© 2024 Public Radio Tulsa
800 South Tucker Drive
Tulsa, OK 74104
(918) 631-2577

A listener-supported service of The University of Tulsa
classical 88.7 | public radio 89.5
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

"Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens" (Encore presentation.)

By Rich Fisher

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-1004017.mp3

Tulsa, OK – (Note: This program first aired last year.) On today's ST, we speak with journalist Brooke Hauser, whose new book, "The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens," grew out of a piece that she did a few years back for The New York Times. In this book, she profiles five different students who attend the decidedly multi-ethnic and poly-linguistic International High School in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. Where these kids come from, how they got here, what they confront as immigrants trying to succeed in the United States, and why they're so driven to succeed in the first place --- such are the questions at the heart of this engagingly written and carefully reported exploration of the American Dream. As one critic has noted of "The New Kids" in the pages of Booklist: "[It's] enlightening [and] highly readable. Hauser paints a portrait of the ambitious, energetic school by following a cross section of students over the course of a year. Hauser clearly cares about the students whose lives she entered for a year, as does the reader, who rejoices for those who get word of scholarships in the spring and regrets the outcomes of undocumented students who are 'wait-listed for life.'"