From Apartheid South Africa to Living the American Dream
Kershwin Singh
President Chris Lamadrid introduced Rotarian Kershwin Singh, a member of our club, who is currently the Head of Privacy and Compliance at ZOLL Medical Corporations, an international diversified medical device and software solutions company helping save lives. Prior to joining ZOLL in 2021, Kershwin spent six years as a lawyer at Pfizer, two years in legal and compliance at the Barnes Group in Bristol, six years at Boehringer Ingelheim, a privately held German pharmaceutical company, and seven years at Aetna. He has lived in Avon in since 2005 and is married with three daughters. He is a huge fan of Liverpool Football Club and enjoys pickleball, golf, volleyball and skiing. Kershwin joined Rotary and our club in May 2020.
Kershwin and his wife, Thej, were born and raised in South Africa. Kershwin said that everyone has a completely different perspective on South Africa largely because of its colonial history, Apartheid, misleading name, and remote location, but it's the best place to go on vacation according to him. He compares Cape Town to St. Petersburg and Rome. He and his family have returned to South Africa several times.
South Africa is the only country with three capital cities. Eleven different languages are spoken. It's the only country with two Nobel Prize winners living on the same street. The first heart transplant was performed in Cape Town. The country's nickname is "The Rainbow Nation."
Apartheid officially ended in 1948, but the segregation of whites and other ethnic groups persisted. Like the one in which Kershwin lived, nearly all communities are ethnically homogeneous. Funding for schools were proportioned by ethnic class, largest per student funds to the whites and lowest to the black.
Kershwin summed up his life, education, work history and family in one slide.
He grew up in a ethnically segregated community like most other non-white citizens of South Africa. He had a normal, happy childhood. After completing elementary and secondary school, he trained as a lawyer in college. He spent a summer teaching tennis at a camp in Maine which inspired thoughts of moving to America. Because of the high crime rate in South Africa, he and Thej were considered living in Australia or New Zealand, but Kershwin applied for the US Diversity Immigrant Green Card program. At the time 30,000 green cards were put in a lottery each year. Kershwin won the lottery. They were able to immigrate to the US with work VISA.
(Editor's Note: The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) currently makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.)
In the US, he completed several internships to broaden his work experience including working for several law firms as a paralegal. He took the time needed to study and passed the NY Bar Exam to become a fully licensed attorney.
Kershwin spoke extensively from his viewpoint as non-white immigrant who came from a country where racism was legal. He says he will always be seen an an immigrant even though he and his family have lived in the US for years and have fully assimilated into their American lifestyle.
Kershwin continues to practice as an attorney, while Thej works as speech language pathologist with Avon Public Schools. He and Thej were recently elected to positions in Avon Town Government.
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