The course of my life was determined by the flip of a coin. My father came to this county in the 1930’s with papers that were “imperfect.” During World War II, he was given a choice between being deported or joining the U.S. Army. 

The course of my life was determined by the flip of a coin.

My father came to this county in the 1930’s with papers that were “imperfect.” During World War II, he was given a choice between being deported or joining the U.S. Army. He couldn’t decide what to do, so he asked my cousin, Carlitos, to flip a penny. The penny came up a particular way and he went to war.

A generation later, I am a full professor at the University of Southern California.

It’s a great story—an American story of generational progress. But it’s a story that was only made possible by a clear path to legalization and subsequent support for immigrant progress. Coming back from the war, there was a G.I. bill that made it possible for my father to buy a house and acquire a trade. As I was growing up, public investment in education provided me with the basics and more. By the time I applied to college, Affirmative Action had been established, leading schools to take a chance on applicants like me who did not fit their typical student profile.

Why do I do what I do? Because our fates should be determined by our skills, not the toss of a coin, because immigrants enrich this country and our diversity is our strength, because the American experiment should be about justice not “just us.” There will always be another frontier for inclusion—the Dream Act being one that could give so many people the opportunity to do what my father and his family did—but widening the circle of America should be our guiding light.

This essay and portrait is part of a community-art and leadership project called “wdydwyd?” Tony Deifell (KNLP-16) invited his colleagues in the Kellogg Fellowship to reflect on what motivates them to follow their personal and professional paths by answering the question, “Why do you do what you do?”


“wdydwyd?” has reached over 1.5 million people worldwide and it has been used for team-building at Google, Twitter, many colleges and universities, nonprofits and K-12 classrooms. And, according to Wired Magazine, “In Silicon Valley, that question has been the hottest team-building meme since Outward Bound – and it’s spreading.” For more information: http://wdydwyd.com/leadership.


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