Entrepreneur, financial adviser, philanthropist, and UNLV graduate (1994) Jimmy Lee is the second of two children. Born in Seoul, Korea, Jimmy came to Las Vegas with his family in 1976, when he was six years old. Lee's parents were in the entertainment industry in Korea--his mother was a professional singer with the Arirang Sisters, and his father was producer. His maternal aunt, who had married an American professor, sponsored the family. Because the aunt lived in Durham, N.C., the family first went there.

Second-generation physician Kochy Tang arrived in Las Vegas in 1999 to complete her Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.) residency; she stayed because she became part of a congenial medical community. Tang's father, Y. Y. Tang, M.D., left China in the early 1940s to go to France and then to Boston to attend Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1945. He was drafted into the U.S. Army for the Korean War and served in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.S.H.) unit. After the war, he practiced alternative medicine in San Francisco and Reno.

Retired City of Las Vegas Assistant Fire Chief Cherina Kleven was born in Taiwan, the fifth of her parents' seven children and the first daughter. The family spoke Taiwanese at home, but once the children started school all instruction was in Mandarin Chinese. Her father was in charge of the motor pool for the U.S. Embassy, and her mother stayed home. In 1970, the family immigrated the U.S. and to Las Vegas, where her father could use his training as an electrician to work with air conditioners. Cherina attended Roy W.

Born and raised in the Philippines, Maila Aganon emigrated with her parents in 1992, after she completed her first semester of college. She describes as "typical" her youth as the youngest child (with brothers 5 and 7 years older) of a teacher who worked in another village and a father who worked out of the country. Although independent, she was part of a tightly knit village. The household spoke three languages: her mother's dialect, her father's dialect, and Tagalog.

After a 13-year courtship spanning the Pacific Ocean, Arlene and Mach Manuel began married life in San Diego, where their daughter was born. The couple is from two worlds. Arlene was raised in the Philippines, where her parents sacrificed to send her to the best Catholic school in Manila and to college for two separate degrees. In contrast, Mach's San Diego upbringing was that of a working-class "American" child who connected with his Filipino heritage on his first visit to the Philippines as an adult.

After a 13-year courtship spanning the Pacific Ocean, Arlene and Mach Manuel began married life in San Diego, where their daughter was born. The couple is from two worlds. Arlene was raised in the Philippines, where her parents sacrificed to send her to the best Catholic school in Manila and to college for two separate degrees. In contrast, Mach's San Diego upbringing was that of a working-class "American" child who connected with his Filipino heritage on his first visit to the Philippines as an adult.