Every few years, the Wittenberg University Choir passes through town as part of a tour through the northeastern United States. Andrea and I saw them perform Saturday night, March 6, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ardmore, Pa. I have seen the choir perform several times over the years, and every time I leave feeling blessed, spiritually uplifted and culturally enriched. The collective sounds of these young people’s voices are beautiful, a mosaic of harmony and acoustic perfection.

Wittenberg offered me the chance to become all I ever dreamed – to study molecular biology and help develop the great medicines of the future. My mother and brother had a hard time accepting my decision to leave and come to America, but the yearning for education was burning within me. Because of generous gifts like yours, I am the first in my family to ever attend college.

When I first met Merlyn Ortiz Salguero, a teenage Guatemalan girl, she seemed destined for a life selling bananas on a street corner in her village. I knew I needed to intervene. Merlyn was one of a growing number of extremely impoverished girls with great ability and a fierce hunger to study for a better future.

In July 1987 when my brother Eric was almost 13 and I was 14, he was struck by a car while riding his bike. It started to rain, my mom was cooking dinner. A stranger pulled into our driveway and ranreflect up to our front door yelling, “Do you have a child on a bike?” I remember every single little detail about that day – it’s interesting how our brains work when our basic “fight-or-flight” response is elevated.

Twice in my life I have flown to countries halfway around the world. The cultures have been foreign to me, the language, even the alphabet. But in both places I was given the most incredible children.

It was about 11 p.m. on Election Night when all the major news networks announced that long and hotly contested presidential election was over: Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, they said, would be the next president of the United States.

Upon graduating in 2001, my wife Erin and I moved to Atlanta to pursue our careers. Erin began work in public relations, and I was placed at Booker T. Washington High School as part of the Teach for America program.