How International Travel is Life Changing - Garren Katz

In Chapter 7 of 13 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, executive and private life coach Garren Katz shares how traveling internationally has taught him the value of different perspectives. Learning to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" has taught him new ways to look at life. He encourages others to overcome fear of acting on booking the experience, noting rarely are things as scary or daunting as they seem. Garren is a graduate of Western Michigan University and coaches clients on areas such as entrepreneurship, relationships, and personal finances. Learn more about Garren at http://about.me/garrenkatz .

How to Travel Internationally and Engage Influencer Culture - Phil McKenzie

In Chapter 7 of 12 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, media and publishing entrepreneur Phil McKenzie shares why international travel is fundamental to understanding influencer culture. Immersion into local activities, experiences, and communities shaping an influencer culture breaks down outsider perspectives formed via media. McKenzie uses Sex and the City and Law and Order as two examples outsiders use when trying to understand New York City life and culture.  Phil McKenzie graduated from Howard University and earned an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.  Before starting FREE DMC and the Influencer Conference, McKenzie worked for eight years in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs.

How to Make International Work Experience Relevant at Home - Gabrielle Lamourelle

In Chapter 19 of 21 in her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, global health consultant Gabrielle Lamourelle explains how her non-communicable disease thesis work done in India is applicable to United States public health work. Lamourelle highlights the overlapping diet change and sedentary lifestyle issues affecting resource poor urban settings in both the U.S. and India. She finds many similarities in designing health programs to tackle obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease problems across countries. Lamourelle graduated with a BS in Sociology from University of California at Berkeley and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Sociomedical Sciences from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. View more career learning and development knowledge videos at http://www.captureyourflag.com. Follow Capture Your Flag on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/captureyourflag. Follow Capture Your Flag on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/captureyourflag.

Why Focus Global Health Career on Systems Strengthening - Gabrielle Lamourelle

In Chapter 15 of 21 in her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, global health consultant Gabrielle Lamourelle refines her career focus on health system strengthening while working abroad in Chennai, India. Using systems and frameworks honed during Columbia University graduate studies, Lamourelle looks for post-graduate opportunities to affect change working in the private sector. Lamourelle graduated with a BS in Sociology from University of California at Berkeley and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Sociomedical Sciences from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. View more career learning and development knowledge videos at http://www.captureyourflag.com. Follow Capture Your Flag on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/captureyourflag. Follow Capture Your Flag on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/captureyourflag.

How Peace Corps Volunteer Reforms Health Care in West Africa - Clara Soh

In Chapter 5 of 10 in her 2010 interview with Capture Your Flag host Erik Michielsen, health economist and comparative effectiveness researcher Clara Soh Williams discusses how her Peace Corps experience in the West African country of the Gambia allowed her to impact a national health care system. Soh's 3-year experience focuses on decentralizing the public health decision-making system. This process involves increasing district health office decision-making capacity around disease surveillance, pharmaceutical procurement and supply chain, and regionally executed mass-immunization and vaccination days. Soh holds an MPA in Public Health Finance from New York University and a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.

What are the Rules of Engagement Doing Business in China - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 19 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares lessons learned working in a Chinese business environment. Through experience working at a trade show and managing a team, Pryor identifies differences in both communication and management styles. Pryor learns how to establish respect and trust working with Chinese teammates, partners, and customers. To reduce his outsider status, Pryor prioritizes understanding his team's interests and background before getting to business. Pryor earned an MBA from the University of Navarra IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.

Why to Pursue International MBA at IESE Business School in Spain - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 8 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares why he chose University of Navarra's IESE Business School for his MBA Studies. Pryor notes the rigorous classroom component, including mandatory attendance, intense workload, case studies, and cold calling. He also notes the absolute curve and associated probationary periods. While more academically focused than North American peer schools, Pryor finds value in high percentage of international students and the related post-graduate international networking possibilities. Learn more about IESE at http://www.iese.edu/en/MBAPrograms/index.asp.

Why to Expose Children to International Travel Early in Life - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 5 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares why he and his wife prioritize exposing their children to foreign culture and travel early in life. Pryor, a fluent Spanish speaker, and his wife, a fluent Greek speaker, see foreign as something not to be questioned but to be embraced. The foreign culture exposure becomes a natural experience and counters any isolation that would occur without it.

How Muslim High School Girl Inspires Education Reporter - Yoav Gonen

Yoav Gonen returns to Capture Your Flag to build upon his 2009 interview with a 2010 conversation with host Erik Michielsen. In Chapter 1 of 17, Gonen, a New York Post education reporter, shares why the human element in his reporting makes his job so fulfilling. Gonen regularly meets people in extraordinary circumstance and gets to tell their stories. In one instance, a young Bangladesh-born Muslim girl living in New York overcomes family and cultural obstacles to study her passion, biology, while in high school. Gonen details his experience discovering, researching, and writing the story that ultimately ended with the Muslim girl receiving a scholarship to study at Cornell University. Gonen is a University of Michigan graduate and also earned his Masters in Journalism from New York University.

How Fulbright Scholar Overcomes Anti-Americanism Abroad - Adam Carter

In Chapter 16 of 16, micro-philanthropist and humanitarian Adam Carter earns a Fulbright Scholarship and travels to Spain to pursue his studies. On the anniversary of 9/11, Carter finds himself in Morocco confronted by Anti-American sentiment. Carter asks these individuals to respect his opinion and not stereotype based on his nationality. This approach allows the conversation to be human, not political. The respect also opens dialogue to discuss challenging topics such as politics and religion once the individual bond is made. Carter continues to travel the world as founder of non-profit Cause and Affect Foundation (www.causeandaffectfoundation.org).

How Immersive International Travel Teaches the Golden Rule - Adam Carter

In Chapter 10 or 16, micro-philanthropist and humanitarian Adam Carter graduates the University of Michigan and travels extensively across the world. Carter immerses himself in cultures across races, nationalities, and socioeconomic classes and, through the process, sees them as equals. As an equal, Carter then gets a better understanding of the roots contributing to impoverished communities and cultures. From this, Carter begins working through ways to create solutions to these problems, over time moving on to create Cause and Affect Foundation (www.causeandaffectfoundation.org) and become a micro-philanthropist.

How to Build Sustainable Cross-Cultural Professional Relationships - Michael Olsen

In Chapter 7 of 16, social entrepreneur and technology consultant Michael Olsen shares how to best build cross-cultural professional relationships. First, Olsen highlights shared goals. Second, he recommends at minimum one in-person introduction. After forming his non-profit Kilifi Kids (www.kilifikids.org) in 2006, Olsen found an in-person visit to meet with the Kenyan project team in 2007 proved valuable building relationships and improving communication. Lastly, Olsen recommends persistence to maintain consistent progress working as team toward shared goals.

How Stanford Global Health Education Reshapes Non-Profit - Michael Olsen

In Chapter 5 of 16, social entrepreneur and 2003 Stanford graduate Michael Olsen starts a non-profit, Kilifi Kids - www.kilifikids.org - with his brother to provide secondary school scholarships to Kenyan children.  After working with Rotary International on scholarships, Olsen references his Stanford International Health class and his studies on high impact, low cost interventions.  Using notes, Olsen steers his organization to finance deworming medication for 30,000 school children at 25 cents or one quarter per child. 

Courtney Spence on How Students of the World Develops Documentary Filmmakers

In Chapter 5 of 15 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive and Students of the World founder Courtney Spence answers "What do you do and why do you do it?" She shares her organizational purpose to empower college students to travel abroad and tell the story of NGO work fighting problems on the frontlines. These locations range from New Orleans to India to Cambodia to other challenged areas. Students receive both impactful travel experiences gathering community stories on-location as well as post-production experience in Austin, Texas where projects are completed and, over time, distributed.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What do you do and why do you do it?

Courtney Spence: So I created students of the world back as a sophomore at Duke University with a purpose to tell stories of progress. What we do is we take university students, we partner them with some of the most innovative organizations working all over the world, our students spend about four weeks on location where they immerse themselves in a community, form relationships, form friendships and really purpose to tell the stories of those that are the front lines fighting some of the worlds most pressing problems and whether that be in Cambodia, India or New Orleans. We are a chapter based nonprofit so we have chapters at various universities across the nation, one of our chapters is here in Austin, the University of Texas, and when the students return from their four weeks of production we bring them back to Austin for a six week sort of mega post production creative brainstorm where we all work on various multi media projects so it’s short films, it’s photo essays, it’s audio documentaries, audio documentaries over photo essays so it’s really sort of up to the individual student to figure out how they want to best tell the story of that organization, that individual.

Erik Michielsen: How do you define success in what you do?

Courtney Spence: There’s a few things that we look back every year, first and foremost the student experience, did our students, you know, were they safe? Did they enjoy themselves? Do they feel like they really had a purpose in doing what they did and do they feel that they were successful in helping craft these stories from these organizations and these individuals on the ground? How many people heard these stories? What sort of impact did that have? For example, we had our team from the University of Texas in Northern Thailand working with a woman who basically had taken in children that were being trafficked, children from off the streets, it was a really impactful experience for the students, they showed it to a single individual person here in Austin and the next thing we knew, a five thousand dollar check was being written to go directly to this woman to build a new house for the children she was caring for. So seeing those small moments where people are moved by the media, moved by the story and want to get involved, that is certainly successful for us.

Courtney Spence on Why Uganda Human Rights Trip Refines Career Purpose

In Chapter 12 of 15 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit executive and Students of the World founder Courtney Spence answers "How did your 2003 trip to Uganda change your life?" Spence reflects on her travels to Uganda in 2003 to work in HIV and AIDS public health efforts. Experiences there, from witnessing charitable acts of kindness and charity to engaging with refugee children rescued from the LRA and civil war, resonate with Spence's soul and inspire her continued work with Students of the World.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How did your 2003 trip to Uganda change your life?

Courtney Spence: We went to Uganda to try and work with organizations that were fighting HIV-AIDS, Uganda is very famous for really tackling HIV-AIDS heads on and although it was - had some of highest percentage rates of infection, it has really been successful in lowering those rates. When we got there in 2003 the war in the north with the LRA, which is a rebel army led a madman named Joseph Kony, was really ravaging the north and ravaging the Acholi people, and there was 1.2 Acholi people at the time that were in refugee camps and everyone kept talking about the country as though it was split, I mean it was almost like a civil war, it’s like the south and the north, the north and the south and the south was where we had planned to spend the majority of our time. Well we got there and we had a camera and we had a member of parliament who was from the north who basically begged us to go up there and document what was going on. So three of us went up to the north for about a week, a week and a half and it was unlike anything I could’ve ever imagined, you couldn’t… you couldn’t write a fiction, you had 1.2 million people in refugee camps, the LRA is an army made up completely of children, so they go and they raid these camps and take a hundred, two hundred kids at a time, so much so that at the time it wasn’t safe for children to sleep at home or with their parents in these camps, they had to walk to town, sometimes up to ten kilometers each way.

They would sleep on the streets in town and you would go and there was thirty to forty thousand children at the time in Gulu. The concept that it is safer for children to sleep on the streets than it is for them to sleep with their families is something that I think us here, we can’t, you can’t fathom that, you cannot fathom that. At the same time we met people that were working on the ground, Human Rights Focus which was really an organization that was dedicated to calling out the government when they were mishandling the situations in the camps, which they were. We made friends with a group of young people in their twenties, early thirties, they created an organization called Charity for Peace and they were taking these children from the streets, volunteering, sleeping with them in basically a big school ground and they would divide up the children, girls on one side, boys on the other, provide them with some games, monitor them as they slept so there was some sort of sense of safety for these children on the streets. They took in seven thousand kids almost every night and it was like, people were doing things without any money, without any international support.

There was part of me that was inspired that people were doing something about it and it was -- it also just is a place that sort of resonated with my soul, I was there and I felt at home and I kind of feel this way about the world, I think there are certain places that resonate with your soul and it doesn’t necessarily have to make sense.

Why to Challenge Yourself to Experience New Things - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 4 of 14, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How has experimentation helped you live more fully in how you live each day?" Godiwalla shares why she constantly seeks new experiences to broaden her perspective on life and the decisions she makes.  Godiwalla prioritizes pushing beyond the socioeconomic and professional environments she sees daily.  She finds value seeing how other people operate and do things differently.

Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has experimentation helped you live more fully in what you do each day?

Nina Godiwalla: I just think it’s critical to my world. I constantly want to see new things, I want to see how people are operating, I want to have a better understanding of other people and people’s perspectives and, you know, we live in our world and a lot of times as much as I do like to experiment and see different things, day to day I’m with people not that different from me, I’m with people that are just similar, professionally, socioeconomic class and I love to get out and do and see different things. And really what it is, is it challenges me, it challenges me to realize I’m operating on assumptions everyday and that is what I think is critical in life. To me that’s growing, that’s growing as a person, trying to understand other people’s perspective, trying to move forward and come up with something that’s bigger than just ‘This is my – this is my little life in my little world’.

How to Cultivate Passion for Singing A Cappella - Audrey Parker

In Chapter 9 of 15, consultant Audrey Parker finds creative and artistic inspiration by singing outside of work. From college a cappella groups at Wake Forest University to chorus groups after graduation, Parker finds equilibrium in her creative and business pursuits. She learns to apply the artistic element in what she does professionally and her work experience in what she does artistically to make a stronger contribution.

How to Raise China Export Economy Energy Efficiency - Andrew Hutson

In Chapter 16 of 16, environmental management and green supply chain expert Andrew Hutson turns his career to China and implementing green energy solutions within its export economy. Hutson looks within China not to China energy generation - heavily coal-based - but instead to export economy sustainability initiatives.