Valarie Kaur is a national interfaith leader, documentary filmmaker, and lawyer who centers her work around the power of storytelling. She is the founder of Groundswell at Auburn Seminary, a non-profit initiative with 100,000 members that equips people of faith in social movements. Working with students and communities, she has made award-winning films and led campaigns on hate crimes, gun violence, racial profiling, immigration detention, and solitary confinement. Valarie is a prolific public speaker on college and university campuses and frequent political contributor on MSNBC to the Melissa Harris-Perry Show. Her opinion essays regularly appear on CNN, The Washington Post, and The Huffington Post. Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School, where she founded the Yale Visual Law Project to train students in the art of storytelling for social change.
Valarie has been called “a stand-out figure in the world of interfaith organizing and activism” and “one of the most exceptional speakers and thinkers.” The Center for American Progress lists her among 13 national faith leaders to watch. In 2013, she was named one of eight Asian American women of influence, won a Person of the Year award by India Abroad, and delivered the Baccalaureate address for Stanford University.
My Definition Of Success | Success is leading a whole-hearted life.
I Am Driven By | I’m inspired by people who suffer from injustice – racism, poverty, homophobia, religious bigotry, gender violence, and other unspeakable pains – and still ask me how I’m doing. They drive me to pursue a lifetime career in public service.
A Key Talent | When the world gets me down (which might be daily), I turn to my friends, family, and faith to lift me back up again onto the Sikh path of “Chardi Kala” – boundless optimism even in darkness, ever-rising high spirits even in hardship.
Principles I Live By | The way we make change is just as important as the change we make. When we are angry at those who disagree with us, make decisions out of fear and a sense of scarcity, or drive our bodies into the ground with stress, we inhabit the very dysfunctions we are trying to change in our society. To make a lasting difference, we must embody the health, wellness, non-violence and kindness we want to see in the world.
How I Use My Mind | “The arc of the moral universe is long,” said the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, “but it bends toward justice.” Injustice has gone on long before we were born and will continue after we die. But while we are on this earth, we have a chance to bend that arc with optimism and joy.
Lessons I Have Learnt | I have learned that courage comes at a cost. It can cost you your job, popularity, sense of security, or even life and limb to speak truth to power or blaze your own path. But it can also give you the meaning of your life – and change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Performing At My Peak | Sleeping eight hours each night. Working for not more than 90 minutes at a time. Writing at a standing desk. Devoting one hour each day to meditate, stretch, dance, or walk along the sea with my husband and dog, looking for dolphins.
The Meaning Of Life | To leave the world a little more just and beautiful than how we found it.
The Best Advice I’ve Received | This is your story. It is written. And you are writing it.
Jhonathan Florez is a Colombian air athlete who has specialises in the disciplines of Skydiving, Base Jumping and wingsuit flying. In 2012 Jhonathan impressed the world when he broke 4 Guinness World Records, by making the longest jump in human history in both time and distance. Jhonathan passed away in Swtizerland in 2015 after he […]
Janet is co-founder and managing partner of Charlotte Rhys, South Africa’s leading luxurious bath, body and lifestyle range. Within 14 years the brand expanded from a single product to over 100 luxury products. Today they supply leading hotels across the world. My Definition Of Success | Success means achieving the goals you set, and it is inevitable […]
Mark is a South African writer and director. He graduated with Honours in Dramatic Art from the University of the Witwatersrand. After completing his studies, he taught himself screenwriting and film appreciation before traveling to Los Angeles, where he worked as a script reader for several production companies.Since then, Mark has worked as a freelance […]
Louis Minnaar forms one half of Albino Creations, with Werner Burger. Their amazing collaboration allows them to tackle animation, illustration and design work, and from what we can see, there is no shortage of magnificence in their work. They see beauty in things that ordinarily seem odd, and this gives them their explicit uniqueness. From […]
José Manuel Ramos-Horta GCL AC is the United Nations’ special Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS). He was the President of East Timor from 2007 to 2012, the second since independence from Indonesia, and is a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. He began his career in […]
Lance Brown author of “The Driver of Change” is a living testament to his “Creating Opportunities” philosophy and presentations. Growing up in Mitchells Plain, a Cape Town suburb where dreams rarely stretch beyond one’s street corner, Lance dared to reach for the stars. From a small seed of a basic job as a delivery driver […]
Linda Olagunju is the Managing Director at DLO Energy Resources & Founder of the Renewable Energy Forum South Africa. She holds an LLB from the University of Cape Town and an LLM in International Commercial Law with a specialisation in Oil and Gas Law from the University of Aberdeen. Linda was part of the team […]
Aspen Heights began with the vision to have the best product for students. We looked across a landscape of mostly aging apartment communities and wanted to “Revolutionize Student Living.” We actually listened to students and turned that feedback into communities they love. As we’ve grown, our neighborhoods continue to change and improve, but people have […]
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