Project participants

Astou - Computer Information Specialist - Senegal

Hai-ou - Painter - China

Ljiljana - Composer - Yugoslavia

Rima - Architect - Lebanon

Yolanda - Secretary - Columbia

Lan-Anh Phan - Student - Vietnam

Tatiana - Photographer - Russia

The professionals involved in the production are well qualified and are enthusiastic about their participation.

• Exsul Van Helden, DRS, Associate professor of Art at VJC, serves as Project Director and primary film director and producer. His background is in sociology and cinematography, and he has been making films in Baltimore since emigrating from Holland in 1982.
• Villa Julie College Professor of Anthropology and Sociology Esther Chedekel Horrocks, Ph.D., offers a tremendous background in qualitative methods and research strategies, oral history and visual media. She is developing the salient questions and approach for the interview process.
• Nanette C. Tamer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature at Villa Julie College, teaches "Literature By and About American Immigrants 1620-Present." As part of their coursework, students examine this literature as a record of cultural history and seek to determine whether this work is representative of the immigrant experience it describes. Tamer's publications examine the cultural sources of patterns of expression used by immigrants to America to order their experiences. Tamer is assisting in the interview process and will help analyze the women's experiences.
• Villa Julie College Exhibitions Director Diane DiSalvo brings diverse experience as a curator, filmmaker, administrator and fundraiser.
• Fernando Tosti will serve as film editor and videographer. Tosti's educational background is in mass communications with a specialty in educational and instructional television.
• Molly Rath, feature writer for social and community issues at Baltimore's City Paper, will write an article about the project for her newspaper.
• Alexander Boulton, Ph.D., History Professor at Villa Julie College, offers expertise in history and art history and will offer writing, research and analytic commentary in the historical context of immigration.
• Dory Storms, Sc.D., senior scientist in International Health at The Johns Hopkins University has directed international programs dealing with health, development and culture, and will offer analysis and commentary.
• The work of Edward L. McDill, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at The Johns Hopkins University, focuses on the evaluation of educational programs designed to improve the situation for at-risk and disadvantaged students. He is helping to analyze the general structure of the program.

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