The Immigrant Experience

FAIN: QI-50007-06

OASIS Institute (St. Louis, MO 63105)
Marcia M. Kerz (Project Director: February 2006 to August 2009)

Implementation of a series of five courses, a related website, and an intergenerational tutoring program to be conducted through OASIS centers in 25 cities and the Elderhostel Lifelong Learning Institute Network.

The OASIS Institute requests an implementation grant in the amount of $292,680 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to produce a major national education project on the history of immigration in America. If funded, the implementation grant would build upon a scholarly work and a project design achieved with a $35,688 NEH-funded planning grant. As a result of the implementation project, more than 360,000 mature adults (50 and over) will have the opportunity to learn about the history of immigration and to understand the significance of the waves of immigration that have helped form our country. The project, titled The Immigrant Experience, will include five core classes that will use an interdisciplinary approach to immerse the audience in examining the history of immigration through a carefully chosen group of humanities themes. It also includes intergenerational and web-based components as well as cooperative programming with the Elderhostel Lifelong Learning network.