work would be presented at the November event. The judges chose work based on the content of students’ work so as to preserve student voice and authenticity.
Final student projects included artwork, essays, sculpture, food, children’s books, videography, and photography. From the final ten projects, our team connected other aspects of the event. For example, visitors could enjoy food at the event, either represented by a student’s project or connected to a student’s culture as described in their work.
We were so grateful for the work all students shared as a response to the call for projects, from artwork to essays to food to sculpture and more, we continue to find how well the students in the Oklahoma City area practice welcome.
