Editor’s note: “My Story” is where business executives share their personal and professional backgrounds and journeys that have made them who they are, in their own candid words, from the challenges of confronting stereotypes to the glory in overcoming them. Amid calls for racial justice, we can only make real change with greater awareness and understanding — and the ability to learn from each other’s experiences. Read their past pieces for this series.
When I was growing up in Zanjan, an Iranian town northwest of the capital of Tehran, I saw myself as a budding engineer. My parents supported me on this path, and I studied electrical engineering in college. But fate had different plans in store. By the time I’d completed my second year, the fervor that was to become known as the Iranian Revolution was boiling to the surface. My family sent me to the United States to further my education.
On June 20, 1979, I arrived in D.C. and enrolled at George Washington University. I confronted…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
