I would like to propose a digital project on the issue of international students at Colby College. The presence of International students on campus has shifted dramatically over the years in terms of demography, nationalities, social classes, and races due to globalization and the development of the college. These issues also led changes in various perspectives of how International students were represented as well as recognized on campus. It is a trend that more and more international students from different places in the world are coming to Waterville to get an education and spend four years of their lives here. Therefore, a project depicting the “internationals on the hill” will be interesting to both past international alumni, current international students, and perspective international applicants.
There are different individuals or group of people currently conducting projects regarding international students. Maggie Libby and her student research assistants are collecting past photos and multimedia materials on Colby Megazine publications as well as Colby Echo on stories depicting international students. Qiam Amiry ’09 and his other colleagues in Advancement Office are working on relationships with many international alumni. Sue McDougal has been working as the Dean for International Students for a long time at Colby. Therefore, I will communicate between these parties to collect multimedia materials in regard to International students’ presence on campus.
This project was inspired by several initiatives that past students had done including Uzoma Orchingwa ’14’s film Black on the Hill, Annie Lee ’20’s film Popul[asian].
For this project, I am envisioning a digital published multimedia website which curates some of the materials from the collection from special collection including pictures, recordings, and publications, with a short documentary-style video on Dean Sue McDougal embedded on the website as the story arc. By doing this project, I’d like to digitize a collective memories on Internationals and their experience on the Hill.