Two history undergraduates are helping Holocaust survivor Dr. William Gingold create a Museum of Tolerance in Champaign-Urbana. The museum hopes to educate guests about the oppression and prejudice people across the world have suffered and promote tolerance and acceptance of different cultures. The museum will have rotating exhibits and be a community space where people can host events.
The project is still in the early stages—Emily Langlois, a senior history and communications major, and Tom Nguyen, a history major and political science minor, are helping with brainstorming, research, and outreach. Gingold hopes to open the museum within the next five years and is currently looking for a location.
For Nguyen, the project was a chance to do something meaningful. Originally from Vietnam, he connected with Gingold's story as a fellow immigrant, and the project's mission to promote tolerance.
“After eight months of working with Dr. G, it made me sit back and look around me at the suffering and the challenges many people are facing, especially the immigrant groups who are just like me," Nguyen said. "I learned about tolerance that way, by resonating with my own experience and with my communities to help me understand that we're facing challenges. And as we learn, how do we make it better for the next generation? That is the most important thing.”
Langlois said she has always been interested in learning more about the Holocaust and got involved thinking it would be a rare opportunity to learn about it from someone who experienced it first-hand.
Born in Poland in 1939 just days after the Nazi invasion, Gingold spent his early childhood in the Warsaw Ghetto. After their second escape attempt, he and his family were deported to Siberia via cattle cars and lived in displacement camps in Kazakhstan and Germany until they emigrated to the United States in 1951.
Before he retired, Gingold was a clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He now gives frequent presentations to community groups to share his family's story. In 2025, he worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Champaign-Urbana Jewish Federation, and the Holocaust Education Center, to bring the “Courage to Remember” exhibit to Marketplace Mall in Champaign-Urbana, which educated visitors about the Holocaust.
The project has been a chance for Nguyen and Langlois to grow their skills in building partnerships, both with the groups they're reaching out to, and with each other.
“We've had a lot of fun. It's been a blast," said Langlois. "We've done a really good job at splitting up the work into our individual strengths. Tom is really, really good at research. He's got all the organizational skills ... I spend a lot of time talking to the community and making connections for Dr. G and finding people for him to work with in the future."
Langlois is also working with Illini Hillel to build a website for the project, which has been an opportunity to step outside of her comfort zone.
“I've definitely grown in what I'd be open to doing in the future because of this internship ... It made me comfortable with things that used to be uncomfortable," said Langlois.
The relationship they've formed with Gingold has been a key part of their experience. His passion for his projects has inspired them to approach their lives with courage and tenacity.
"He didn't know any English when he came here in eighth grade, all the odds were really against him. And he graduated with two diplomas and got five degrees. And it really teaches me if you want it enough you'll put in the work," Langlois said.
Nguyen plans to graduate this December and attend law school but hopes to contribute his legal skills to the project after he graduates. After she graduates in May 2027, Langlois plans to pursue a career in school administration and continue working with Dr. Gingold.
"It's doing good for the people of an area I really care about. And I'm going to keep doing it literally until he says, we don't need you anymore, which hopefully is never," she said.