Gulnazik shares her inspiring journey of coming to the U.S. from the beautiful country of Kyrgyzstan to pursue higher education. Her path was far from easy. She opens up about overcoming socio-economic obstacles, starting at a community college, and ultimately transferring to Columbia University with a full-ride scholarship, an incredible achievement given the low acceptance rates for international transfer students. She also talks about co-founding Kel Chai Ich, an organization dedicated to helping Kyrgyz women access universities abroad by providing resources and mentorship. Throughout the episode, Gulnazik emphasizes the importance of perseverance and leaves us with encouraging advice at the end.

After a much-needed and long break to rebrand the podcast and improve audio quality, ‘Guests’ podcast is back! This time, I interviewed Brandon Silberstein—a Stanford graduate, policy manager at Instacart, and talented writer, actor, and ceramic artist. Brandon talks about designing his own major at Stanford, his jobs at think tanks, Google, Pinterest, and so much more. He shares lessons learned from career missteps, his passion for writing, acting, and ceramics, as well as valuable insights on navigating rejection and the importance of practicing kindness.