John Rudoff

A Key To The American Dream

“I was pregnant when the U.S. invaded,” recalls Murooj Alshawi. “When I heard the bombs, I started shaking and didn’t even feel my daughter in my stomach.  

John Rudoff

Weaving a New Life into a New City

When Francisco Bautista married, his father gave him the family’s 250-pound wooden foot-pedal loom. When he left Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico for the U.S.

John Rudoff

Bounding Into the Unknown

Wambui Machua stood in front of a classroom of eager students ready to learn how to cook traditional Kenyan dishes.  “I had never taught anything!”

Ford Fischer

Always Ready to Answer the Call

When Alla Shapiro answered the phone early one Saturday morning, her father was on the line, warning of a rumor he had heard from a U.S. radio station. 

Sankar Raman

Ready to Make Something Better

Kapila Narayanan Chandramouli was just a third grader when he travelled to Chennai, India, to learn how to craft a veena, a traditional string instrument,

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,

John Rudoff

Conquering a Life of Uncertainty

Daniel Franco Núñez’s earliest memory is being smuggled across the border into the US in his grandfather’s arms. Núñez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico In 1985.

John Rudoff

Helping Others as a Lifelong Mission

Just days after the terrorist attacks on New York City of Sept. 11, 2001, Hazar Jaber’s landlord gave her one week to leave the Boston apartment

Sankar Raman

A Rabbi After All: Fulfilling a Calling

By the time he was seven, Eliezer Schwartz had already learned that if he ran fast enough and threw a lot of stones, he could protect himself from the schoolyard […]

John Rudoff

Sparking the Fires of Knowledge

When he listens to African music, Zanda Pemba feels refreshed in his love for the art form. He connects with the raw instrumentals whenever he tires of 

Sankar Raman

Becoming a Citizen of the Community

It wasn’t enough for Prasenjit Tito Chowdhury to enroll in a prestigious U.S. engineering program, then land a job at Intel, one of Oregon’s most well-known

John Rudoff

Keep Knocking on Doors

Even while battling kidney disease and working at McDonalds to pay her way through college, Marissa de los Angeles Roxinny Salgado Garcia

Amani

Turning Pain Into Ambition

Lisa Amani is a driven 18-year-old. This fall, she will start her first year at University of Oregon, with $130,000 worth of scholarships.

Sankar Raman

Tending a Garden and Her Dreams

Salsabel Al Masri’s garden was the center of her world. She and her five brothers spent every day after school chasing each other among the olive, orange, apple,