Embrace All Your Cultures
It was her teachers, violinist Inés Voglar says, who gave her the courage to do what she loved the most and to trust that success would follow.
Category: Portland
Designing a Better Future
“After the travel ban and after Trump, I had the hard feeling — I felt ignored and voiceless,” says Shiva Farrohki. “I was thinking, how can we change
Live, Love, and Juggle
Every summer morning as a child, Ramazan Yiğit — Rama — would rise before the sun in order to shepherd his family’s livestock until sundown
We Are an Asset to Our Society
It’s a long way from Mexico City to the Revolución Coffee House in Portland, Oregon. But Maria Garcia — business owner, mother, activist, advocate —
When A Dream is Born
Walking down the halls of his middle school, Wilson Nitunga was eating an apple. The bell rang, and students around him rushed to class. A teacher approached
Making Her Way in Art and the World
Surrounded by shimmering glass beads, a rainbow of colored fragments, and vibrant glass masterpieces in her studio-gallery, Kurumi Conley confesses,
A Heart in the Right Place
Ever since grade school, Abel Getachew has known what he wanted to do with his life—heart surgery for those in need. “When I was in elementary school,
Fighting for a Better Life
Life in calm Clackamas, Oregon, where Hamada Haaji Chamada lives with his family is very different from the war-torn city of Mogadishu, Somalia,
A Resilient Daughter of the Arab Spring
When Rama Yousef was born in the Syrian capital of Damascus in 1999, her father cursed and cried tears of frustration. She was his fourth child and not the son […]
Come Up and Speak Up
When Hameda Dil Mohamed, 21, spoke in Pioneer Square last September at a rally in support of Rohingya refugees she hoped
She is a Girl-Power Grandma
When Michael, age 9, was asked to identify the girl-power women in his life, his first choice was his surrogate grandmother. Vera Moroz, 76, was an immigrant
Building a Home and a New Life
Neither Govinda nor Januka ever expected to own a house. Govinda Dhimal and his wife Januka Bokhrel both grew up in refugee camps in Nepal.
I Had to Earn my Way
Dr. Rahel Nardos’ credentials as an M.D. from Yale are not enough for some people, who question her status as a medical professional
Broken Glass to Breakout Senior
In 2013, when a bomb exploded and shattered all the windows of 15-year-old Sara Mohamed’s classroom in Damascus, Syria, she better understood
Undocumented and Unafraid
When Efrain first sauntered into his AP literature class in high school, something triggered him: He noticed that he was the only student of color in the room.