“Meet Your Immigrant Neighbor” Series Pitched by UW-Madison Researcher Airs this Week

Madison's NBC Affiliate Ch. 15 Broadcasts Interviews on "News at 4," Monday through Friday

March 9, 2020   |   By WCER Communications

Starting today, a television news series pitched by Ruslana Westerlund, a researcher in UW-Madison's School of Education and author of the book, "From Borsch to Burgers: A Cross-Cultural Memoir," begins on Madison’s NBC affiliate during its "News at 4" timeslot.
 
“Meet Your Immigrant Neighbor” airs today through March 13, featuring immigrants and the contributions they make to Dane County. News Anchor Leigh Mills will conduct five, live episodes, each one featuring a different immigrant woman—in honor of International Women’s Week. 

“I pitched the interviews to highlight the positive contributions of immigrants and counteract negative rhetoric in the media,” says Westerlund, who has lived in the United States for 25 years.

An interview with Westerlund, who works at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) for WIDA, which supports multilingual learners around the world, kicks off the series today with WCER’s Interim Director Mariana Castro closing it on Friday.

Westerlund will share her experience as a Ukrainian American and Castro as a Mexican American. Westerlund also helped connect Ch. 15 with the three other women featured in the series, who immigrated from Ethiopia, Brazil and Venezuela.