When Russian invaded Ukraine in February, I watched my friend, Tatiana Terdal, jump to the aid of fellow Ukrainian Americans, organizing rallies and fundraisers and educating the public on social media. I was excited about telling her story for The Immigrant Story.
To write this piece, I attended a moving rally organized by Terdal. Then, during our interview, which took …
The star student was in trouble.
Michael Taylor was a sophomore at an elite Jamaican high school, Campion College, which had welcomed him as a freshman after he scored in the top one percent on an entrance exam, earning a coveted government scholarship.
He had a reputation for being a math whiz.
But one day during the Jamaican equivalent of …
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 employers.
No, after coming to America, the native of Bangladesh wanted more than simply working each day to pay his bills.
“I wanted to be a citizen of the community,” he says.
And he …
“I hope there is a pathway to citizenship that gives us finally our freedom to live our lives the way we choose,” says Azucena Javier-Marquez, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient.
“I’m hoping that they finally stop playing with our lives.”
Read the story here:
In my latest piece for The Immigrant Story, I profile a young man from Zimbabwe who came to the US with a dream of going to college and making a difference in others’ lives. Now he’s realizing his dream as a physician in Portland and a COVID-19 Advisor for the Oregon Health Authority.
When Bukhosi Dube recently took a big …
By Lisa Cohn
My latest piece for The Immigrant Story is about Xiomara Torres, an inspiring woman who entered the US as an undocumented immigrant and, after a long journey that took her to the Oregon foster care system, became a Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge. It was an honor to meet Torres and listen to her story…I had to …
I began writing for The immigrant Story about a year ago after attending one of the nonprofit’s first exhibits, which paired profiles of immigrants and refugees with beautiful photos by Sankar Raman, founder of The Immigrant Story.
In the past year, The Immigrant Story’s audience has grown substantially. Stories, released every Saturday, attract up to 50,000 reads per piece. Last …
Growing up in Kyiv, Ukraine with a mathematician father and physicist mother, Tetyana Odarich was expected to follow in her dad’s footsteps. “Math was Her Highness in our household,” says the outspoken and energetic resident of Vancouver, Washington.
Odarich enrolled in a math program at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute but was soon diverted during an unusual date with her boyfriend, a …
Growing up in Nigeria, Onyeka Azike wasn’t aware of others’ skin color or accent. When she won a coveted scholarship to attend college in the U.S., she was surprised, confused and disappointed that Americans were so preoccupied with the way she spoke English — her native language — and the color of her skin. How far would she go
A portrait of an Iraqi refugee’s family propelled award-winning photographer Jim Lommasson on a mission: to ensure that Americans hear the stories of Iraqi and Syrian refugees and understand what it feels like to flee one’s homeland.
When Lommasson had his aha! moment, he was working on a book project, “Exit Wounds: Soldiers’ Stories – Life After Iraq and Afghanistan,” …