“[My mom] has been one of the biggest figures in my life. She grew up in a household where she was not expected to get an education outside of high school, and she went on and got a college education....

M-i-c-h-a-j-l-i-c-z-e-n-k-o. I spent time learning to print each letter and its order before I knew what my last name meant. It took me longer than others. After all, a typical last name doesn’t have...