Stories
DACA Entrepreneur Gives Back, Offers Free Web Training
Ramiro Rodriguez is an ivy league-educated entrepreneur whose startup, the live-streaming company Riivet, recently graduated from a tech accelerator program to a company with a dozen steady clients. He is also an undocumented immigrant who owes his success to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a 2012 policy that allows… Read More
Mexican Wife’s Rocky Road to Citizenship an ‘Eye-Opener’
“You should see my wife on the Fourth of July, decked out in red, white, and blue,” says Scott Rickles, a Georgia native and the co-owner of a successful language school in Carroll County. “She’s extremely patriotic and loves this country to her core.” His wife, Rocio, was an Assemblies… Read More
In Immigrant Faces, Holocaust Survivor Sees Her Own Family’s Past
Diane Portnoy was 3 when she passed through Ellis Island with her parents — Polish refugees who lost their families in the Holocaust. Now she runs The Immigrant Learning Center, a free language and skills training center in Malden, Massachusetts, for immigrants and refugees. Portnoy has taught English to 9,500… Read More
With DACA, a Young Woman is Able to Help Americans Start a Business
When Dalia Garcia was 4, her parents brought her across the Mexican border without immigration papers. Back home, they had struggled to find work and feared for their safety because gang violence had taken over their home city of Oaxaca. Life in America was not always easy, because Garcia and… Read More
Arkansas Accountant: Immigrants Pay A Lot Into Local Economies
As the owner of All Services Consulting in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Jacquelynn Cadena helps immigrant entrepreneurs run their businesses efficiently and profitably. She advises them on bookkeeping, insurance, and filing taxes — whatever clients need to best serve their customers and the local economy. With hundreds of clients since she… Read More
Visa Rules Discourage U.S. Development of App to Help the Blind
When 26-year-old computer scientist Oluwatosin Oluwadare invented EyeCYou, an app that uses sophisticated image-processing software to help the visually impaired, he thought it would be straightforward to start a company in the United States. But Oluwadare is a Nigerian, in the country to earn a PhD. “Being… Read More
Russian Immigrant Builds a School for Newcomers to Strengthen America
Andrey Dolbinin came to the United States from Russia as a college student in 1997. Now he is helping new arrivals adapt, while still maintaining ties to their culture. In 2003, he founded a private bilingual school called Slavic Christian Academy. “I saw the youngest students getting discouraged when they… Read More
Iranian Immigrant Builds Homes and Donates Millions in California’s Central Valley
In 1978, Darius Assemi emigrated from Iran to California, seeking an American education and better career opportunities. Today, the entrepreneur and CEO of Granville Homes, in California’s Central Valley, builds an average of 200 homes annually in the greater Fresno region and employs a staff of 80. Over the last… Read More
California Entrepreneur Has Immigrant Parents to Thank for His Civic Pride
During his college years, Heberto M. Sanchez knew fellow students who were forced to sleep in their cars. “They had nowhere else to go,” he says. “They were in college and couldn’t afford an apartment. Still, they wanted to succeed.” This struck a chord with Sanchez. His parents were paying… Read More
Lebanese Family Creates American Entrepreneurs
Lebanese-American entrepreneur Richard Kabbany was a business major at California State University, Fullerton when he came up with the concept for his first business. “At the time, there was a huge push for green, renewable energy, and I thought, Well, if there’s a push for it and it makes financial… Read More
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