Kayleigh Karinen Shares Stories from Finnish America at the Finnish American Heritage Center

The Finlandia Foundation National promotes people sharing their Finnish heritage in America. Tonight the foundation will welcome Kayleigh Karinen to share her Stories From Finnish America project. Karinen’s project Stories From Finnish Americans aims to connect the past and present by creating a platform for contemporary Finnish Americans, Finnish enthusiasts, and their stories.

There are two components to the projects, that work to engage the community through social media content with platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. It also seeks to contribute to scholarly research on Finnish as a heritage language in the Upper Midwest.

The Finlandia Foundation supports Karinen’s research and was invited to present at the Workshop on Immigrant Languages in the Americas Academic Conference in 2023. During this evening’s presentation Karinen will share her journey to Finland, the inspiration behind the project,t and what insights she’s gained throughout her research. In 2017 Karinen, in an attempt to reconnect with her Finnish roots, traveled to the country on what turned into a seven-year adventure.

The stories from the Finnish America presentation with Kayleigh Karinen, supported by the Finlandia Foundation National will begin at 5:30 pm at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock.