America, thanks for the Opportunity!
Mission
Organization leaders at large U.S. corporations often find themselves under-equipped when attempting to effectively develop and lead 1st generation Americans and immigrants in their workforces. Honest cultural conversations are fraught with HR complexities. Coaching an immigrant is a daunting task; mental frameworks are frequently significantly out of alignment.
The path of least resistance is too often to avoid potential contention. Instead, the individual gets “repurposed” into a different team, and growth opportunities are missed.
First Generation Americans Foundation takes on this specific challenge. We recognize that parties at both ends of the conversation have much to learn from each other; and this can be accomplished in a cordial, honest and well-informed manner.
Our team is focused on facilitating this opportunity for growth by helping both top and mid-level management of American corporations establish a culture of resilience able to face the challenges of cultural complexity and benefit from them. Through coaching on effective communication and identification of development opportunities that specifically address the perceived and real challenges first-generation Americans and immigrants often face, we are on a mission to help leaders and employees to leverage the many strengths and perspectives they bring to the business and to society.
Objectives
- Facilitate success and effectiveness of immigrants within U.S. corporations
- Build a mentorship and education platform based on proven methods and approaches that increase effectiveness of first-generation Americans within large U.S. corporations. The mentorship and education program will be a volunteer-driven effort that will include not only fellowship groups and language training but also executive leadership training, building upon curricula of the world’s top MBA and STEM programs.
- Help both management and the employees understand their environment inwards and outwards. (Help leadership understand and create a positive environment for immigrant employees and help immigrants understand how to be understood in order to enhance their value and productivity)
- Coach the pipeline of new hires, onboarding; support immigrant groups to enhance their American experience and positive engagement (schools, universities)
- Lead members through their path within American corporations
- Enable durable understanding of the world by American corporate leadership for the long term
- Establish a well-founded and articulate perspective representing first-generation Americans within large American corporations
Values and principles
Grateful
Most of us first-generation Americans arrived from lands where corruption rules many aspects of life, where walls of “who you know” undercut the qualities of individual character, integrity, talent, abilities, and opportunity.
In many cases, America reached out and touched us directly. Whether it was a volunteer with Doctors without Frontiers, or a group of strangers that came to our distant land to set up a church mission, America showed us, across all its colors and ranks, how good people can be.
Many of us left homes, families, and familiarity behind as we adopted America. We chose to become Americans.
And we are infinitely grateful that America, in turn, adopted us.
Undivided
We come from all sorts of backgrounds.
These backgrounds are an incredible tapestry of experiences, cultures, histories, personal journeys, challenges and joys, losses and victories.
We are all here because we want a fair chance, for us, for our children, and for the world.
Determined
We are paying forward the goodness we see in America.
Through our first-hand experiences of often hair-raising struggles, we know how rare and valuable America is.
We are genuine in appreciation of what makes America unique, and determined in our choice to help it become even better.
Humble
Even though we know a lot about the world through our personal journeys, we also know that confidence without patience can lead to mistakes and misunderstandings, even if motivated by the best intentions.
We are determined to contribute to the culture that adopted us and receptive to this nation’s diverse points of view.
Oriented at Excellence
In our corporate lives, we believe we can help each other be more excellent if we work together.
We have very diverse backgrounds yet remarkably similar challenges can hold us back.
We will work hard to overcome the rough edges that can lead to misunderstandings and are willing to learn how to be understood, how to be effective both as leaders and as contributors, so that we maximize our contribution and our team’s potential and collaborate to deliver the greatest value we possibly can.
Core Service Communities
- Employees, and their organizations
- Businesses, their top and mid-level management
- Institutions instrumental and relevant to FGA mission
Membership
Open to all.
Volunteer Member: Pitch in to help with forming the non-profit, participate in organizing events and developing valuable contributions in pursuit of mutual understanding.
Sponsoring Member: Whether you can volunteer or not, as a Sponsoring Member you will be included on progress updates from the leadership team, virtual cocktail receptions once a quarter, and on a platform aimed at creating local chapters with fellow Sponsoring Members. Receive a quarterly member newsletter with FGA progress updates, articles of interest about achievements of first-generation Americans that highlight our mission, interviews profiling Sponsoring Members and member Q&A.
Plan and Future Milestones
Year 1 Calendar
- Thanksgiving – Launch of the non-profit, outreach to new home country and leaders instrumental in immigrant coaching, effectiveness
- Team establishment
- Initial organization structure
- Board/Advisory boards
- Volunteer recruitment
- Research and Survey
- Conduct interviews with first-generation Americans in various corporations.
- Conduct interviews with employers
- Expert/Academia recommendations and joint research projects
- Program development
- Develop program oriented towards U.S. corporate management on culture, diversity and inclusion.
- Develop program oriented towards U.S. corporations’ immigrant employees on communications and career advancement
- Develop community-oriented mentorships
- Education
- Develop modules of Immigrant/World history elements to be incorporated in U.S. school curricula.
- Collaborate with educators, school and government bodies for pilots
- Develop online based portal for parents and educators for Beta
- College immigrant orientation events for members of FGA
Year 2 Calendar
- Thanksgiving 2022: Inaugural Gala. U.S. corporations, cross-campus / cross-company outreach
- Membership drive, chapter drive oriented at U.S. corporations
- Implementation of the education trajectory
Donate
We appreciate your contribution. We promise to treat your funds with honesty, and to respond to our donors with transparency about investment in making America stronger by empowering understanding among and about first-generation Americans.
Terms and Conditions: First Generation Americans Foundation is a registered corporation with the Georgia Secretary of State's Office awaiting IRS approval of our nonprofit 501(c)3 status. IRS approval will render your donation tax-deductible; this is also retroactive. The Foundation will notify you of the status of the application once we are informed by the IRS; you may request a full refund if the application is unsuccessful.