TWU faculty, staff to share immigration stories

April 16, 2024 – DENTON – Texas Woman's University is hosting a forum on immigration.

No, not another teeth-gnashing, insult-filled, hair-on-fire political shouting match. This is an actual discussion with insights, advice and inspiration.

Global Tapestry: Sharing My Journey is an annual event in which faculty and staff share their successes and setbacks on their journeys to the United States. The event will take place Thursday, April 18, from 1-3 p.m. at Phyllis J. Bridges Auditorium in the Student Union at Hubbard Hall.

There will be a panel of faculty and staff members from China, Jordan, Nigeria, Denmark and France, and there will be an exhibition of garments from various countries and cultures. Refreshments will be served, and admission is free.

"This is about sharing the process involved for international citizens in their travels as far as how they got to the United States to be working here or a student here," said Anna Magie, co-chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Global Perspectives Committee and associate professor and division head of the Division of Fashion Design & Merchandising. "Faculty members can talk about challenges that they had along the way, why they ended up here in the United States, why they chose the United States over a different country. We have one who was born here, immigrated to another country, lived there for a time, and then had to immigrate back to the United States. How they landed at TWU and important international and global issues. Everybody's story is different. It's really just sharing the story so that we can spread more awareness."

Among the discussion topics are procedures for F-1 visas and the general immigration process.

"More importantly, the significance of living in a diverse nation and how our globalized environment is important, as students work to learn and begin their future careers, and as faculty serve as strong educators and motivators within a diverse global society," Magie said. "The panelists will share their stories, then there's question and answer and discussion.

"We're sharing culture, community, all of it," Magie said. "Especially, we feel TW has a very connected cultural presence. We thought this might be a good way to take this instead of focusing on something controversial or something. There's all these different stories. It's linking to the perspective because there's maybe not enough information out there people don't really understand. Students are sitting in a classroom, they may have a faculty member that's traveled here from across the globe and they don't know. We talk a lot about how it's so important to be interconnected, globalization as a whole. This is to talk about our interconnectedness, about working together, living together, and then just the convergence of cultures."