2020

NYX Awards - 2020 Gold Winner Winner

The Duality of the Gift of Coming to America

Entrant Company

Ronit Plank/And Then Everything Changed podcast

Category

Audio & Podcasts - Audio & Podcasts / Other

Client's Name

Self

Country / Region

United States

Experience Level

Lecturer

When Baktash Ahadi and his family fled Afghanistan in the early 1980’s they were shot at by Soviet Gunships on their way to Pakistan and sheltered at a refugee camp there for years while they awaited approval to emigrate to the U.S

Soon after arriving in the small town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Baktash worked hard to assimilate. He gave himself an American-style nickname and spent his childhood rejecting the parts of himself and his family that seemed too Afghan.

Until 9/11 when tensions between his birth country and his adopted country escalated and he found himself the only Afghan student at his college with a painful decision to make: Speak his truth as an Afghani-American and risk standing out or stay silent. The choice he made marked a turning point in his life. From there on out he embraced his birth country and his past as well as what it meant to him to be American. He joined the Peace Corps, became a combat interpreter in Afghanistan for three years, and now teaches American diplomats about Afghan culture and life for the State Department, intentionally bridging his two home countries, both of which he has gratitude for.

In this episode of And Then Everything Changed, Baktash Ahadi shares his story,

Credits

Baktash Ahadi
2020
Non-Broadcast
NYX Awards 2020 Winner - A Life Worth Living
gold
winner
Amudim Community Resources

Entrant Company

Multipleoutlet Productions

Category

Non-Broadcast - Nonprofit

Country / Region

United States

2020
Integrated Marketing
NYX Awards 2020 Winner - Nassau Paradise Island - Social Media
gold
winner
Nassau Paradise Island

Entrant Company

VERB Interactive

Category

Integrated Marketing - Social Media

Country / Region

Canada

2020
Audio & Podcasts
NYX Awards 2020 Winner - Escaping the Midwest Church That Was A Cult
gold
winner

Entrant Company

And Then Everything Changed podcast

Category

Audio & Podcasts - Audio & Podcasts / Other

Country / Region

United States

2020
Non-Broadcast
NYX Awards 2020 Winner - There's Something About Grace
gold
winner

Entrant Company

Attention Span Media

Category

Non-Broadcast - Corporate Image

Country / Region

United States