When I first arrived in the country, I really didn't speak much of the language. I knew two words coming here, and they were 'Hello' and 'Shut up.'

When I was coming to this country, I heard about its promises.

My family called me the 'why kid' growing up. I always needed to know why something is happening, why I had to do something, why whatever.

Hope will be found by understanding that diversity is the essence of the American Dream and why we need each other to fulfill it.

One of my favorite times of year is around Christmas when my entire family gets together and we make tamales together. It's a full two-day event, and we create an assembly line. It's awesome because everyone has his or her own part in making the dish. It's so much fun.

If my career detour from special education to singing has done one thing, it has afforded me the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.

Because I don't think it's very healthy to hold people to idealized views. I think that's a certain stage in life, something kids do. You have to go through that idealistic phase with your parents, but at a certain point, you need to see people as just people.

There's a nastiness to conversations about U.S. education reform, which are characterized by the kind of stark taking-of-sides that's usually reserved for debates over guns or abortion rights.