By the time Thuan Pham was just 12 years old, he had already had several brushes with death.
While escaping Vietnam with his mother and younger brother in 1979, a violent storm battered the dinky, wooden fishing boat carrying the family and dozens of other refugees. Pirates later robbed them. And once they landed at a refugee camp in Indonesia, they lacked shelter and sanitation for weeks.
"My mother decided that it was better to risk our lives...rather than grow up without opportunities for a better life," Pham said. "That's what you do as an immigrant: You are willing to trade your life for freedom. Sometimes you get lucky and you get to live.