When Lulu C. Wang immigrated to the United States from Shanghai with her family in 1948, she only knew one word of English. “I remember going to school for the first day … walking in and thinking, ‘Oh, how am I going to understand what these people are saying?’ And one little girl came up to me and she said something, and I had no idea.
People came with nothing. They built lives and communities together and then they gave back. That’s really been the vision that I’ve had, to achieve something, make a difference, but then also take time to give back to my community.” Wang’s road to success was no easy feat. Propelled by a combination of curiosity and determination, the young girl who didn’t know more than one word of English went on to graduate from Wellesley College and major in English Literature.