Happy New Year from the St. Louis Mosaic Project

Starting the Year With Renewed Optimism

Happy New Year!

We hope you had an opportunity to reflect and relax during the holidays and that your year is starting off on a good note. We are operating with a renewed optimism and a spirit of unity as we closely monitor discussions and policy actions surrounding immigration. We know it will be long, hard work but are hopeful for broad support to enact or reverse legislation that will allow regions and states to welcome, employ and support more foreign-born individuals.

In the meantime, we will continue to connect foreign-born professionals and students to resources, business and community partners who can help them succeed in St. Louis!

Yours,

Betsy, Suzanne & Bomi

Leveraging Cultural Competencies

for Entrepreneurs

To many immigrants, the concept of networking is foreign and unfamiliar and foreign-born entrepreneurs must learn how to navigate this important tool in order to be successful. At the same time, cultural nuances and ways of doing business in their home countries may create unintended -- though by no means insurmountable - challenges.

Join us for a Venture Cafe virtual session on Thursday, January 28, from 3 pm - to 4 pm featuring four successful foreign-born entrepreneurs who will share how they adapted to build a successful business in St. Louis. Hear panelists Raj Singh (India) Arch Grant winner and founder of Waylit; Rick Shang (China), founder of Vulpes Corp.; and Ola Ayeni (Nigeria) founder of Claim Academy discuss how they utilized their background as immigrants to their advantage as entrepreneurs. The panel discussion will be moderated by Gabriela Ramírez-Arellano, the new Executive Director of Center for Emerging Technology (CET) and the Director of Entrepreneurship at Cortex, who also is a small business owner.

Event details:

Thursday, January 28, 2021 | 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Virtual Event

Click here to RSVP

Creating Connections & Belonging

Mosaic's Zoom-pal program has connected St. Louis area international students from 10 different countries with Mosaic Ambassadors. As international students feel more isolated during the Covid-19 pandemic and struggle to make new connections, this initiative offers connection friendship and a new window into St. Louis.

International students can sign-up here.

Mayor Krewson joined dozens of mayors from across the country in signing a "Letter from Local Leaders" from Cities for Action, a coalition of 200 US mayors and county executives. The letter, released on January 19, includes a list of requested Federal support of national and local immigration policies including increased refugee numbers, local control to support immigrants, more high skilled immigrants, fair asylum policies, better language access and general pathways to citizenship (not specified for whom/how).

Many thanks to Mayor Krewson for signaling St. Louis' support for imore inclusive policies that will help our immigrant and foreign-born residents more fully feel like they belong in our region.

We are delighted to introduce Mosaic's Spring 2021 interns! Karen Hoshino is a sophomore at Saint Louis University, studying Political Science and International Studies. Karen has global background (Japan and Brazil and speaks English, Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish). Jorge Oliveros Criado is a senior at Lindenwood University, studying International Relations, International Business and Political Science. Jorge is from Madrid, Spain and

speaks Spanish, English and French.

Karen and Jorge will be working on Mosaic marketing and outreach efforts and joining us for meetings. We look forward to their assistance and to educating them about how our work fits into regional economic development efforts.

We are thrilled to announce the addition of our 40th and 41st Ambassador Companies: It is most fitting that we reached our 40th with Ariel Premium Supply, founded in 1993 by Taiwan natives Tai Lin and Yuhling Lu – a husband and wife team that met at Washington University. Educated as scientists, Tai and Yuhling started Ariel hoping to make enough cash to fund a research project. Now, 20 years later, the couple has replaced their engineering and microbiology research with product development work.

In addition, the Danforth Plant Science Center joins as our 41st Ambassador Company! Community members at the Danforth Center and within the BRDG Park represent more than 29 countries.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are core values of the Danforth Center, and an internal Advisory Council and Assembly ensure that the Center maintains an environment in which everybody feels comfortable and excels.

The support of the business community in hiring and retaining foreign-born talent at all skill levels is integral to St. Louis' growth and we applaud all our Ambassador Companies that move us toward that goal.

More information about Ambassador Companies here