With all of the tragic events that have and are taking place in today's world, I thought it would be a good idea to chat with someone who has had a complicated background, yet still maintained healthy sense of optimism. Yes. It's a good and light-hearted story that we can all use as encouragement, especially one that comes from young person.
Zhanna Imel is my guest for this episode. She was originally orphaned in Kazakhstan but was eventually adopted and brought to the United States. She's lived a good portion of her young years, especially elementary school in a 5th wheel trailer and moved around the country quite a bit. She didn't start attending public school until she entered high school after pleading with her Mother to permit her to do so.
To help finance her way through a small college in the mountains of southwest Colorado, she worked cleaning vacation properties in the tourist town there. During her senior year, she applied and competed for a coveted Pickering Fellowship and was selected. The Pickering Fellowship is a U.S. Department of State program which finances graduate school for its Fellows, and also provides two summer internships (one in Washington DC and the other at a U.S. Embassy overseas). Upon completion of graduate school, the Pickering Fellows, including Zhanna, will be onboarded as new U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officers (U.S. Diplomats). In Zhanna's case, she will start as a Foreign Service Officer in September, 2021.
I do hope you will listen to this episode and Zhanna's story. Truly, she is the sound and presence of meaningful and engaging optimism.
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The goal of my podcast is to have interesting guests share their thoughts on different issues, have guest co-hosts to discuss various topics (especially those that offer humor), and even share short episodes in which I discuss thoughtful and even heartwarming issues.
Special thanks to Devine and Company (https://www.devineandcompany.com/) for their guidance on episode format and technical details.
*Twitter: @stewartdevine5
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