Ali Estefam

Moving Away to Give Back

For her first 25 years, the only home Ali Estefam knew was a 23-story apartment building in São Paulo, Brazil. From swimming in the first-floor pool as a

John Rudoff

Manifesting the American Dream

Dollars would line the streets of America. It’s what all the Hollywood movies promised. Lazeni Koulibali believed he would stay in America for a short time,

Sankar Raman

Believe in Yourself and Go the Distance

Elizabeth Flores always knew that it was up to her to solve her own problems.  “I realized pretty early in high school that I wasn’t going to get out of […]

Sankar Raman

From Zim Kid to COVID-19 Advisor

When Bukhosi Dube recently took a big pay cut to work as a physician at the Multnomah County Health Department, his goal was to ultimately find work in public

Sankar Raman

Soñando más allá de las fronteras

“No tengo papeles.” Liliana Luna miró la oportunidad de ir a la universidad desvanecerse. El consejero de la preparatoria repentinamente abrió su cajón

Sankar Raman

Dreaming Beyond Borders

“I don’t have papers.”   With this admission, Liliana Luna saw her chances for college slip away. The high school counselor who was advising her suddenly gathered

Sankar Raman

Becoming His Own Role Model

After his older sister was badly burned by scalding water, Miguel Rodriguez’s mother, a nurse in Orizaba, Mexico, knew the young girl needed to be seen by medical

Sankar Raman

Education Triumphs Over Nationalism

On his first day of Second Grade in 1992, Flamur Vehapi arrived at his school to see soldiers barricading the entrance, declaring, “No more school for you.”

Sankar Raman

The Dawn of a New Life

Nawid  considers his arrival in the U.S. six months ago as the dawn of his life. He was born and brought up in the war-torn and dangerous Halmand Province in […]

Sankar Raman

Starting Anew, Shaping a Future

Born in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon in 1975, two-year-old Vu Nguyen experienced what seemed to him at the time “the end of the world.” He, his five months […]

Sankar Raman

Going Up North to Pastures New

Growing up on his great grandfather’s ranch in a small rural farming town outside of Morelia in Michoacán, Mexico, was a typical rustic childhood for the