Immigration Stories from Chicago High Schools: Green Card Youth Voices

Using a trauma-informed approach to gathering stories, this unique collection of 30 stories illuminates the range of challenges and successes met by the latest generation of immigrants attending Stevenson and Sullivan High Schools. Through their own voices, these digital and written stories showcase the resilience and courage required to overcome significant challenges and integrate into American society. ＂Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from Chicago High Schools＂ serves as a valuable resource for a diverse audience: from students and book club members to individuals curious about their new immigrant neighbors. The inclusion of video links, a glossary, maps, and a study guide enhances the multimedia aspect of this compelling collection.

Editor Tea Rozman and Julie Vang Tea Rozman is a multilingual first generation immigrant born and raised in Yugoslavia. At 20, Tea received a George Soros’ Open Society Institute scholarship to study at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire for a year. Several years later she returned to the States, this on a full scholarship to pursue a M.A. from New York University. In 2013, Tea completed a Ph.D. from the University of Nova Gorica, specializing in oral history. She is passionate about social justice, creating brave spaces, social entrepreneurship, empowering and amplifying voices of immigrants and refugees, and progressive co-leadership models.Tea is the co-founder of Green Card Voices and has worked for the organization for the past 11 years. As an oral historian she held space for stories told by over 500 immigrants and refugees coming from 150 countries and living in eight states. She is the recipient of the 2015 Bush Leadership Fellowship and 2021 Oral History Association/ National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship. Tea is passionate about travel, long-distance running, hiking, and spending time with her teen daughters and Bangladeshi-American partner. Julie Vang is a queer Hmong American born and raised in St. Paul Minnesota. They graduated from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2016 with a Bachelors in Family Social Science and a minor in Asian American and Ethics Studies. They are passionate about holistic healing, storytelling, and community development. Their work has been held across multiple generations and landscapes weaving together their life experiences and the medicine of their ancestors. They are committed to a practice of shared liberation, cultural innovations, and being a service of love. Julie shows up with wholesome energy, soul-stirring wisdom, and emotional vulnerability that bloom seeds and actions of lasting change. Julie is committed to shifting cultures, spaces, and mindsets to build healing, equitable, and inclusive communities to thrive. They have co-edited Green Card Youth Voices: Madison and Milwaukee, Green Card Youth Voices: Upstate NY, Green Card Youth Voices: Hawai’i, Green Card STEM Voices, and Our Stories Carried Us Here: A Graphic Novel Anthology. They have been working for GCV from August 2019 - Jan 2022 and again from Jan 2024 till the present. In their free time, you’ll find them sipping on boba tea, meditating, hiking, practicing yoga and having soulful conversations.