Growing up in a middle class family in southern Punjab, Rauf Arif often dreamed of coming to the United States to acquire a higher education. He wanted to use his advanced degree to make meaningful contributions to the education sector back in Pakistan.

Eventually, Arif, along with his wife, Lamia Zia, followed through with this dream:

They moved to the United States to pursue their graduate educations. First, they went to the University of Kansas, where Rauf was a Fulbright scholar and Lamia worked at the prestigious Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics. Then, they relocated to the University of Iowa, before moving to Texas.

Rauf is now an assistant professor of communication at the University of Texas campus in Tyler, a small city of about 100,000 located about 150 kilometers from Dallas. Lamia is an independent journalist and political communication researcher.

They recently hosted me in Tyler, where I gave several lectures to some very impressive students. Rauf and Lamia are quite impressive as well — and they’ve only deepened my long-standing admiration for the US-based Pakistani diaspora.

Also read: Ten Pakistanis doing great things for America

Both are very much products of Pakistan and the surrounding region.

Lamia is a Pakhtun from Islamabad, and her parents are from Afghanistan. She speaks six languages. Rauf is from Punjab. At Partition, his parents and other relatives walked for a month from Indian Punjab to Lahore; the grueling journey claimed the life of his father’s brother.

Rauf and Lamia met while working in the newsroom of The Nation newspaper, where they served under the late Ayesha Haroon. Lamia was the only female reporter during that time. She would later work for Geo, and Rauf for CNBC. They were comfortably ensconced in Islamabad’s journalist community; numerous high-profile media personalities attended their wedding.

I was curious to hear about their experiences in Texas. This is a state that has suffered through a recent series of disturbing attacks on ethnic and religious minorities.