Thi Bui

Bui’s winning program, “A Nation of Immigrants,” is an oral history project for students at Oakland International High School. The students, who are in the 11^th grade, are all English Language Learners and recent immigrants to the United States. Bui, who is teaching a computer class this year, is collaborating with a U.S. History teacher and a group of other teachers to enhance the U.S. History class through an interdisciplinary unit and multimedia project. The educators will create an online interactive world map with links to web pages created by the students. The pages will include stories, photos, drawings, audio and video of students’ experiences from different parts of the world. In the U.S. History class, students will study the causes of immigration. The subjects will be combined as the students analyze patterns in their collective experiences and contextualize the experiences within a larger timeline of immigration in the United States. They will use what they learn to predict future immigration trends and how they can advocate for such an important issue. Bui, who lives in Berkeley, hopes the program will enable youth to connect their own stories to a larger understanding of the world in which they live.