Chancellor and CEO,

Fremont College

Sabrina Kay moved from South Korea with her family when she was 18. She resented having to emigrate and barely spoke English, but when she got to Los Angeles she studied computer science and math in college.

“Our goal was to achieve better lives, assimilate into America and stay in this great country,” she said.

She wasn’t content just to study. After working with her parents in the apparel industry, she started a vocational training school out of her bedroom in 1992, teaching apparel workers how to use then-revolutionary computer-aided design and manufacturing machines.

Ten years later, after growing the enrollment, she sold the school for millions, enabling her to join 21 charitable boards and earn a fistful of graduate degrees, including an M.B.A. from USC and a doctorate in education from both the University of Pennsylvania and its Wharton business school.