Manolis Kellis

My mother grew up in another small island in Greece.

They did not have this environment that I am now creating for my children.

My parents were not academics.

They didn't have these gatherings.

So I feel so privileged as an immigrant to basically be able to offer to my children the nurture that my ancestors did not have.

So Greece was under Turkish occupation until 1821.

My dad's island was liberated in 1920.

So they were under Turkish occupation for hundreds of years.

These people did not know what it's like to be Greek, let alone go to an elite university or be surrounded by these extraordinary humans.

So the way that I'm thinking about these gatherings is that

shaping my own environment, and I'm shaping the environment that my children get to grow up in.

So I can give them all my love, I can give them all my parenting, but I can also give them an environment as immigrants that sort of, we feel welcome here.

I mean, my wife grew up in a farm in rural France.

Her father was a farmer, her mother was a school teacher.

Like for me and for my wife to be able to host these extraordinary individuals that we feel so privileged, so humbled by is amazing.

And I think it's celebrating the welcoming nature of America.

The fact that it doesn't matter where you grew up.

And many, many of our friends at these gatherings are immigrants themselves.

I grew up in Pakistan, in all kinds of places around the world.

that are now able to sort of gather in one roof as human to human.