Outstanding Americans by Choice
The Outstanding Americans by Choice initiative recognizes the outstanding achievements of naturalized U.S. citizens. Through civic participation, professional achievement, and responsible citizenship, recipients of this honor have demonstrated their commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans.
USCIS will recognize naturalized citizens who have made significant contributions to both their community and their adopted country on a case-by-case basis.
Note: The following biographies have been provided by the ABC recipients.
2007
Anna Prager came to the United States as a holocaust survivor in 1952 at age 16, with her parents, who had escaped from Europe before World War II. They had escaped from Poland into Russia during the Russo-German Pact.
As an immigrant from Hong Kong, Tze Ng arrived in the U.S. as a student in 1976 having obtained a degree from a Hong Kong college in social work.
An American military general and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Shalikashvili was born June 27, 1936 in Warsaw, Poland. His family came to the United States in 1952, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1958.
Chief Warrant Officer Mitzie A. Robinson joined the United States Coast Guard in 1983 and since then she has risen to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer.
Technical Sergeant Oluwasina J. Awolusi is a pharmacy craftsman assigned to the 42d Medical Support Squadron, 42d Medical Group, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL. He was born in 1979, in Lagos, Nigeria. He attended Camden County College, NJ completing his associates degree in applied science. He entered
Captain Van T. Thai is a mobility instructor pilot assigned to the 18th Operations Support Squadron (OSS), Kadena Air Base (AB), Okinawa, Japan. Captain Thai was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1976.
Born in 1956 in Samawah, Captain Rasul Alsalih is a native of Southern Iraq. Captain Alsalih is currently serving on active duty as the Chief of Design, Detachment 15 of the United States Air Force in his former homeland, Iraq. In August of 1992, Captain Alsalih and his family were selected to relocate to the United States and arrived on September 24, 1992.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Major Manuel Dominguez and his mother escaped communism when he was two weeks old. His father was forced to stay behind for not accepting the communist ideology.
Abida Sultana Shoyeb is a chief warrant officer in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps. She is originally from Pakistan and immigrated to the U.S. with her mother in 1989, and joined the military.
As a native of Vienna, Austria, Dr. Luis Glaser and his family fled the Holocaust when he was only six and settled in Mexico where he grew up. Dr. Glaser graduated with honors from the University of Toronto in 1953 with an undergraduate degree.