Will there be a day when my dad forgets my name? It’s a question that haunts me. Three years ago, my dad traveled to Iran for the first time since escaping the 1979 revolution. After he returned, he sat me down to share the story of how he visited his childhood home, elementary school, and most importantly, his father. When they reunited, things were different. They were in a hospital, Grandpa unable to differentiate my dad from the doctors around...

Gheseh is the Farsi word for “story.” Growing up, I begged my mother for a gheseh at bedtime. Her stories weren’t fairytales like Cinderella. They were autobiographical: road trips to the Caspian Sea, dancing at bat mitzvahs, and soccer games with siblings. As I grew older, my mom opened up about darker memories. She explained how she was treated differently than her brothers: teachers dismissed her ambitions, men harassed her. And then, one attempted rape. In Iran, my mom...

Is journalism a dying industry? Skeptics cite Newsweek cutting print circulation, Forbes selling its majority stake, and many publications filing bankruptcy. But they’re too pessimistic. After all, great storytelling never dies. We just need to adapt to today’s technology. As Editor-In-Chief of my school's newspaper, I experienced this first-hand, salvaging our 57-year-old publication from district budget cuts. Leading a staff of 27 students, I revamped our print articles into multimedia stories that matter most to millennials. We built a...

As an Iranian Jew, I’m a walking contradiction. I’m the product of a region that opposes my religion, which is why my parents escaped during the 1979 Revolution. Many people I meet confess that they didn’t know Jews existed in Iran. In a bizarre way, that makes me smile. It makes me feel like I’m an ambassador against stereotypes. With each person I encounter, I’m able to share my story and show that even countries like...