Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., Lewis Iuliucci, the grandson of Italian immigrants that were processed through Ellis Island in the early 1900s, was taught that with hard work he could achieve the American dream — the prosperous life his family braved dangerous seas to seek. 

“We were very, very poor and living in a melting-pot Brooklyn neighborhood with other immigrants from around the world. My father worked hard to provide for us, and he instilled in me that hard work is required in life to succeed,” said Iuliucci. “Because of my parent’s poverty, I had to work my way through college with odd jobs, and I didn’t mind because I knew that was what had to be done and I did it.”