Jaidar Nurgaziev: Expect Nothing, Embrace Everything
What does it mean to be Jaidar? Kyrgyz for "joy", Jaidar is destined to bring happiness, and he shares the story of finding joy for everyone, but most importantly, himself. Let's see how to make "life is hard" into "life is"
13 Jul 46min
Alexander Wu: Not your average dropout
Alexander is a guy who wants to do great things by solving some of the world's most important porblems. He dropped out of Minerva and is starting a new startup working on problems in energy. Reach him at @alexanderwu2000 on instagram
12 Jun 39min
Marathoners of Minerva
Eating stinky tofu midway through Taipei runs, wearing barefoot shoes at the Buenos Aires marathon, or suffering in the final miles of the Mount Fuji marathon. 5 Minervans chat with our host Jonathan about their running experiences in the rotation cities.
30 Mai 48min
Dave Marcus: Storytelling Secrets of Minerva University
David L. Marcus is known (mostly by himself) for his sense of humor. He traversed five continents as a journalist, author and education consultant, then became Minerva University’s Chief Communications Officer. As a newspaper bureau chief, Marcus lived for a decade in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, covering education, immigration and the environment. His team won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, for investigating violence against women. He wrote two books about adolescents, "Acceptance" and "What It Takes to Pull Me Through." He earned his bachelor’s with honors at Brown University, where he was elected senior class president. Later, he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Now he hopes to be a stand-up comedian.
8 Mai 53min
Aboozar Hadavand: Figs are the Best Fruit
Aboozar Hadavand is a professor of computational sciences at Minerva. He is an economist by training and loves statistics, mystery books, woodworking, and dad jokes.
29 Apr 38min
Lui Stegmann: Advocacy, Asphalt, and Everything In Between
Lui has truly lived several lives — from advocating for sex workers in Kolkata to road-tripping across Argentina for annual "women's encounters." Before all that, she tried her hand at advertising, but soon realized there were better protagonists than soap. She treasures her friends and thrives most when rallying alongside them to champion causes that move them.
19 Apr 35min
Melissa Morgenstern: What Unemployment Taught Me
Melissa Morgenstern is a third culture kid who is excited to work with other global nomads and adventure seekers. She has spent 5 long and wonderful years at Minerva and looks forward to spending even more years there down the line. Melissa is passionate about personal finance, reading, playing the saxophone, and getting alone time whenever she can.
5 Apr 58min
Ba Thien Tran: Building Jurassic Park
Ba Thien (M24), a German-born Vietnamese dinosaur enthusiast, dreams of building Jurassic Park—minus the part where humans get eaten. Growing up with books like Rich Dad Poor Dad, he went from selling candy in his high school locker to selling bubble tea in Germany, now venturing into the AI startup space.
7 Mar 35min
