Category Archives: Get Inspired!

  • Meet Khaled Al Sabawi, Canadian-Palestinian engineer and Founder and President of MENA Geothermal and TABO Palestine

    June 2, 2012

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    Khaled Al Sabawi, a Palestinian-Canadian Engineer, received his degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada in 2006 and later became the first certified Geothermal Engineer in the Middle East. Khaled installed the first geothermal systems in Palestine in 2007 and went on to becoming the Founder and President of MENA Geothermal, a Palestinian green energy business. MENA Geothermal was awarded the National Energy Globe Award in 2008 and is currently installing the largest geothermal system in the Middle East at a capacity of 1.6 MW megawatts at the University of Madaba in Jordan. Khaled was named “One of the World’s Top Energy Entrepreneurs” by Global Post and was recently promoted to the position of General Manager of UCI, MENA’s parent company and one of the largest real-estate development companies in Palestine.

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  • Meet Maddie Bradshaw, a 16-year-old millionaire entrepreneur.

    May 29, 2012

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    Maddie Bradshaw of Dallas, Texas says her family has always been creative – and into recycling. When she was 10, she wanted to decorate her locker. So, her uncle, who had an old Coke machine, gave her 50 bottle caps. She painted them and put magnets on them, and even gave some to her friends, who loved them. She liked them so much she decided to turn them into necklaces so she could take them anywhere with her.

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  • Meet Adam Braun, founder of Pencils of Promise

    May 23, 2012

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    Adam Braun is the Founder and Executive Director of Pencils of Promise, the nonprofit organization that has opened more than 50 schools around the world and delivered over 1.5 million educational hours in just over three years. PoP was founded with just $25 and a birthday party in October 2008 using what Braun describes as a “For-Purpose” approach to blending nonprofit idealism with for-profit business principles. Continue reading »

  • Meet Somaly Mam, a Cambodian fighter against sexual slavery

    May 22, 2012

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    Born to a tribal minority family in the Mondulkiri province of Cambodia, Somaly Mam began life in extreme poverty. With limited options as a severely marginalized ethnic group, and living in unimaginable despair, her family often resorted to desperate means to survive. This confluence of dire circumstances led to the unspeakable horrors that would mark Somaly’s early years. Somaly was sold into sexual slavery by a man who posed as her grandfather. To this day, due to the passing of time and the unreliability of a wounded memory, Somaly still does not know who this man was to her. Yet his actions set her on an unimaginable path fraught with danger, desperation, and ultimately triumph.

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  • Meet Suleika Jaouad, a 23 year-old writer and cancer fighter

    May 17, 2012

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    Suleika Jaouad (pronounced: su-LAKE-uh ja-WAD) is a 23-year-old writer, adventurer and cancer ninja. Her weekly column in the New York Times ‘Well’ section chronicles a young person’s journey with cancer. A video series accompanies the column.

    A triple citizen, she hails from New York, Tunisia and Switzerland. Suleika graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies and certificates in French and Women & Gender Studies. Since graduation, she has been battling an advanced form of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) which, by the time it was diagnosed, had turned into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Suleika is currently undergoing a bone marrow transplant (her 21-year-old brother, Adam, is her donor). She provides advice and a listening ear to people who are affected by life-threatening illnesses.

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  • Meet Adora Svitak, a child prodigy and internationally published author.

    May 14, 2012

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    Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids’ big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups’ willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.

    A prolific short story writer and blogger since age seven, Adora Svitak (now 12) speaks around the United States to adults and children as an advocate for literacy.