Rotareminder for the Rotary Club of Kent
Meeting on September 2, 2025
President Amanda Senn called the meeting to order at 12:10 p.m. Our patriotic song was God Bless America accompanied by David Dix on piano, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance; Dominique Bolenbacher led us in singing Ticket to Ride with David Dix on piano. The Invocation was offered by Tom Larkin. Bill Nome and Roger Kramer worked tech; Nithya Venkataraman took our photos.
There were no visiting Rotarians today. Guests were as follows:
- Todd Kamenash’s guest was his son Charlie
- Asad Khan’s guests were his daughter Sara, son Simon, and his neighbor Iham.
- David Myers’s guest was Holly Slocum
Announcements
- Bill Childers reminded us that the Salvation Army’s food distribution is tomorrow from 8 a.m. to noon and on the first Wednesday of every month at the lot at the intersection of Summit Street and Horning Road. Volunteers are always needed.
- Roberta O’Keefe started around the signup list to offer prayers at our meetings.
- Dennis Campbell announced that:
- Nominations for the Tree City Awards close in a week. Awards will be presented on November 13.
- There will be a luncheon with Kent Area Chamber of Commerce and Portage Community Bank on September 25. Register online.
- Amanda Senn announced that:
- Due to problems with Zoom, attending our club meetings online is not currently possible. She will update us when the technical problem is solved.
- Pints & Pours, an evening of friendship and fundraising, hosted by the Rotary Clubs of Kent and Talmadge will take place on Thursday, September 11 at The Battle ground, 425 Cherry Street in Kent.
Kathy Scott introduced our student of the month, Audrey Sickle, an eighth grader at Stanton Middle School. Audrey plays several school sports, including basketball and volleyball. She also enjoys dance and percussion. She likes school, especially social studies. Her favorite is Mr Slocum. She is active in community volunteer service. She hopes to attend OSU and study sports management.
Happy Bucks
The following Rotarians were happy today:
Roger Kramer, Tom Larkin, Jeff Roeger, Asad Kahn, Todd Kamenash, Sandra Reid, and
Amanda Senn
Today’s Program
Jennifer Lennox introduced our speaker, Asad Khan, CEO of Kent Displays, who holds a PhD in Chemical Physics, has published multiple peer-reviewed articles, and is the holder of more than twenty patents.
The Immigrant Way of Life
Asad began his talk by defining the word immigrant as “a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.”
The types of immigrants include
- Lawful permanent residents
- Undocumented immigrants
- Categorized by reason for immigration
- Family sponsored, employment-based, adoption, humanitarian
- Naturalized citizens
A naturalized US citizen, Asad emigrated from Pakistan at age 17. He arrived in the United States by way of Libya and the UK. His journey to citizenship took a decade, from 1993 to 2003.
Through a review of cosmic scale, Asad reminded us of the vastness of the Universe and the relative insignificance of national origin and other cultural factors in the context of our tiny planet’s place in the boundless universe.
Due in part to his immigrant experience and extensive global travel—he has logged more than 75,000 air miles so far this year!—Asad holds a “citizen of the planet” worldview.
He cautioned against thinking of “good immigrants” and “bad immigrants,” reminding us that prejudgment is not only non-predictive, it is also not reliable—a crystal ball that does not exist. The definition of “good” is subjective. Consider these factors:
- Immigration systems have heavy vetting
- Immigrants contribute in diverse ways
- People are not commodities
- Many immigrants in the USA have done amazing things.
- Here are just a few first-generation immigrants you might have heard of:
- Albert Einstein (E = mc2)
- Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX)
- Madaline Albright (secretary of State)
- Sergey Brin (Google)
- Levi Strauss (Jeans)
- Andrew Carnegie (steel)
- Pierre Omidyar (eBay)
- Satya Nadella (Microsoft) Sundar Pichai (Google)
- Jensen Huang (Nvidia)
- Noubar Afeyan (Moderna)
There are 46 million immigrants in the USA, 14% of our total population.
The immigrant experience is profoundly challenging. For a young person it can be fun but also scary. The USA projects its culture through Hollywood movies and television, but that does not reflect reality.
An immigrant makes friends and may start a family in their adopted country, and they also leave behind friends and family in their country of origin. They may be regarded as foreigners in both places, leaving them feeling that they don’t belong in either place.
Asad ended his talk by pointing out the unique value of the United States passport, holders of which have nearly unrestricted freedom of global movement.
Q&A: Questions included;
- The difference between exporting American culture (simple) and Pakistani culture (complex)
- The naturalization process
- Global political leadership
Response
David McKeen, thanked Asad for his informative presentation and for sharing his personal immigration story.
We closed our meeting with a recitation of the Rotary 4-Way Test.
Respectfully submitted,
Will Underwood
