When Gazelle started The Melting Pot in January 2018, it was borne out of a desire to share my own immigrant story. Since then, we have profiled 14 smart and successful St. Louis-area women from a dozen countries spanning six continents. All of them happen to be immigrants who now call St. Louis home. This month, we revisit the stories of several of our subjects who have some news of their own.
SUSAN POLGAR (Hungary)
Webster University chess coach Susan Polgar is the newest member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. Polgar, the youngest woman to be inducted, was honored during a ceremony in March at the Saint Louis Zoo, where she told a large crowd about her struggle to break the “glass barrier” in the chess world that denied women the right to be grandmasters or to compete against men. She also recounted how she was determined to be a groundbreaker in memory of her family members who lost their lives during the Holocaust.
“It wasn’t easy to grow up as a young Jewish girl in Hungary who wanted to play chess…There was an attitude that women weren’t as smart as men – and being Jewish was an additional obstacle.” – Susan Polgar
KYLA-MAREE SIMCOKE (Australia)
This month marks the one-year anniversary of the release of Kyla-Maree Simcoke’s first novel, “The Distance Between Us,” a murder-mystery centered on a palliative care nurse named Olivia, an Australian native living in St. Louis. While Olivia is fictional, Simcoke used her years of experience working in the health care industry, particularly her interactions with critically ill patients and their families, to stress the importance of patient advocacy. “The Distance Between Us” has garnered favorable reviews in St. Louis and in her hometown of Hay, Australia, where her family members attended a book launch on her behalf. Simcoke, who recently turned 50, has plans for a sequel, and hopefully, a movie adaptation.
“I love the written word and the process it takes to create a story. Telling a story that holds people’s interest is key, so I really have to focus on being creative and immerse myself in my characters. It’s fun to get into the mind of other characters and be someone so unlike myself.” -Kyla-Maree Simcoke
POONAM JAIN (India)
It’s been a busy year for Dr. Poonam Jain, vice dean, clinical education, operations and community partnerships at the St. Louis Dental Center. She has been at the forefront of the center’s Veterans Project, a program that provides veterans from across Missouri with complete sets of dentures and care from volunteer dental school students free of charge. The program has helped 75 veterans since 2018. She and her family also enjoyed a first-time dog-sledding trip to northern Sweden, where they stayed at a native reindeer herder’s lodge for a night. Always with her dentist cap on, Jain discovered that the natives there have great oral health, mostly due to a diet of reindeer and moose meat, berries and whole wheat bread. The huskies, who mostly ate fresh meat, also have great teeth, she reported.
“(The Veterans Project) is not only a great service to veterans, but it’s a tremendous educational value to our students. It inspires them to serve vets in their future careers.” – Dr. Poonam Jain
GEMMA NEW (New Zealand)
The music never stops for Gemma New, who continues to maintain a rigorous, international conducting schedule, in addition to her role as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s resident conductor and music director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. She was recently appointed the principal guest conductor with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, a position she will assume, in addition to her role with the SLSO in the 2019-20 season. This month, she will make her debut with the San Diego Symphony; in July, she will lead the San Francisco Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. In the fall, she’ll be leading SLSO in all three of its Family Concerts in the upcoming season, and will direct the orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus in a classical concert in April 2020 with works by Prokofiev, Vaughan Williams and Arvo Pärt.
“I really love how sensitive to the music these musicians are, and how we create something really beautiful and in the moment.” -Gemma New
RONKE FALETI (Nigeria)
Ronke Faleti, whose day job involves direct-to-client communications at Wells Fargo, spoke of her “side hustle,” Korédé, a luxury handbag company she started a couple of years ago. She began designing functional handbags for women on the go—whether they’re working moms, executives who also make time to volunteer, or stay-at-home moms who are caring for aging parents. Faleti was recently selected to be one of eight residents of the newly launched Fashion Lab, a program created to provide support for local designers. Faleti hopes being in the program will be a game-changer for Korédé, whose goal is to build a community of women who support one another and are actively “womaning.”
“Our women often struggle with maintaining their self-identity amidst all of their responsibilities and that’s why we design beautifully functional bags for them. But at our core, we want to be the lifestyle brand for working moms and working women.” -Ronke Faleti
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