Ladies and gentlemen, Good morning!

Today, I would like to share with you something that I will be living and breathing for the next two years. As some of you may know, I am about to change my major and my university. Next September, I will begin studying for a Master's degree in U.S. History at the University of Oregon. I was accepted into their program because of my interest in women's history and in the history of ethnic minorities. For the next two years, the history of ethnic minority women will be the most time and energy-consuming part of my life.

Exactly three years ago, I was finishing up my studies at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. During the spring semester, I had been taking a U.S. Women's History class. I think -- or at least I hope -- that everybody in their lifetime will take a class that makes them go WOW! For me, it was this class -- a class that was such an eye-opener. It made me and everybody else in class realize that all the history we had learned so far really had been HIS-story. For all of us in class, it was both shocking and thrilling to learn the other half of the story.

For this women's history class, we all had to write a paper and also give a presentation on some aspect of U.S. women's history. For some reason, I couldn't come up with an interesting topic. My professor remembered the conversation we had had earlier about the significant Finnish immigrant presence in the state of Oregon, and she suggested I write my paper on Finnish immigrant women in the United States. Little did she know -- little did I know -- that this project would spark an interest that would carry me to graduate school and, hopefully, even further than that.

Writing a paper on Finnish immigrant women was a lot easier said than done. Even though I was able to use the huge Portland State University library, finding books and other written material about Finnish women in the States was difficult. Fortunately, there was a Finnish lady working at Lewis & Clark College, and she told me that there was a Finnish church in Portland. So on one Sunday, I went to the church to meet some immigrants. I told them about my project, and the women there were interested in helping me out. I got several phone numbers, and during the next couple of weeks, I spent all my evenings on the phone interviewing the women for my paper.

These conversations made me realize two important things. One was the fact that the history of Finnish immigrant women was not to be found in books. These women WERE my books. The stories they told me were funny, sad, moving, tragic and inspiring. The very personal stories I recorded made me realize the other important thing: these women were the embodiment of Finnish sisu. First generation immigrants (meaning immigrants born abroad) endured incredible hardships. Finnish women are said to be strong, but I think the immigrant women demonstrated even more strength than usual. They had to cope in a foreign country, in a foreign culture, in a foreign language.

Still, many Finnish immigrant women succeeded, both in their personal lives and in the public sphere. Finnish women formed temperance societies, labor organizations, cooperatives; they set up schools and published newspapers and so on. The greatest example the Finnish women set for Americans was within the suffrage movement. Women in Finland had won the vote already in 1906, as the first women in Europe and the second in the world, so they were role models for American women.

I was also really impressed and touched by how FINNISH these women were. As one of my interviewees said: "I am much more of a Finn here than I ever was back home". The women, many of the married to Americans, were extremely proud of their heritage, and they had been, and still were, determined to pass that heritage to their children.

This one class that I happened to take opened a whole new world to me. It is funny how some things in life just happen. The women that I studied inspired me in ways they themselves certainly had no idea about. I hope they will continue to inspire me for the next two years. Writing a Master's thesis on this topic will require a lot of travelling and hours on the phone because it has to be done in the form of oral history. This is why I said back in the beginning that this project will be my life.

Still, I want to go back and write something meaningful and significant about immigrant women. Something that will add to the other half of the story.