I arrived in the United States at the age of four in the summer of 1969, not knowing a word of English. After my first years at Martin Luther King School in Piscataway, New Jersey, I moved with my family to Morgantown, West Virginia. There, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, a teacher named Mrs. Alke gave me a green journal in seventh grade, and I fell in love with writing and journalism. In the summer of 1988, the young immigrant girl who knew not a word of English upon her arrival in the U.S. became a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal at the age of 23. We must give every child in the world equal opportunity, and we must encourage every child to be the best of what they can be — based on merit. Join our battle against the War on Merit.