February 14, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Kevin Samy, the son of Indian-American immigrants who appeared on Forbes' 30 under 30 for law & policy in 2016, tells the story of how he was molded by his upbringing and playing football.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love to hear your story. Send them to
our Americanstories dot com. Up next to story from Kevin Sammy,
the son of Indian American immigrants, who appeared in Forbes
thirty under thirty for Law and Policy in twenty sixteen. Today,
(00:34):
Kevin shares with us the story of his family's love
for the sport he played football and why they value
his education so much. Take it away, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, I grew up in Canton, Ohio. I am
first generation Indian American, so my mom and dad, they
emigrated from rural South India. My dad came to the
United States to do his doctorate. He ended up moving
to Ohio to work at company as an engineer, and
that's where I was born. And I had what I
believe is a pretty archetypal Midwest upbringing in a lot
(01:09):
of ways. I played football in high school, and I
ended up playing college too. I don't think I would
have if not for the fact that I grew up
so close to the Hall of Fame and the culture
there was so deeply steeped in football. I didn't know
I would be as good as I was playing. College
is difficult to do. And I say that to give
credit to everyone who makes it to Division one ball.
(01:29):
You know, my parents, they really wanted to learn the game.
After I became interested in it, I started to do
well and I got looks from colleges. I was All
state for two years in the state of Ohio, which
is a you know, known for good football. It went
from me trying my hand in it too. There would
be Indian families that would come from a bifferent parts
of the state and around the region who'd come watch
(01:50):
my high school games just as a function of being
now interested in this game. They didn't have any other
reason to be. Let's say before during the Thanksgiving the
Turkey Bowl, the Thanksgiving game that NFL plays every year,
all of the Indian families would come to my house
because my dad would teach them rules, teach them, to
teach them about the game worked. There are fewer things
I feel more strongly about in terms of what have
(02:12):
shaped me in the game of football. I very much
grew up in the way that I think we all
hope America to be one that is not always but
predominantly accepting of difference, where this is sort of multicultural
experiment is more or less working. I mean, Google co founder,
(02:35):
it was a refugee, but an enormous amount of American
winners of Nobel Prizes are immigrants. It's an amazing place
where that type of reality exists. I should say segue
into my parents. I mean, part of the reason I
got involved in politics latched onto Barack Obama's candidacy is
he talked about his famous DNC speech and that really
launched him into the public. Ether talked about his father's
(02:57):
family farming goats in Kenya. My dad's family go to India.
India is a fascinating place, largest democracy on the planet.
The cast system in India was a vestige of British
rule and it doesn't officially exist, but the cast system
is still a kind of unfortunate vestige of the past
that has some kind of, you know, relevance in modern
Indian society. And so my family is from a relatively
(03:20):
lower cast. We're not from the high the higher cast,
if you will. The reason I say that is, you know,
I am from a lineage of meat eating, farmer South
Indian people, uneducated My mom and dad were the first
(03:40):
in their families to really go to school. My father
was the first to go to go to any school,
let alone higher education. You know, he grew up in
a village with no running water, no electricity, nobody could read.
It was an illiterate community. There was a neighboring village
where there was one guy that used to call him
in you know, my parents' mother tongue bumble tamil. They
used to call the reading uncle because he was the
(04:01):
one guy within you know, however many mile radius that
could kind of read. So people would bring him letters
or the very small amount of things that needed to
be read. They they'd bring him that collateral, that content
to translator to read for them. There's a moment in
my dad's childhood where they were a handful of little kids,
one of which was him, and some of the parents
(04:22):
thought to themselves, look like, let's pay this guy a
few rupees a month right to teach our kids, you know, basic, basic, thumble,
basic literacy. They kind of hollowed out a little clay
less than five orm square foot space that was a
temple with some old idols and things in there that
God knows how long they've been there, took some things out,
and they'd bring sand from the river bed to coat
(04:45):
the floor so it was fresh and soft and malleable.
And they would use their fingers to write in the
sand as a chalkboard and to do letters and numbers.
And when the sand was coarse, when it was a
hotter day, or it wasn't soft anymore, or their fingers
would bleed. And so it's kind of an indigenous vegetable
in an area that they would crack open and they
(05:07):
would put on their fingers like thimbles and to protect
them after they started to bleed, to keep continuing their lessons.
That's how my dad learned how to read. He ended
up going to a nearby government school that was thirteen
kilometers away. His father, my grandfather, saved money for a
year to buy a bike so he could bike there.
One thing led to the next to the next, and
(05:27):
you know, education was really a way out of that
type of poverty. I'll just say, you know, very much
so the American dream. I mean, he came the United
States to give his family a better shot, to sort
of raise the quality of life by an order of magnitude.
I think my appreciation for being American is so rooted
(05:50):
in that. And how is it, you know, I don't
blame people for not knowing. I wish, I wish I
could show them, But how is it that you can't
appreciate the value of a place like the United States
when you can see how far you can go? It
is that possibility that is what makes us play special.
(06:12):
And yeah, you know I spoke a little about football,
but the game meant so much to me, It really
built me.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And a special thanks to Faith Buchanan and Monty Montgomery
for the editing and post production of this story. And
a special thanks also to Kevin Sammy for sharing in
the end his father's and mother's story and the American
dream story that so many immigrants come here to pursue.
And today Kevin works at our zero, a company moving
the ball forward on biosafety. To find out more about
(06:44):
what he's up to at that company, go to R
zero dot com. That's R zero dot com. How can
you not appreciate or value this country when you see
how far you can come? That Kevin about America? His father, well,
no running water in his community, the first in his
family to even have the ability to read, comes to America,
(07:06):
becomes an engineer, and that next generation. Oh my goodness,
you know the rest of the story you just heard.
It a terrific story about the American Dream, about poverty,
about immigration, and about the ability of America to absorb
different people from different places. Kevin Sammy's story here on
Our American Story. Lee Hibib here the host of Our
(07:31):
American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring
stories from across this great country, stories from our big
cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the
show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:53):
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love to hear your story. Send them to
our Americanstories dot com. Up next to story from Kevin Sammy,
the son of Indian American immigrants, who appeared in Forbes
thirty under thirty for Law and Policy in twenty sixteen. Today,
(00:34):
Kevin shares with us the story of his family's love
for the sport he played football and why they value
his education so much. Take it away, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know, I grew up in Canton, Ohio. I am
first generation Indian American, so my mom and dad, they
emigrated from rural South India. My dad came to the
United States to do his doctorate. He ended up moving
to Ohio to work at company as an engineer, and
that's where I was born. And I had what I
believe is a pretty archetypal Midwest upbringing in a lot
(01:09):
of ways. I played football in high school, and I
ended up playing college too. I don't think I would
have if not for the fact that I grew up
so close to the Hall of Fame and the culture
there was so deeply steeped in football. I didn't know
I would be as good as I was playing. College
is difficult to do. And I say that to give
credit to everyone who makes it to Division one ball.
(01:29):
You know, my parents, they really wanted to learn the game.
After I became interested in it, I started to do
well and I got looks from colleges. I was All
state for two years in the state of Ohio, which
is a you know, known for good football. It went
from me trying my hand in it too. There would
be Indian families that would come from a bifferent parts
of the state and around the region who'd come watch
(01:50):
my high school games just as a function of being
now interested in this game. They didn't have any other
reason to be. Let's say before during the Thanksgiving the
Turkey Bowl, the Thanksgiving game that NFL plays every year,
all of the Indian families would come to my house
because my dad would teach them rules, teach them, to
teach them about the game worked. There are fewer things
I feel more strongly about in terms of what have
(02:12):
shaped me in the game of football. I very much
grew up in the way that I think we all
hope America to be one that is not always but
predominantly accepting of difference, where this is sort of multicultural
experiment is more or less working. I mean, Google co founder,
(02:35):
it was a refugee, but an enormous amount of American
winners of Nobel Prizes are immigrants. It's an amazing place
where that type of reality exists. I should say segue
into my parents. I mean, part of the reason I
got involved in politics latched onto Barack Obama's candidacy is
he talked about his famous DNC speech and that really
launched him into the public. Ether talked about his father's
(02:57):
family farming goats in Kenya. My dad's family go to India.
India is a fascinating place, largest democracy on the planet.
The cast system in India was a vestige of British
rule and it doesn't officially exist, but the cast system
is still a kind of unfortunate vestige of the past
that has some kind of, you know, relevance in modern
Indian society. And so my family is from a relatively
(03:20):
lower cast. We're not from the high the higher cast,
if you will. The reason I say that is, you know,
I am from a lineage of meat eating, farmer South
Indian people, uneducated My mom and dad were the first
(03:40):
in their families to really go to school. My father
was the first to go to go to any school,
let alone higher education. You know, he grew up in
a village with no running water, no electricity, nobody could read.
It was an illiterate community. There was a neighboring village
where there was one guy that used to call him
in you know, my parents' mother tongue bumble tamil. They
used to call the reading uncle because he was the
(04:01):
one guy within you know, however many mile radius that
could kind of read. So people would bring him letters
or the very small amount of things that needed to
be read. They they'd bring him that collateral, that content
to translator to read for them. There's a moment in
my dad's childhood where they were a handful of little kids,
one of which was him, and some of the parents
(04:22):
thought to themselves, look like, let's pay this guy a
few rupees a month right to teach our kids, you know, basic, basic, thumble,
basic literacy. They kind of hollowed out a little clay
less than five orm square foot space that was a
temple with some old idols and things in there that
God knows how long they've been there, took some things out,
and they'd bring sand from the river bed to coat
(04:45):
the floor so it was fresh and soft and malleable.
And they would use their fingers to write in the
sand as a chalkboard and to do letters and numbers.
And when the sand was coarse, when it was a
hotter day, or it wasn't soft anymore, or their fingers
would bleed. And so it's kind of an indigenous vegetable
in an area that they would crack open and they
(05:07):
would put on their fingers like thimbles and to protect
them after they started to bleed, to keep continuing their lessons.
That's how my dad learned how to read. He ended
up going to a nearby government school that was thirteen
kilometers away. His father, my grandfather, saved money for a
year to buy a bike so he could bike there.
One thing led to the next to the next, and
(05:27):
you know, education was really a way out of that
type of poverty. I'll just say, you know, very much
so the American dream. I mean, he came the United
States to give his family a better shot, to sort
of raise the quality of life by an order of magnitude.
I think my appreciation for being American is so rooted
(05:50):
in that. And how is it, you know, I don't
blame people for not knowing. I wish, I wish I
could show them, But how is it that you can't
appreciate the value of a place like the United States
when you can see how far you can go? It
is that possibility that is what makes us play special.
(06:12):
And yeah, you know I spoke a little about football,
but the game meant so much to me, It really
built me.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
And a special thanks to Faith Buchanan and Monty Montgomery
for the editing and post production of this story. And
a special thanks also to Kevin Sammy for sharing in
the end his father's and mother's story and the American
dream story that so many immigrants come here to pursue.
And today Kevin works at our zero, a company moving
the ball forward on biosafety. To find out more about
(06:44):
what he's up to at that company, go to R
zero dot com. That's R zero dot com. How can
you not appreciate or value this country when you see
how far you can come? That Kevin about America? His father, well,
no running water in his community, the first in his
family to even have the ability to read, comes to America,
(07:06):
becomes an engineer, and that next generation. Oh my goodness,
you know the rest of the story you just heard.
It a terrific story about the American Dream, about poverty,
about immigration, and about the ability of America to absorb
different people from different places. Kevin Sammy's story here on
Our American Story. Lee Hibib here the host of Our
(07:31):
American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring
stories from across this great country, stories from our big
cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the
show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:53):
to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give
Host
Lee Habeeb
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