Ruben King-Shaw Jr. is proud to be Panamanian—and that doesn’t make him any less proud to be American.

Every single workday, José Pacheco sees the future. As the codirector of the master of engineering degree in advanced manufacturing and design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pacheco doesn’t have to look far to see the inception of tomorrow’s innovations.

The late 1970s were the cowboy days for Silicon Valley. White men dominated the tech industry, but one young Latina named Isaura Gaeta, a 1982 Stanford University graduate with a master’s degree in engineering, worked her way into the field.

If you’re averse to it, constant change can feel chaotic. But if you’re hardwired for it, perpetual transformation is an opportunity.

Soaring thousands of feet into the air can teach you something about taking a risk. Javier Olivan would say his fearless approach to life began in the mountains of his tiny Spanish town, where he paraglided as a kid.

It was Christmastime in 1987, and Fidel Vargas was stranded. The oldest of eight children from Baldwin Park, California, was a freshman at Harvard University, and he had no way to get home from Boston, Massachusetts.

Imagine committing yourself to a discipline for seven years. Imagine investing time, money, and intellectual energy in a plan for your future.

Tom Castro didn’t grow up dreaming of a career in radio. “I wasn’t one of those kids who always had a microphone in his hand,” he says.

Talita Erickson doesn’t see limits. She’s a business school graduate who is fluent in three languages, can practice law in both the United States and Brazil, and holds two executive positions at an international corporation.

Years ago, Magda Yrizarry shuffled through the mail sent to her Cornell University address.

At the beginning of his career, after completing his master’s degree in business at Harvard University, Gerardo “Gerry” Lopez discussed job possibilities with Procter & Gamble, where he had interned over the summer.

Whether meeting with clients or with a nonprofit’s board of directors, Claudia Marmolejo always has an eye on helping others.

If knowledge is power, then technology is a sword students can use to seize it in a coup. That’s the sense one gets when talking to Dr. Pablo Molina, chief information officer of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), a trade association that upholds and advances excellence in legal education.

Charles Garcia knows with absolute certainty his purpose in life: to inspire and connect others to achieve extraordinary things.

It’s not hard to find the common thread in Eliana Murillo’s career. From her days at Harvard University to her time at Google, she’s looked to create and identify opportunities for underrepresented people and groups.

It was never apparent to José Ramón González that growing up in a big family was an asset—until he led a legal department through a restructuring.

When a child grows up as a political refugee, democracy is not an abstraction—it’s personal. At three years old, Marta Tellado’s family arrived in the United States from Cuba.

When Priscilla Almodovar first set eyes on Capitol Park Historic District in Detroit, Michigan, five years ago, her initial impressions of the historic Motor City neighborhood were far from positive.

In the 1970s, New York’s South Bronx neighborhood was the urban equivalent of the Wild West. Not the romantic interpretation seen in movies, defined by chaps and lassoes, but the historical one: loose, lawless, and lethal.

He calls them his “angels along the way.” It’s a strong statement, to be sure, but it’s not an empty platitude.

It was a moment that marked a turning point for an entire family. Marcelo Prado stood at São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, suitcase in hand, and said goodbye to friends and family who had gathered to see him off.

Being good at something doesn’t always equate to passion.” That’s a lesson Bernadette Aulestia learned when she was just twenty-three years old.

It was the 1960s, and a young teacher stood in a small Texas schoolroom in front of a group of third graders.

Indrani Franchini needs more room on her business card. This year, Hess Corporation’s vice president and chief compliance officer added assistant corporate secretary to her title.

When Jonathan Avila began his legal career at CBS in 1992, the Harvard Law School graduate was thrown into the world of privacy and security.