Born and raised in New York City, I learned the value of diversity while tethered to my parents as we walked along the busy sidewalks of Manhattan. Washington Heights, the Manhattan neighborhood in which I lived for the first nine years of my life, is an ethnically diverse and culturally rich community — and is where I learned to cherish people from different ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Ultimately, my upbringing in New York City made me appreciate the power of human connection at an early age as I frequently saw people connect with one another through music, art, and religion along with cultural and community traditions.