States of America

As a young, single mother of three, Joyce Thomas moved from St. Vincent to the United States after reading a newspaper ad for housekeeping jobs. She e...

Doug is in his freshman year at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A native Californian, he is learning to adapt to the east coast as he...

Serving a life sentence at 17-years-old, Chris Wilson sat down and wrote out what he called his “master plan” of all the things he believed he could d...

Lisa Hansen grew up in Kentucky and says she has the accent to prove it. Eleven years ago, she moved to New Hampshire and planted roots with her famil...

As a young quadriplegic law school graduate, living in a location with strong public transportation accessibility options was a must for Daniel Leslie...

Karen Eberle-McCarthy loves the Hudson River Valley community she has lived in for many years. A passionate member of this New York neighborhood, she...

Growing up in a shack in the Jim Crow South, Paul Gunter dreamed of someday owning his own home. Although his dream came true at the age of 20, he soo...

A native of Rhode Island, Jack Welch has called the Ocean State his home for 82 years. The former teacher and principal is now a Meals on Wheels volun...

Growing up in a military family, Kelly Ault lived in twelve different states as a child. After college she was anxious to put roots down and chose a r...

Born and bred Hoosier Randy Evans explains the value he places on his sense of belonging including his connection to those that have gone before. From...

Thirteen years ago, after finishing college in Minnesota, returning home to Texas, and then volunteering in Mexico, Nathan Tolzmann felt adrift. He se...

Nancy 3. Hoffman curates the world's only Umbrella Cover Museum on an island off the coast of Maine. Here, Nancy embraces a community that welcomes ec...

Sarah Smith's ancestors helped found the state of Missouri, so she has always felt strong roots connecting her to the land that was once home to front...

Since apprenticing for a retired fiddler after college, Beth Rotto has grown into a cultural staple within her community in Iowa. She works at the Co-...

Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Xong Xiong moved to Wisconsin after her family couldn't return to Laos following the Vietnam War. She grew up as p...

Living on an island in the Mississippi River has always drawn Kathy Christenson to seek inspiration and peace from its banks. Despite thinking adultho...

I-Shüan Warr grew up with a unique name in a multicultural family in a mostly white Tennessee suburb. Her mom is from Taiwan, her dad is from Californ...

Though Hanna Sizemore grew up wandering the mountains of West Virginia, her passion for understanding a larger universe took her to Silicon Valley, NA...

Clay Greenland's desire to help others as a paramedic drove his life but his son's suicide prompted a retreat from Tennessee to a remote corner of the...

Dereck Higgins has vivid memories of being harassed and attacked as a child. As an adult, he has managed the isolation and suspicion he is dealt by hi...

It was the past that brought Dave Varricchio to present-day Montana. Over the past 20 years, paleontology work in Big Sky Country’s wilderness has pro...

Mohinder Sangha moved to Northwest Washington in 1983, becoming the first Sikh person to start berry farming in the region. Since then Mohinder's farm...

Mexico-born Evaristo Mireles moved to Idaho decades ago as a teenager searching for a job. He has worked long hours with local farmers and raised his...

People come to Jackson, Wyoming for many different reasons: for Sven Taow, it was the promise of a high-paying summer job. He didn't find riches but S...

Daniel Shellabarger lives in a cave in the breathtaking canyons outside Utah's Arches National Park. A middle-aged former Peace Corps volunteer and so...

Chuck White and his family narrowly survived an EF5 tornado, escaping their house minutes before it, and his Oklahoma neighborhood, were leveled. Dete...

Floyd Ashley is a retired educator who has spent his life dedicated to the Navajo people. During his years as an activist, teacher and community leade...

LaVona Evans was born in 1912 on the same day Arizona became a state. Naturally, she’s felt that her own identity has always been tied to her state. B...

Patricia Lei Murray is a passionate advocate for preserving and sharing the culture of Hawai'i, her native island home. She is a master quilter, threa...