2019 FELS TALK
FIVE IMMIGRATION STORIES
FELS, the Foundation for Educators at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, will present its annual FELS Talk on Thursday, March 28, 2018, at 7pm in the Lecture Hall at Lincoln-Sudbury, 390 Lincoln Road, Sudbury, Massachusetts.
The featured topic this year is FIVE IMMIGRATION STORIES. The evening will feature a slate of panelists who have all immigrated to the United States from countries around the world. They will share their personal experiences about the challenges and opportunities that arise with being an immigrant to the United States. The evening is intended to illuminate the many different angles of immigration and give the audience a deeper sense what it is like to experience the United States as a newcomer.
Some of the panelists featured in this year’s FELS Talk will include:
Edie Gonsalves
Gonzalves was born in Togo where she lived with her parents and three brothers. At the age of eight, she was given the opportunity to leave Togo for France. There, she lived with a family she had never met before in order to have an opportunity for education and a better life. She was adopted by the French family, completed her education and eventually moved to America, where she married an American and had a family. Her dream is to one day return to Togo.
Silvana Escobar-Stephen
Silvana Escobar-Stephen was born and raised in Lima, Peru. At the age of 18, she moved to France where she studied and lived for seven years. Silvana then moved to Texas where she taught French at the University of Texas at Austin. Later she moved to Columbia, Missouri where she taught at the University of Missouri. She eventually moved to Massachusetts to teach at Lincoln-Sudbury in the World Language Department until she retired in 2016.
Kris Shankar
Kris Shankar moved to United Status from India in 1990 to pursue graduate studies in electrical engineering. After a great deal of preparation, including passing his GRE and TOEFl exams, a complicated application process and the time necessary to accumulate savings, he made his way to the United States Embassy with a student Visa. He finished graduate school, secured a green card via his employer, and 5 year later, became a United States citizen. A Sudbury resident, Shankar currently works at Sanofi-Genzyme (pharma) as IT architect for designing systems and new product introductions.
The format for the evening will begin with a short film, “The Danger of a Single Story,” followed by an opportunity for each panelist to share an overview of their personal immigrant journey, followed by audience questions.
Admission will be $10 per person, $5 for students. All proceeds will benefit the Foundation for Educators at Lincoln-Sudbury, www.FELSGrant.org.
FELS is a non-profit organization that awards enrichment grants to Lincoln-Sudbury High School faculty and staff to pursue their professional and personal interests and passions. FELS was founded in 2000 to offer parents a tangible way to show their appreciation to the L-S professional staff for the unflagging dedication, tireless effort, and genuine caring they routinely offer our children. The FELS Talk was designated The Faye Goldberg-Scheff Memorial Lecture in 2012, to honor the memory of Goldberg-Scheff, a cherished member of the FELS Board.