Alfred H. Peet (March 10, 1920 – August 29, 2007) was a Dutch-American entrepreneur and the founder of Peet's Coffee & Tea in Berkeley, California, in 1966. He is most famous for introducing custom coffee roasting to the United States.
Los Angeles—Juan Hernandez-Campos, an undocumented engineering student, who completed his first semester at Harvard University, has been awarded a $50,000 per year scholarship to complete his studies at the ivy league school, reports Univison.com. Hernandez-Campos, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, crossed the border nine years ago to be with his father, who works as a bricklayer in Los Angeles. Hernandez-Campos said that he wanted to be just like his father, who wanted him to be something greater.
Last year, while applying to universities, Hernandez- Campos learned that there are universities and private foundations that award scholarships to distinguished students, regardless of their immigration status. He was accepted at 15 universities, seven 7 of which offered him full scholarships. While in Los Angeles, Hernandez- Campos was in “After School All Stars,” a national after school educational and recreational program designed to keep youth out of trouble. He is the first from the program to go on to Harvard.
Bette Bao Lord (November 3, 1938) is a Chinese American writer and civic activist for human rights and democracy.
She was born in Shanghai, China. With her mother and father, Dora and Sandys Bao, she came to the United States at the age of eight when her father, a British-trained engineer, was sent there in 1946 by the Chinese government to purchase equipment. In 1949 Bette Bao Lord and her family were stranded in the United States when Mao Zedong and his communist rebels won the civil war in China. Bette Bao Lord has written eloquently about her childhood experiences as a Chinese immigrant in the post-World War II United States in her autobiographical children's book In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. In this book she describes her efforts to learn English and to become accepted by her classmates and how she succeeds with the help of baseball and Jackie Robinson.
Bette Bao Lord is a distinguished international best-selling novelist and writer, and served as chair of the Board of Trustees of Freedom House.
Farouk Shami is a Palestinian-American businessman from Ramallah, West Bank, who now lives in Houston, Texas, where he runs the hair-care and spa products company, Farouk Systems.
In 2009, Shami ran in the 2010 Texas gubernatorial election but he lost in Democratic primary.
Shami has worked for decades in the field of hair-care product development, and attended cosmetology school in Arkansas. He invented the first ammonia-free hair color, after developing an allergy to the chemical that initially led doctors to encourage him to leave his profession.
His company, the Houston-based Farouk Systems, currently employs 2,000 people, and exports its line of hair and skin care products under the BioSilk, SunGlitz and Cationic Hydration Interlink (CHI) brands to over 50 countries worldwide. On July 27, 2009 Farouk Systems announced they will be opening a new plant in Houston that will employ approximately 5,000 people.
Rear Adm. José Betancourt is a no-nonsense military man.
The sharp, slim 57-year-old rear admiral commanded a destroyer during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the highlight of his career.
But Betancourt, who officially retires Saturday from a 30-plus-year Navy career, does have a weak side: sweet strawberries.
His back hurts just thinking of them, and his demeanor changes when he talks about them. For several summers, he picked strawberries in Northern California, along with his parents and siblings.
For good or bad, "you never forget your culture or where you came from," said the Mexico-born officer, who is still figuring out where retirement will take him.
Beah (born on November 23, 1980 in Mattru Jong, Bonthe District, Sierra Leone) is a former Sierra Leonean child soldier and the author of the published memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.
...
While at college in Oberlin, Beah pursued advocacy work against the abuse of children during wartime. He spoke at the UN and met with leaders including Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela.
Beah currently works for the Human Rights Watch Children’s Division Advisory Committee, lives in Brooklyn, and is considering attending graduate school.
He has served as the keynote speaker for several events, including the Global Young Leaders Conference 2007 (July 15–26 session), Oberlin College's 175th convocation ceremony, and the 2008 College Conference in Montreat, North Carolina.
