Ulpanay Djoldasova

I enjoyed the project a lot. I have never been a history person, even since the first day when I started taking history courses back in middle school. I, nevertheless, found it interesting whenever my teacher would tell me stories, however, I never thought I would be able to do research myself and remember, let’s say important dates. This project helped me a lot to understand how history is important in our lives as we exist on this planet. It taught me preserving, appreciating, and passing history on to the next generation is the most important thing.

As for this particular program that we attended for the past 4 weeks, it was a very engaging project. I never knew this particular part of history until I joined the program. It was very interesting to learn about what Japanese and Japanese Americans have been through during World War II. We learned a lot about the people of Japanese Ancestry before, during, and after World War II. And we could definitely see the difference in the conditions they lived in and had to survive. There was a lot of violence, discrimination, and hatred as well as support and love towards Japanese and Japanese Americans during that time.

It was very useful for us, as we are doing research and using the collected information on our website, to be able to physically see the preserved archival documents and artifacts, and also meet people and talk to them during our trip to Chicago and Urbana-Champaign. I feel like it helped us a lot to visualize the picture and be able to feel and understand things at a higher level than just reading the online materials and absorbing them by just memorizing them. If there is a chance, it is always easier and more useful to be able to visualize things.

Now, we know for sure, that World War II shaped people in many possible ways, which both did and did not help people to go through. I believe, though, that it shaped people in a way that they managed to go through things and build new lives, and create new communities, and this way, support each other in times when it is hard to get through. And I feel like the temples and a church that we visited served as evidence of people getting through things and being able to start a new chapter of their lives although there were things lost that cannot be returned during the war and time that people of Japanese ancestry had to spend in incarceration camps.

Throughout the 4-week program, we ourselves were able to feel and see all the discrimination, hatred, love, and joy that did and still exist among the people of Japanese ancestry. I am very thankful for the program because it gave me the opportunity to understand a lot of things and learn from them, as well as maybe, relate to my own story, and background that I come from, and appreciate the importance of the history of not only this one but any other in the world.

I want to thank all the people, committee, and organization members, as well as our college professors for sharing their stories and knowledge with us and teaching us things that matter a lot. 

Ulpanay Djoldasova - Class of 2025 
Biology Major, Economics Minor and Pre-Med Student
Beliefs Page

Ulpanay (she/her) is a student excited about learning and exploring new for herself. During her free time, Ulpanay loves playing piano and painting on canvas with acrylics. She identifies as Asian. She wants to become a doctor and work with people to maintain their health.