Warren Van Nort is a rising junior at duPont Manual High School and a National Honor Society (NHS) candidate. He is running a personal needs drive to benefit people who turn to the Sonny & Janet Meyer Food Pantry at JFCS, not only for food but also for toiletries and other essentials. Here’s what Warren shared about his project. I …
It’s not easy for a refugee to resettle in the U.S. The process requires patience, flexibility and a will to succeed. These difficulties intensify when the new American was a professional in their country of origin or the secondary country they fled to on their path to the U.S. Refugee professionals must learn a new language and new systems, and …
Born in Antwerp, Belgium, Fred Gross was a toddler when Nazi Germany began targeting the Jews in Europe. His family escaped the genocide of millions of Jews, and they found freedom on the Norfolk, Virginia, docks in 1946. Years later while on a trip to Europe in 1984, Fred’s wife, Carolyn, started questioning family members and began to piece together …
Surekha Kulkarni is a social entrepreneur, jewelry designer and founder and program director of Beaded Treasures Project. When Surekha moved from India to Louisville in 1986, she did so to help her son Nikhil, who has dyslexia and the schools in India were not able to make the needed accommodations. “We felt like we had no choice and so we …
Keisha Deonarine was born in Trinidad, stating “our ancestry is Indian, and we have a lot of Indian culture, but we are West Indian or Caribbean Indian. as well.” Her family moved to Brooklyn, NY, when she was 3 years old, and then to Fort Lauderdale, FL, when her parents “realized that there’s a cold winter [in New York].” She …
James Racine, known to most as Maestro J, grew up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Both of his parents were musicians and educators; his father, a flutist/composer/conductor, and his mother, an educator/violinist. Beginning at the age of 4, Maestro J learned to play the violin, mostly by ear, and later also learned to play the piano and flute. As a child, scholarships …
Purna Veer grew up the son of a farmer near Hyderabad, located in southern India. He moved to the United States in 1997 “with a single suitcase.” Raised as a Renaissance man, Veer is a nationally recognized entrepreneur & business leader at the helm of V-Soft Consulting Group Inc., a software company started in 1997 & is one of the …
After working in retail for her whole life, Maggie Nelson knew that she needed a change. “I didn’t like retail anymore, and I got to a point where I also knew I couldn’t survive making that kind of money. A month after I finished working with a JFCS career counselor I put in an application for my current job at …
When life takes an unexpected turn for the worst, are you prepared? Unexpected car repairs. Medical bills for a sick or injured family member. A leak in your basement you only discover during one of those intense Louisville spring showers! These are just a few examples when $300 in emergency savings could go a long way in helping overcome unplanned …
More than 1 million school children become homeless every year. When children are homeless, the stress, trauma, and academic disruptions lead to problems in school. As a school teacher, Barbara Siemer saw how harmful homelessness and school instability were to students and classrooms. These experiences inspired Barbara and Al Siemer to develop a program with the intention of preventing family …
