Purpose > Passion
Dear team, While I’m used to crisp fall weather, pumpkin spice lattes and the transition to winter jackets at this time of the air, I’m experiencing quite the opposite this year as the hottest and most humid days are quickly dawning upon Dar es Salaam. I spent the past month becoming a SQL ninja in [...]
What keeps you awake at night?
Dear team, What keeps you awake at night? While at Deloitte, we’d often ask our clients this question in hopes of identifying the company’s most critical problems as well their biggest aspirations. Similarly, this question can also be asked on a personal level. From time to time, thoughts regarding decisions and aspirations have inhibited me [...]
Definitions
Dear team, The end of my first month in Tanzania approached quickly and as we’ve all recently had experiences in taking a leap of faith and going headfirst into something new, you can appreciate how defining the first month is in many ways. This past month has been one filled with opportunities that I’ve been eager to grasp [...]
Turning vision into reality part II
This is Mary teaching a “How to make homemade salsa” class at HourSchool Dear team, I am taking a leave from Thinktiv to focus full-time on HourSchool. HourSchool has been gaining lots of interests and traction since our beta launch last month. Balancing a full-time job and full-time school was hard, but balancing a full-time [...]
Fear and Excitement
Dear team, Jambo! Dar is beautiful. The people are constantly welcoming us with Karibu, the weather is warm with a cool breeze and my cubicle is overlooking the Indian Ocean. And myself, I’m becoming more accustomed to the culture, more excited about the work and being a bit more ok about being away from home [...]
Destination Waterloo
Dear team, So I have decided to head back to Waterloo for the fall. After a lot of reflection and trying to figure out next steps in my life, something about returning to Waterloo for the next little while feels right. Only this time, I am returning back to the city where it all began [...]
On heart-stopping and heartwarming decisions
Dear team, This past month, I made a difficult decision that both makes my heart stop and warms it at the same time. In one month from now, I’ll be headed to Tanzania to help develop a mobile health technology and strategy. Heartstopping Almost two years ago, I joined the leading firm in Security and [...]
Summer in Austin is so hot that my months are melting together
Dear team, Summer in Austin is so hot that my months are melting together. This city is simply amazing, fun, and got creative energy bursting everywhere all the time. Here’s to some june some july updates :] In the last couple of months, our paper submission was accepted to a conference. Since that trip got [...]
My Personal Manifesto for Living in an Age of Uncertainty
Dear team, For my June update (and throw in May for good measure), I wanted to share with you a blog post below that I originally published on my own blog, that captures and articulates exactly how I envision my life to be in the years to come. It’s taken me awhile, but I believe [...]
Hard work, hard lessons and hard thinking
(via @heyamberrae) Dear team, This past month, I worked hard. I worked hours that would compare or exceed those of I-bankers. At 3am on a Friday evening, I smiled as I discovered my heart work. I learned that heart work takes hard work. This past month, I learned a difficult lesson. I learned that there [...]
Race, birthplace, and that weird thing called belonging
Dear team, Originally, my May update was going to be yet another post about my thoughts on interaction design and social entrepreneurship. But being in Hong Kong for 2 weeks gave my brain some room to think about something else, serving one of the trip’s true intentions. I’ve always been able to relate when Renjie [...]
Materialize
Hi team, In the 13 days that this post has been overdue, I’ve thought every day about the content but have not had the time to coordinate all my thoughts. In the past 13 days, I have been consumed with the feeling of being alive, of working so hard that the fatigue no longer affected [...]
JFDI: Life is About Creating Yourself
Dear team, One of the most important lessons that I’ve learned recently, is to let go of my perfectionist side and to simply just go with the flow and start. Begin. JFDI. (A play on Nike’s Just Do It). Often times, the process of wanting to have everything in place just the way you want [...]
If you want something enough, the whole world will help you.
Dear team, This is not going to be a long reflective post. I have many many thoughts in my head which are going to require some time to be digested, and slowly, through writing, formulate and articulate themselves. But since my April update is long overdue; first thing first: I graduated. If there was one thing [...]
Mobile for Identity: A Quarterly Review
4/5 in Austin Hi team, March will forever be associated with Austin’s food trucks, working out of thinktiv and the experience that is SXSW, but alas life must go on. As we move (get it? we move?) into the second quarter of the year, it’s timely that I re-evaluate two of my goals this year: [...]
The Five Whys
Dear team, A quick piece here to get the ball rolling on my blogs (finally). Consider The Five Whys. This is one of the themes from SXSW that have stuck in my mind. You may know that I live by the line, “all about the why”, which may be why this is so prominent to me. [...]
To my fellow travellers and global nomads
Dear team, I wanted to dedicate my March update to anyone who has grown up or lived extensively in a foreign country other than their country of origin, and is currently searching for ‘home’ wherever it may be. I wanted to keep my update short and relevant to the current journey that I am fortunate [...]
Let’s make everyday like today.
Dear team, I’m launching a company. It is called HourSchool, a platform that lets you post what you want to learn, and it figures out who in your network can teach it. This is built upon our belief that learning should be social and our mission is to provide an easy way for people to [...]
What makes you feel alive?
One year and 2 weeks ago, Ruby, Janna and I were faced with this challenge when we ventured to Boston for the Social Enterprise Conference 2010. And the above has also been the theme of my March. Time and again, I’ve been forced to sit still, unable to escape, and ask myself ‘What makes me [...]
New Job – Partners in Learning
Dear Team, The past month has gone by so fast that I am struggling to come up with new stories to tell you. But I have one that I am pleased to tell you about. I know that I’ve been telling you about this for a while, but now it’s official: I am working at [...]
Noorus Salam: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Dear team, For the month of February, I wanted to bring your attention and focus to some key research and policy developments in conflict resolution and peacebuilding that I have come across, as a result of my recent trip to the Philippines these past two months. The women’s peace conference held in Zamboanga City and organized by [...]
Ideas. Process. Intent.
Dear team, One thing that makes us an awesome team is that we continue to push each other to grow, share, and create. Thanks to Kris for suggesting that we use this space to become well-versed in the multiple disciplines in which we are working. As I’ve urged Kris to share her work and articulate [...]
