Rockville Students Celebrate Immigration In Exhibit

ROCKVILLE, MD — A group of Rockville High School juniors have created an exhibit that celebrates immigrants living in Montgomery County.

Curated by Krista McKim's AP Language and Composition students, "Migrate With Us: Through the Journeys of Those Living in Montgomery County" tells the stories of how their families came to America. The high schoolers presented the display at Rockville's Beall-Dawson House in January as part of a collaboration with Montgomery History.

"Immigration is such a hot topic issue and I wanted students to be able to explore it — for them to look at the people who live here and tell their stories. Where they came from, why they came here, and the students decided to really celebrate those stories through the exhibit," McKim said in a video published by MCPSTV.

Three of McKim's AP classes worked on the interactive, multimedia exhibition. Students interviewed immigrants, including those from their families, and shared relatives' photos to tell their personal stories.

"When you first enter the exhibit you're going to see lights and flags streaming from the ceiling," said McKim. "On each flag there's a quote from someone who came from that country or county and describing why they moved to Montgomery County. On the walls are collages of different people's stories with quotes and their history of why they came here."

Sourosh Nokthda, a student whose parents emigrated from Iran, said it was amazing to learn about his family's journey to Montgomery County.

"Personally, this project was a huge thing for me because both of my parents came here from Iran. My father, he came here in pursuit of theater. It was amazing for me to learn his story," said Nokthda.

Montgomery County is home to one of the largest immigrant populations in Maryland. About 894,713 foreign-born residents live in the state, with around 37.91 percent — or about 339,188 immigrants — residing in Montgomery County, according to the latest U.S. census data.

Source: 2017 American Community Survey

"When I see how many other people have immigrant families, it makes me feel more connected with all my classmates," said Michelle Medina, whose mother is from El Salvador and father is from the Dominican Republic.

MCPSTV published a video of the display, which is embedded at the bottom of this post.

The exhibit, located at 103 W. Montgomery Ave, is open Thursdays through Sundays from 12 to 4 p.m.

IMAGE: Screen grab of MCPSTV's video titled "Rockville HS Students Design Immigration Exhibit"

VIDEO: MCPSTV/YouTube