We celebrated National Immigrants Day, on October 28, and gathered for a two-part celebration webinar with amazing speakers!
Speakers
1st Session: How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Create Value
Julia Lemberskiy, Co-founder of JJ Studio
Janeesa Hollingshead, Co-founder of JJ Studio
Moderator
Ateba Whitaker, BAU Faculty and Founder of Unreasonable Kids College
2nd Session : How Immigrants Have Helped to Feed the Entrepreneurial Spirit in the United States
Javier Miranda, Deputy Head of the Department of Structural Change and Productivity and the Halle Institute for Economic Research
Moderator
Paolo von Schirach, President, Global Policy Institute, Chair Political Science and International Relations, Bay Atlantic University
Full Video:
According to a study in 2012, immigrants were more likely to become entrepreneurs than United States-born citizens. However, over the years, the trend has increased. Today 20.2% of the population are immigrants, 25% practicing entrepreneurs and founders of startups.
Acting US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Tracy Renaud states an essential fact that “Immigrants in the United States have a long history of entrepreneurship, hard work, and creativity, and their contributions to this nation are incredibly valuable.”
Our webinar consisted of two parts:
Part I: How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Create Value (11:00AM – 12:00PM EDT)
The first part of the webinar featured Julia Lemberskiy and Janeesa Hollingshead, who led new business lines at Uber and expanded them nationally and internationally. Now, Co-founders of JJ Studio, based in NYC & Chicago and currently working remotely with startups worldwide, they will address How Immigrant Entrepreneurs Create Value.
Speakers’ Bio
Julia Lemberskiy is an immigrant from Russia and a clear example of the quote expressed by the Acting USCIS Director Tracy Renaud. Julia Lemberskiy is an entrepreneur, hard worker, and creative, that she contributed to startups like PopChew, Catalyst Aerospace Technologies, Double, TrueNorth, NachoNacho, and others as an investor.
Janeesa Hollingshead is also a successful entrepreneur, investor, and advisor, who has worked abroad in Brazil and this past year in Puerto Rico helping startups while managing a team of members distributed around the world.
This session was moderated by Ateba Whitaker, BAU Faculty and Founder of Unreasonable Kids College.
Part II: How Immigrants Have Helped to Feed the Entrepreneurial Spirit in the United States (12:00PM- 1:00PM EDT)
The second part of the webinar featured Prof. Javier Miranda, Economist at Friedrich-Schiller University, who addressed How Immigrants Have Helped to Feed the Entrepreneurial Spirit in the United States.
Speaker Bio
Prof. Javier Miranda is Deputy Head of the Department of Structural Change and Productivity and the Halle Institute for Economic Research in Germany. He is also Associate Professor of Microeconomics, Productivity Research at Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena. Javier began his career at the US Census Bureau in the District of Columbia after receiving his Ph.D. in Economics from The American University in 2004. Prior to joining the Census, Javier was a research consultant at the World Bank and the Urban Institute.
Prof. Miranda’s expertise areas are Business Dynamics, Job Creation, and Growth, Entrepreneurship, High Growth Firms, Innovation, Business Finance, Synthetic Data.
This session was moderated by Paolo von Schirach, President, Global Policy Institute, Chair Political Science and International Relations, Bay Atlantic University