The 18th-century farmhouse that sits inside a park in Jamaica, Queens means a lot to Fayez Eissa.

The Parks Department employee is helping to oversee the renovation of the home where Rufus King lived in the early 1800s. King's name may not ring a bell, but he was a big deal when the country was new - signing the Constitution and serving as a Senator from New York.

"I'm working where he lived," Eissa said.

Eissa has spent a lot of time researching King - not just because he's working on the house, but because he wants to learn all he can about the United States. Just six years ago, Eissa, his wife and their children left behind their extended family in Egypt and immigrated to America, after he obtained a visa through a government lottery.

"I was jumping for joy," Eissa recalled.

Eissa wanted to escape the instability of his native country and provide a better life for his kids. While you won't hear Eissa complain, it has, at times, been a struggle.

"The kid spent two weeks in the pre-school, pre-kindergarten and he could not speak English, and he was coming home sad and crying," Eissa said. "And he was saying, ‘please papa, tell them that I'm good, they don't play with me because they don't understand me.’ One month later he was making fun of our accent."

Like his son, Eissa has persevered. A trained architect, he can't practice here because he lacks the proper license. So, he drives for Uber at night.

"To me, it was a motive to improve," Eissa said "Not to hold you down."

And he works during the day for the Parks Department as a resident engineer, often out of his car, on a desk he built for his steering wheel.

It has paid off. Eissa's now a homeowner, and as of August, a U.S. citizen.

"I worked hard, and I think I'm doing well," Eissa said.

Eissa often thinks backs to the comments made by the judge who presided over his naturalization ceremony.

"He said how people came from all over the world," said Eissa. "Everyone has different goals, different reasons to come here. But when they come here, and they melt down, they are all the same, all equal, no titles."

Those words amplified as he restores the home of one of the founders of the country he now calls home.