Tamara Nall wasn’t like other 12-year-olds. She did well in school, enjoyed playing with the other kids in the neighborhood, and sometimes argued with her siste...
Although Katie spent most of her childhood in Arizona with her father and stepmother, she was born in the DC area where her mother and maternal family remained....
In high school, Guy O’Brien started DJing to earn some extra cash. Money was tight, and he knew his mom needed him to help make ends meet where he could. As he ...
Sam Pappas was born to two Greek immigrant parents and was raised with a respect for the wisdom of the ancient Greek world. In the birthplace of modern medicine...
To her classmates in high school, LaJuanna Russell seemed to have it all. She was pretty, popular, and academically successful. She was also a dancer and was ca...
As a girl growing up in Haiti, Guylaine Saint Juste lacked for nothing. She was surrounded by a strong family and community in Port au Prince. She remembers fee...
Elizabeth Shea’s parents always taught her independence from the time she was a little girl.
When she was 12, Elizabeth’s family left Vermont to move to Oreg...
Jennifer Siciliano didn’t have any idea what she’d like to be when she left for college at Marymount University in Virginia. Both of her parents were educators,...
Julie Simmons never planned to start her own business. After years of hard work, things were falling into place for her professionally. She was leaving a stable...
Sunny Singh’s father was granted asylum in the U.S. in 1988, a few years after religious riots threw parts of India into chaos, parts that were traditionally pe...
In early 2018, Dondi Strong was at work when news of the Matt Lauer sexual harassment scandal broke. In that moment, an idea struck her: “What if there was a re...
In college, Tracy Tyler wasn’t certain what she wanted to do yet, but she knew she wanted to graduate in four years. She became a business major and after gradu...
Putting on a play is a complex production, weaving together the diverse elements of lighting, scenery, costumes, sound, script and talent to tell a complete sto...
Growing up, Fred Westerlund didn’t dream about going to West Point. Although his grandfathers had served in the military, he never thought seriously about joini...
In May of 2012, Adham Yusupov had a map of his future. He’d just graduated from George Mason University, and in April he’d taken the LSAT and scored a 162. The ...
