Stepping out of the Shadows
Even as a small child, Brenda knew that, to keep her family safe, she must not be noticed. As the child of undocumented immigrants from Mexico, she lived in a […]
Tag: American Story
“Camping” at a U.S. Concentration Camp
Tough new rules from the Trump administration produced graphic photos of children torn from their immigrant families and housed in detention centers
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 […]
Planes, Trains, Ships – and Physics
As a school boy in Poona, India, Anant Ramdas dreamed of becoming a professor. Dr. Ramdas’ father was a physicist, and he encouraged his son to study under his
Come Up and Speak Up
Wearing a crisp business suit and foregoing the traditional Muslim hijab, Hameda Dil Mohamed, 21, spoke last September at a rally in Portland’s Pioneer
When the President Was Shot
She was a young assistant professor of medicine who had changed her specialty from surgery to anesthesiology when she moved from Connecticut to
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.
Reveling in Koto in the Pacific NW
“I’m Japanese — how come I didn’t know this music?” That’s what Masumi Timson thought as she sat captivated by her first koto concert.
Desert to Oregon, a Paintbrush in Hand
Hussein Al-Baiaty was about as far away as anyone could be when terrorists crashed two airplanes into New York’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
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
Woman Without a Country
By the time Eman Abbas and her two sons made it to the United States in 2015, her Iraqi heritage had cost her admission to her dream school, a fair-paying […]
I am Here, and I am Not Sorry
“I will never be seen as an American. I don’t even know what being an American looks like. Is it being lighter? Is it having my hair out? Or is […]
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.