Fame, Fortune, and Flour

When Genevieve Kashat was 3 years old, she watched with awe as her mother made a rich, delicious, and familiar banana bread for her family to enjoy. Years later, this moment would blossom into something much greater: a budding baking career and a shot at Food Network stardom. The road from mom’s banana bread to the Kids Baking Championship requires just the right mixture of talent, hard work, creativity, and inspiration.

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The Lost Tribe

In October 2022, Dr. Paulo Botta visited San Salvador de Jujuy and El Carmen, two towns of the Jujuy province in the north of Argentina. There he met with descendants of Chaldean Iranians who immigrated to Argentina between 1900 and 1930. Botta, a professor of Social Sciences affiliated with the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, explained, “Nobody even knows about that group of Chaldean families who arrived here almost a century ago.”

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Hopeless to Heroic: The Johnny Shamou story

It is hard to hide a secret when one is randomly babbling, chaotically removing everything from the freezer, or suddenly talking to an imaginary cat on the top of the fridge. These were Johnny Shamou’s odd behaviors in front of his family while he was addicted to heroin. His addiction began with illegally prescribed drugs as a teenager, and before that he had smoked cigarettes and dabbled in marijuana and alcohol once in a while if it was around. This was because of his need to “fit in” with the crowd.

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Suicide Prevention

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), suicide is currently the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. There is an average of 130 deaths by suicide every day. In 2020, 45,979 Americans died by suicide and there were an estimated 1.2 million suicide attempts. The suicide rate in 2020 was 13.48 per 100,000 individuals.

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Fly Me Away

Travel boom continues despite high prices and poor service. Rumors of the travel industry’s decline based on pandemic fears, high airfare prices and poor, undertrained workers are vastly overstated. In fact, travel is back at record levels for 2023 and beyond, despite the aftereffects of COVID.

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Hard Work Bears Results

Rita Soka – daughter to Samir and Najat Elias, an immigrant, wife, mother, transfusion medicine technologist, and health care validation consultant has added yet another item to her resume. As of last year, she graduated from Detroit Mercy School of Law (UDM) and became a barred attorney – and as of as last month, she partnered up with her former professor at Detroit Mercy School of Law and formed a new law firm, Taylor Soka, PLLC.

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Set Up for Success

Ava Sarafa’s storied volleyball career at Birmingham Marian High School is over. Now she’s getting ready for the next stop in her journey. Soon, she’ll be off to the University of Kentucky to play volleyball for the national powerhouse Wildcats. “Time has gone by so quickly since I verbally committed then signed, especially since I signed,” she said, referring to September 4, 2021, when she made a verbal commitment to Kentucky.

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Habib Hannona: A Man of Many Talents

Pioneers deserve recognition and celebration. They serve as our foundation, a guiding force toward an advanced and progressive society. They act as catalysts for passing wisdom onto new generations, inspiring individuals to become their best selves. Habib Hannona is a living example of one such pioneer. His achievements in the United States, Kuwait, and Iraq exemplify human strength, enduring spirit, survival, and success.

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March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

Colorectal screening saves lives. Part of raising awareness is helping people understand the value and importance of getting regular cancer screenings for early detection. As a primary care doctor, a large part of my role is preventive medicine. The goal of preventive medicine is to ultimately prevent disease, disability, and death. Colorectal cancer screening is one way of implementing this.

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Celebrating Lent

As the season of Sawma Raba (Great Lent) begins in the Church, we must not forget the point of Lent – to prepare our hearts and minds for the glory that is the Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Resurrection of Christ is the central aspect of our faith; it is the reason why we offer our hearts to Christ as we celebrate Mass each week. As you prepare to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday – the greatest event in all of human history, and dare I say, the entire universe – you must ready your heart to understand this key event of our faith by traveling and fasting with Jesus in the desert.

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Ingredients for Success

Almost three decades ago, three friends joined forces for a professional journey none of them could have predicted. Patrick Tomina and Eric Hardy met at University of Michigan-Dearborn. They came together from very different backgrounds—Tomina is Chaldean and has roots in independent retail businesses; Hardy is African American and from a family in which his father worked for General Motors and expected his son to follow a similar path.

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