At an early age, Matthew Tedesco saw his mother navigate, and survive, conditions of poverty. He was two when his parents divorced and his mother was left to find her way alone. “My mother worked as a waitress and moved us into a small apartment with a woman named Ms. Best and her three sons,” says Matt. The neighborhood where they lived had serious unmet needs and was scary for everybody. His mother was determined to get them out.

Arsha Cazazian-Clement’s parents grew up in Romania and raised her in Queens and Long Island, NY, where Arsha went to Armenian Summer Camp. There, she encountered Armenians who were French, Nigerian, Iranian, Syrian, and Dutch. “They each came with their own distinct stories and preferences toward things like fashion, art,” recalls Arsha. “Although we were all Armenian, we were very different. Eight weeks every summer for a decade, we integrated and mixed and shared our stories and photos.”

Until third grade, Cindy Chastain knew only suburban Kansas, where people looked and sounded like her. Then her family took a trip to Dublin and Cindy befriended the children who lived in the B&B. “They spoke differently, they played different games. While it was a third grader’s experience of the world,” says Cindy. “My view of what was out there completely shifted.”

At age 19, Diana Amoa left her home country, Kenya to attend college in the UK. Her parents had raised her to feel at home in the world. “One of my flat mates was fascinated by me,” Diana remembers. “I was the first Black person they ever met. We ended up becoming the best of friends because they approached our connection from a place of curiosity.”

Mila Petrova came to the United States from Eastern Europe to go to college. Her education included her first exposure to prejudice and bias. “My roommate had never traveled out of her state—home was all she knew,” remembers Mila, who describes “a bit of a clash right there at the beginning.” Having come from a country that was “very closed and limited in terms of information,” Mila was surprised to find people with many choices who would shut out the world. “Openness should be an instinct,” says Mila, who searched for her people and quickly found them: fellow world travelers.

Scott Hefter became a student again in 2019. “It was phenomenal,” he says, describing the year he and his wife spent as Fellows in the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University. For professionals ready to pivot late-career into social impact fields, the program draws people from across the globe in a cross cultural exploration of issues demanding attention. “After 30 years in management consulting, including some government work in criminal justice reform, veteran health care, and the impact of the Gulf oil spill, I developed a passion for the social impact space.”

Zainab Wadood was eight years old, growing up in South Africa, when an audiologist recommended hearing aids—huge devices, at the time, that would have encircled her head. “When he showed my parents, my father was like, no,” says Zainab, who progressed through elementary, secondary and even higher education, consumed by the constant effort to catch up. A college professor and supervisor noticed the issue and asked her to see an ENT. “After I got out of the booth, the technician said to me, ‘How did you get through your life?’”