Category: Portraits & interviews

April 2019 News from New Women New Yorkers

Latest news Professional development programs This month we visited the NYC offices of the global consulting company ZS in the Empire State Building. Our group of participants learned about salary and job offer negotiation in the US, and received practical knowledge and insight from the company’s employees. Special thanks to our partner Working for Women for making this session possible. Last month we also held a lunch-discussion at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America with several of NWNY’s volunteers and program graduates and...

Tianrui Ding’s journey from Asia to NYC – and within herself

How a young Chinese woman unleashed her inner potential and became more confident than ever living in New York City Written by Arzoo Bhattarai I got to meet Tianrui Ding on a cold, rainy evening in a coffee shop in Queens. Our busy schedules and the inclement winter weather made me wish to end the interview as soon as possible to head back home to relax. But the initial awkward silence and uncomfortable long pauses that are somewhat common in...

Ximena at the Queens Museum

When the words do not come out

Reflections on the one-year anniversary of Real People. Real Lives – a photo and storytelling exhibit on immigrant women In 2017, an unique collaboration of New Women New Yorkers with photographer and filmmaker Dru Blumensheid gave life to an exhibit featuring photographs of 16 immigrant women, an 18-feet-long mural, and a nearly 2-hour film with additional photographs and the audio interviews of the women. The show revealed a nuanced picture of the immigrant women who make NYC their home, the...

Gyuzel at Brighton Beach, where Central Asian food and old women gossiping in Russian makes her feel at home

NWNY’s program associate Gyuzel Zaripova’s winding road to NYC

How a young woman journeyed from Kazakhstan to Paris to New York City to start a new life. Written by Tatiana Spiegel On a cold winter day in December, I left my cozy apartment to get acquainted with an unfamiliar face,  Gyuzel Zaripova, the program associate for New Women New Yorkers. I approached the West Village restaurant where we’d planned to meet and was warmly greeted by her at the entrance. She was wrapped in a wool coat and scarf,...