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The process of creating this book was specifically designed to meet the needs of the young immigrants. Many have had limited or interrupted education. For these reasons, we recorded the authors telling their stories before we ever approached the written page. Then, in the spirit of the educational and civic engagement opportunities created by our work, we continued the tradition of community engagement by partnering with universities, professors, and students to create community writing and service learning experiences that expand the reach of these stories.

For making this book possible, we have many individuals, organizations, and entities to thank for working tirelessly amid this really unprecedented time.

The most important contributors to this project are the thirty authors who so courageously shared their stories. From hours of preparation in the classroom to bravely telling their stories on camera, from posing for portraits to working with coaches from Brockport TESOL Masters Program and teachers from their local high schools to polish their writing, these young authors have put forth tremendous effort in order to bring you these essays and video narratives. They are the heart and soul of this work. We are so grateful for and proud of them!

The countries of origin of the student authors vary. Twenty-five student authors originally come from fifteen countries: Albania, Bangladesh, Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Greece, Kazakhstan, Myanmar (Burma), Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Turkey, Yemen, Honduras, Iraq, Burundi, and Rwanda. Five student authors are from Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Puerto Ricans are US citizens by birth and colonial migrants, not immigrants. As you will see in their stories, many Puerto Rican students authors are climate refugees.

Rochester City School District Bilingual Language and Literacy Academy, Brighton Middle School (Rochester), Twelve Corners Middle School (Rochester), Lafayette International High School (Buffalo), and Lafayette Newcomer Academy (Buffalo) join with us and share our pride. We would like to thank the principals/directors who lead each of the schools these young authors attend: Teena Jones (Lafayette Newcomer Academy), John Starkey (Lafayette International Community High School), Jim Nuñez (Brighton Twelve Corners Middle School), and Jacqueline Senecal (Bilingual Language and Literacy Academy). Our gratitude is multiplied to our school-site partners.

Two people have been critical to this entire process: Jennifer Raponi in Rochester, and Mike Duffy in Buffalo. They have been our on-the-ground advocates working diligently to identify, recruit, coordinate, and prepare the student authors for this project. From working tirelessly with teachers and coaches to ensure the recording was a great success, to polishing student authors’ essays and finding community partners, endorsers, and media contacts…without their dedicated commitment this book would not have been possible.

The honor roll of State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport TESOL Master Students and educators in Rochester includes at the top of the list the following individuals: Kristen Hallagan (Brighton Twelve Corners Middle School) and Jill Harris (Bilingual Language and Literacy Academy); and in Buffalo: Kelly Cooper (Lafayette Newcomer Academy) and Michelle Reese and Asma Syed (Lafayette International High School). We also include the coaches in Rochester: Hannah Barone-Crowell, Jaclyn Algier, Lindsay Wiegand and Laura Le; and in Buffalo: Claribel Gonzalez, Michael Duffy, Travis Moore, Michelle Reese, Asma Syed, Clara Mehserle, Melissa Duquette, and Kelly Cooper.These teachers and coaches worked closely with multilingual students throughout the essay development process. Their enthusiasm for this project has not waivered—if anything, it has been strengthened throughout this experience. We are fortunate to have them guiding young people from all walks of life through public education.

In order to accomplish the amount of necessary work remotely from our office and subsequently under the COVID-19 quarantine, the support of key local partners was crucial. We were fortunate to find an incredible partner in Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY), especially Donna Gitter, a Professor of Law who reached out in August 2019 to establish a partnership with Green Card Voices. Her students from the Macaulay Honors Program, who were studying the history and future of immigration in New York, transcribed the interviewees’ stories with care and authored their short biographies. Baruch has been recognized as one of the most diverse colleges in the United States, and these students have a particular appreciation for the immigrant experience. We especially thank these students: Anthony Butta, Yael Carmi, Shirley Chan, Suha Chaudhury, Agnes Chen, Samina Chowdhury, Tasnia Chowdhury, Kyle Climan, Jazmine Freund, Justin Iloulian, Ishraq Kabir, Xin Lin, Danielle Malpa, Koorosh Nabatian, Aliza Oza, Andreea Pirvulesca, Jairo Reina, Sonel Rubinstein, Jesse Shi, Xinnan Teng, Caleb Varghese, Michelle Wong, and Sara Zinn.

To capture the authors' stories in their own words, GCV Executive Director, Tea Rozman Clark, joined with the production team at Media Active, which was contracted to film the interviews and take the authors' portraits. Media Active is a youth-produced media production studio that provides opportunities for teens and young adults to gain valuable job training and experience by creating professional-quality media products. The beautiful photographs and raw video footage are credited to David Buchanan and Za’Nia Coleman. The latter also edited the incredible video trailer.

We would also like to thank the GCV team: Shiney Her, Graphic Designer, who designed the interior of the book. We thank those who worked with the student authors to transform raw video footage into compelling digital narratives: Asher Dorlester (four videos), Seher Tas (fifteen videos), and Tahiel Jimenez (nine videos).

We thank Zaynab Abdi, GCV Immigrant and Refugee Youth Ambassador, who came to Rochester and Buffalo to meet with each author in this volume to speak about a range of important topics, including her immigrant experience as well as her role both as an author in the first GCV book and as a Malala Fund Delegate. She also traveled to New York City to meet with representatives from The CUNY to solidify our partnership for this project.

Julie Vang, GCV Program Director, who coordinated and supervised over fifty volunteers (transcribers, coaches, and copy editors) and co-editorial and promotional work throughout the book. Additionally, we extend deep gratitude to Dr. Tea Rozman Clark, whose vision, leadership, and editorial work allowed for the whole project to run smoothly and with a sense of purpose.

Beyond the above mentioned individuals and institutions, we would like to thank the Kennesaw State University English Department that continues to support GCV by providing editorial, research, and writing support. Undergraduate and graduate editorial student interns Joseph Payne, Kristen Roberson, Jooeun Kim, Emmie Sutter, and Ronald Baldwin, served as copy editors and produced the glossary under the editorial supervision of Dr. Lara Smith-Sitton. We are grateful to Dr. Lara Smith-Sitton in her role as the department’s Director of Community Engagement and for always going above and beyond, including contributing to the editorial work on the essays and other sections of the project.

We thank Karina Boos, Raul Velasquez, and Raul Francisco who helped translate a few authors’ interviews from Spanish to English and ensured the accuracy of their words. Special thanks to our foreword author, Eman Muthana, who prefaced these young people’s stories with reflections of her own. Thank you to Dr. Veronica Quillien, who designed the study guide Act4Change and who is also the lead author of Voices of Immigrant Storytelling: Teaching Guide for Middle and High Schools.

Thanks to our funders: individual fund-raisers, funding approved by the past Superintendent of Rochester Terry J. Dade, and major gift donors. Many people and schools also supported us by pre-ordering the book. Without you this publication would not have been possible!

And finally, we thank the GCV Board of Directors for supporting us in bringing this project to New York State. Thanks to all of our board members present—Luis Versalles, Leslie Rapp, George C. Maxwell, Esther Ledesma, Monique Thompkins, Laetitia Mizero Hellerud, Gregory Eagan IV, Debjyoti Dwivedy, Mahlet Aschenaki, Richard Benton, Shukri Hassan, Lara Smith-Sitton, Thorunn Bjarnadottir and Andrew Gordon—as well as to all of our board members past—Jessica Cordova Kramer, Ruben Hidalgo, Johan Eriksson, Masami Suga, Miguel Ramos, Hibo Abdi, Tara Kennedy, Jane Berg Reidell, Veronica Quillien, Dana Boyle, Katie Murphy-Olsen, Jane Graupman, Ali Alizadeh, Laura Danielson, Jeff Corn, Ruhel Islam, Angela Eifert, Matt Kim, and Kathy Seipp—and all others who have helped our mission along the way.

Finally, and most personally, we would like to thank our partners, children, families, and friends for helping each of us put our passion to use for the betterment of society. With the above support, GCV is truly able to realize its mission of using the art of storytelling to build bridges between immigrants and their communities by sharing first-hand immigration stories of foreign-born Americans. Our aim is to help the collective in the US see each “wave of immigrants” as individuals with assets and strengths that make this country remarkable.