There are so many factors that affect how our lives turn out, but one of the most interesting is how our backgrounds give us unique strengths and perspectives that affect who we are as adults. We asked rising stars from the community to tell us about their background and upbringing and how they feel it’s impacted who they are today.

Badmon Zae | Rapper

I am from Houston, TX and my background and upbringing are the canvas that I put into my music. Everything good or bad is an experience I draw from. Not only musically but in daily life as well. All the values I learned growing up are still with me today. Read more>>

Kimberly Jesicka | Kimberly Jesicka makes lifetime presidential achievement award

I grew up in Springfield Massachusetts, which is in western aspect of Massachusetts closer to Hartford Connecticut. As a little girl, I experience an obscene of anbnormal amount of sexual assault, violence, and abuse on every level and layer of a child that is in there early years of development. When I look back at my life, I don’t even know how I’m still alive, because the lashes and the sexual assault and abuse, verbal abuse, mental abuse that I received was designed to completely trash my entire existence on this planet, and it was designed in a way, we’re no matter where I went. It was going to be the same thing and I was going to experience the same person over and over again. Read more>>

Emily Davis Adams | Artist

I was born and raised in the Bay Area. Both of my parents are in the arts—my dad is a composer and my mom is a visual artist—and both worked in home studios my entire childhood (and continue to do so), keeping regular hours. In that regard, I had the lifestyle of an artist modeled for me as the same kind of job as any other that requires hard work and steady daily labor. I also learned self-discipline and an appreciation for technical training through a rigorous childhood education in classical violin, which I think gave me the confidence to pursue what was at the time a very out-of-fashion path of representational painting and the mastering of traditional technical skills. Read more>>

Maxim Smirnov | Founder & CEO

Throughout my early years, I was instilled with the values of resilience and diligence, which have profoundly molded my path to success. A defining moment in my fledgling career involved willingly taking on any role in the creative field as a means to cultivate and refine my expertise. These experiences proved critical in fostering an unwavering work ethic while sharpening the mastery of my craft. What set these initial undertakings apart from others was the emphasis placed on resourcefulness and drawing knowledge from various industries. Quite often, I discovered myself applying principles acquired from film, design, tech. and science into creative ventures. Read more>>