TEDx Oct. 2023 Why Immigrants Inspire Hope

When I was selected to do a TEDx talk in October 2023, I knew what I wanted to share, my “Idea Worth Spreading”. It was that when each of us helps a work-authorized immigrant be successful in the United States, it benefits US as much as it benefits THEM.

Our country needs medical workers, STEM graduates to work in scientific fields and companies, entrepreneurs to start businesses and refugees to add to our economy and neighborhood vitality. Foreign-born people who come here for school, to join a family or to escape persecution will bring these assets to our communities. And when each of us makes a bit of a welcoming effort to help, that accelerates the positive outcomes for each of us.

My family came to the United States in the mid-1850’s, to escape a war and build a new life. On my father’s side they started a distillery that did not do very well. Yet, on my mother’s side they started a bakery that lasted for generations. I feel their stories and dreams when I work with international people. These newcomers inspire hope within me that our country will be even better in the future.