Katja Brose

I decided to donate my Life of Service gift to Refugee and Immigrant Transitions, a Bay Area organization which has been providing free education, family engagement, employment training and general support for refugee families since 1982. I decided to support RIT, because support for refugees and immigration is a very personal issue for me. I am giving this support in memory of my parents, who as children, 75 years ago, in another part of the world in the wake of war, were refugees. With their families, they fled their homes for safer places, not knowing what the future would hold. They survived by the kindness of strangers, personal perseverance, and luck. I am also giving this gift because I, too, am an immigrant. We moved to the US from Germany when I was five, under very different circumstances, not fleeing a war but for my Dad’s job. I remember starting kindergarten not understanding English, with everything new and unfamiliar, feeling lost and different. And in many ways, that feeling of being the “other” and being an outsider stayed with me. I also remember that within a few years of arriving in the US, while my parents were themselves still new immigrants finding their way, they sponsored a Vietnamese refugee family through our church—a family who was fleeing a different war, in a very different part of the world, yet with a shared bond and understanding. My Mom and Dad believed in paying their good fortune forward. I am giving this gift to support Refugee and Immigrant Transitions, in memory of my Mom and Dad, to keep this family tradition going. Until there is a world where there are no wars and no one is forced to leave their home to secure a better life for themselves and their families, I hope that we can open our minds and hearts to helping others who make the difficult journey from a home lost to a new home found.

Until there is a world where there are no wars and no one is forced to leave their home to secure a better life for themselves and their families, I hope that we can open our minds and hearts to helping others who make the difficult journey from a home lost to a new home found.

I came to CZI inspired by the vision of an organization that aspires not only to accelerate progress in science to benefit the world, but also to change the culture of science to be more open, innovative and democratic.