Immigration is a topic students learn about throughout their education.  The emphasis, however, tends to be placed upon immigration history instead of the future. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a great deal of this course focused on immigration in New York City right now, and its future prospects.

Personally, I learn best through discussion, which is something our class did not seem to have a problem with.  I value the role of numbers, so to speak, in these discussions but doubtlessly got a lot more out of my interview with an established immigrant and my own immigration essay than I did out of research for my statistical profile.  Although I understand why categories were assigned here, perhaps if we had been given the discretion to select a group to study, the process would have been more eye-opening.  I  do better when studying something I am truly interested in.

This has been a reading-intensive course, and the assignments were few but always extremely time-consuming.  We learned about theories of migration and histories of immigrant groups, but the most memorable classes for me involved discussions of recent newspaper articles.  I am fortunate to know a fair amount about the history of immigration in New York City, so the highlights of this class were the times I was introduced to new concepts, such as flaws in our current immigration system.

At the end of the day, this class made me think, which is something I value.  The course load was heavy, but there were certainly a number of highly memorable discussions and concepts.

The Peopling of New York might be one of the most interesting courses I have taken.  I really enjoyed learning about the impact of successive waves of newcomers on urban culture and politics, and the continuing debate over assimilation and Americanization.  It was fascinating to learn about all the different people that make this city what it is and give it its character.  In the statistical profile we analyzed a specific group of immigrants in the city, which was eye-opening.  All in all, everything in the class combined to make a learning experience unlike any other.

Looking back, my experiences with the statistical profile and the interview project were mixed.  I was a bit intimidated by the idea of having to write such a long paper for the statistical profile assignment and conduct such a long interview for the interview project!  However, it turned out much better than I expected.  In terms of the statistical profile, The Newest New Yorkers provided me with tables and graphs that were relatively easy to comprehend, and I was able to analyze the data based on my prior knowledge of immigration.  The numbers and statistics actually made sense to me.

I had a tough time researching the immigration history of Dominicans to America and New York City.  Most websites were more eager to talk about the current issues that Dominicans face in New York City rather than explain why they began to migrate in the first place.  However, I eventually found a couple of websites that narrated the history of Dominican migration and was able to use this information for my statistical profile assignment.

The interview project also had its ups and downs.  The interview itself went much more smoothly than I expected.  This was due to the fact that I managed to come up with a lot of relevant questions and that my interviewee was quite eloquent in responding to my questions.  He did not hesitate to go into great detail and elaborate on his thoughts.  The worst part of the interview project was transcribing the entire 50 minute interview!  It took me several days to finish and I had to fight boredom and extreme fatigue when working on it.  After the transcription was finished, however, I was so familiar with the interview that I was able to write up an analysis fairly quickly.

I have to say that I learned a lot in this course.  I never enjoyed writing, but most of the assignments were writing assignments.  Therefore, I did not enjoy doing these assignments to be honest.  On one hand, the interview project and the statistical profile assignments were frustrating, especially for the statistical profile project for which we had to incorporate data from the U.S. Census Bureau and a publication called The Newest New Yorkers.  I was assigned to complete a statistical profile of Mexican immigrants in New York City, so I had to find the most updated data.  This was not a fun experience because I waited to do it the night before the assignment was due.  This class taught me not to do the work until the last minute.  It was really a pain.

I loved the interview project, although my 35-minute interview took me hours to transcribe word for word.  It ended up to be a useful experience, because I did not have an in-depth interview with someone like that before.  And I found out that I love to dig people’s hidden secrets or stories.  Overall, I really think these assignments and class discussions brought our learning experiences of the immigrants in New York City to the next level.

Although I am the son of two immigrants who came here less than a year before my birth, I used to have no idea about anything regarding immigration.  In this class, I was given the opportunity to conduct research and interview an immigrant, allowing me to learn more about the past that they left and the city they now call home.  Studying charts and tables was one of the hardest things I ever did and was an experience that I will never forget.  It took hours, sometimes even days, to find charts that had the information I was looking for, and it was also difficult to understand the full scope of what the charts were saying.  The interview on the other hand, was a lot more fun and taught me new things about people that I have known for years.  At first, it was difficult to find time to complete the interview, but when everything was arranged it felt just like an ordinary conversation instead of homework.  Overall this class was a lot of work, but really did teach me a lot about integration and immigration laws.

The Peopling of New York City course was one of the most challenging courses that I have taken.  The class content is very specific, which increased the depth of the material.  A lot of the difficulties I experienced came from the countless theories I learned about, which at times contradicted each other.  It was up to me to pick and choose what I believed in, which was difficult but stimulating.  With respect to the assignments, I enjoyed dealing with qualitative data better than quantitative data, because I was better able to understand the theories we learned about from the interview I conducted with an immigrants.  I was able to see the course material utilized.  I loved seeing the research and discussions come to life in the assignments that we did.

Peopling of New York City was completely different from the Arts in New York City seminar.  Unlike what I expected from last semester, this class required more professional research and writing skills.  The statistical profile and interview projects were the two key assignments I worked on.  The statistical profile required strong skills in interpreting data and creating charts and tables based on the data.  Although I considered myself a tech-savvy person, I found it challenging to create the charts.  Unlike the statistical profile, the interview was heavily based on interactive communication skills.  It was very awkward to interview a stranger and ask for personal information, but it was also very rewarding once I learned more about an aspect I was interested in from the beginning of class – undocumented immigration.  Overall, this was a tough class, but it enhanced my time management skills as well as researching, interpreting, and analyzing skills.

Going into a class on New York’s rich immigration history, I really was not expecting the extensive research I had to compile for the papers.  Instead of only challenging us intellectually, the research projects also challenged us in the areas of technology and communication.  When I first received the statistical profile project, I knew I was doomed from day one.  Not only was I very technology illiterate, I was very unskilled in determining which sources to draw from.  What I had anticipated to be a class on policy and trends became a class centered on finding the right data and translating that information into a visually appealing images.  However, with some mistakes here and there, I learned the general gist of what buttons to press and how to transform numbers into charts.  My graphs may not have been what the topic was aiming for, but the learning experience not only helped me develop a more concrete sense of what immigration trends looked like, but also got me to explore the different organizations which deal primarily with immigration.  Then, we had the interview project, which was another means to explore other people’s immigration and integration into society.  After hearing and reading so much about the problems that most immigrants overcame on their journey to the United States, I thought that my interviewee would simply present to me a story that almost mirrors my own immigration and integration background.  However, what I found was an emotional roller coaster of events which painted a harsh and cruel picture and taught me that no one migration decision is as easy as it seems.  The interview project opened my mind and definitely made me more compassionate towards those who fight for their lives to give their family a better future.  All in all, the research projects have been an obstacle that every student has overcome.  Whether it be advancing the knowledge of Microsoft programs, navigating with ease through databases, or sharing an intimate moment with a stranger, our research projects have been important learning experiences.

The Peopling of New York City seminar was the most comprehensive look at immigration I have ever experienced in all my years of schooling and living in the city.  Although I had previously learned about immigrants and the diversity of New York City in history class and textbooks, those lessons never translated into reality.  For this class, though, the combination of field trips, guest speakers, research papers, and the interview project collectively taught me what immigration in this city is really like.

My favorite project of the semester was definitely the immigrant interview.  I relish the stories my parents tell me of their immigration and integration experiences when they first came to New York more than twenty years ago.  However, I had difficulty when I conducted my formal interview because I was not accustomed to asking open-ended questions and being completely thorough about every detail.  Nonetheless, I learned a great deal from my respondent and I got a comprehensive glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of an immigrant in New York City.

The statistical profile was more challenging, because gathering the numbers, determining which would fit into my paper, and making the graphs was very time-consuming.  I learned many new technological skills and it was an enriching experience to use the Census data as well as theresources in the Baruch library.  All in all, this class was a great starting point to understand the complex issue and importance of immigration to our city and our nation.

Completing the statistical profile was probably the hardest thing I have ever done, academically speaking.  Locating the data was not easy and at first the numbers seemed like gibberish to me.  When I first started the project, I kept thinking “How am I ever going to make these charts into a coherent report”?  I think that creating a statistical profile was a necessary experience, but I enjoyed the interview project much more.  I find working with people much more interesting than working with numbers and, in fact, completing the interview project has encouraged me to consider doing more interviews as part of a larger research project.

College is a time to explore new topics and learn things that you wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn in normal everyday life.  If given the opportunity to take a class on immigration, I probably wouldn’t have chosen it if another option was available.  However, as a Macaulay Honors Student, the course The Peopling of New York City is a requirement; I now see the numerous benefits of this class.  Living in New York City, immigrants are everywhere around us and it is important to better understand these people, and to understand their backgrounds and the processes and struggles they need to go through in order to become American citizens.  To understand this was especially important for me, since I am a fourth generation Italian-American and have not felt this struggle personally.  This class presented many challenges, but a struggle is necessary in order for one to learn something valuable.  I had never analyzed data and used charts in the way that we were forced to do for the statistical profile assignment, but I now realize how essential this skill is for a person to conduct comprehensive research.

In addition, the visit to the Tenement Museum and the Walking Tour were a nice touch to the class.  As a resident of the Lower East Side, I have walked by the placed we visited numerous times, but I was not aware of much of the history of these places.  I found the short reports we had to write on these two trips beneficial as well.  This is because I thought about these trips in the context of my own life and was able to make innovating conclusions about a neighborhood I call my own.

The work assigned in this class cannot be completed without thoughtful analyses.  Yes, at the time one is completing the assignments, they may stare at their MacBook Pro screens for a long while letting anxiety get the best of them, crying hysterically,  bewildered where to begin.  However, when a student looks back at their work, observing the completion of assignments that involved hard work and a dedicated struggle to prove their point, it is extremely rewarding.

At the end of this course, I can truly say that I have a new found interest in immigration.  Who knows, one day I might be using the information I have learned in this class in order to pursue my future career.

This statistical profile and interview project gave me hands-on experience that I do not think I would have gained otherwise.  Although sifting through data for the statistical profile and transcribing the interview were tedious, extracting the data and using it to form a cohesive conclusion were rewarding experiences.  My only regret is not reflecting on either sets of data longer to realize general trends that could have been presented better, or data that could be perceived in a different way.  However, this class has helped me think of more ways to collect data and display and report it.

I have avoided taking any statistics class because the thought of so many numbers always intimidated me.  Taking this course made me dip a toe into the waters of statistics and in a way I am glad I had to take this class.  I got a feel for what it would be like to take statistics class in the future through this interesting course on immigrants in New York City.  The coursework was challenging though rewarding, and I really enjoyed the interview project (besides the long, long hours of transcribing the interview!).

One of the best parts of doing research on immigrants in New York City was learning so much about a topic I was barely interested in.  Learning from immigrants themselves helped me understand all the hardships and troubles they have to go through on a day-to-day basis.  It was difficult for me to comprehend just how difficult the immigration process actually is before I spoke to an immigrant face to face.  My interview with an immigrant really opened my eyes to the immigrant experience.  In this course, I was also challenged by the statistical profile project, which was not one of my favorites.  However this class taught me how to affectively interpret and represent quantitative data, something that I struggled with at the beginning of the semester.

I can honestly say that I have never done as much research for a single class than I have for this one.  I am absolutely horrendous at statistics and graphs, so this made the statistical profile assignment extremely frustrating and challenging for me.  Although we had an in-class workshop on creating graphs, this was still the biggest hurdle for me. Working not only with online sources but also books – books filled with graphs and charts and facts – is something I don’t often do at all either.  It was an interesting experience, but one that was useful and painful at the same time.

The interview project, on the other hand, was an immense amount of fun.  I learned so much more by just listening to the anecdotes of people who have lived through experiences I have never been able to truly connect with.  By putting myself in someone else’s shoes, and asking questions, and prodding when needed, I learned what I really wanted to learn.  And that was a lot.  I would love to do another project like this in the future.  The personal connections that are created in this form of project are really a beautiful thing, and I believe much more substantial than cold graphs and numbers.  The stories that I listened to seemed much more real and appealing that the numbers we crunched.  However, I must say that transcribing the interview was a pain in the rear, but also worth it!

Although I’ve had experience with doing research before, research projects are still always a pain.  I did not know where to start except that I had a certain immigrant group to work with and a couple of sources to sift through.  There seemed to be an endless possibility of things I could talk about, but only so few pages to do it in.  When I finally managed to get some of it done, it did not get any easier.  Gathering and organizing the data is hard enough already, but I had to further analyze the data and figure out the connections with other course materials.  I was able to find all the numbers I needed, but I had to dig deep and figure what story these numbers were telling me.  When I look back at the work I have completed, I was partly relieved that I had finished it, but I was also proud that I had actually been able to prove a point in my paper.  Through the statistical profile assignment, I learned more about the largest immigrant group in the United States and a fast growing immigrant group in New York City, the Mexicans.  As with many of the other assignments in this class, I gained an appreciation for how unique New York City actually is compared to the rest of the United States.

Conducting both the interview project and the statistical profile assignment were rather rewarding, though also frustrating, experiences.  The interview project was quite problematic for me, as there were numerous scheduling issues.  When the interview finally took place, there was yet another problem.  Thankfully, a good thing came out of it, as it helped me gain more perspective on the immigration and integration experiences of an Indian immigrant in New York City.  The statistical profile was also difficult, because I had to make sense of lots of quantitative data.  It did not help that, at first, I mixed data from various years and sources.  The research and constant array of numbers was quite tedious, and reminded me why I abhor numbers!  Conducting the research, however, gave me an idea of how diverse New York City actually is.  Although the profile limited me to researching Haitian immigrants, I looked at numbers of other immigrant groups as well. What stood out and will always amaze me is how there are so many large immigrant groups in New York City.  Yet, despite their large size, each group only makes up a small percentage of the city’s entire foreign-born population.  This diversity is astounding and my entire life I have been ignorant of the diversity surrounding me.  Now, I have actually begun noting the changing demographics of New York City, starting with the enclave of Indians forming in my own neighborhood.

In Peopling of New Your City, I completed assignments for which I was required to learn new skills.  The two most challenging assingments were the statistical profile and the immigrant interview projects.  The statistical profile required analyzing data and turning it into graphs, and I noticed that it was sometimes difficult to not just restate the data in the graphs in my paper, but also to go one step further and to determine why a certain group of people has the english profiency, wages, or employment rate that the graphs represent.  The interview with an immigrant was particularly interesting, because instead of learning something from a book, I was given the oppertunity to connect with another human being and hear their story.  However, the challenging part consisted of trying to come up with questions that will not lead to “yes or no answers,” but rather open-ended questions that solicity responses filled with details that are useful for the subject of your paper.  Overall, I think that what I learned about conducting interviews and creating and analyzing graphs, charts, and tables will stay with me and be very useful in future classes.