Remain Open to Learning: The Foundation for Real-World Impact

In this episode, Eli Cahan (2019 cohort) talks with Abuzar Royesh (2018 cohort), who imagines a world where there is no inequality between developing and developed worlds. Abuzar reflects on how his childhood spent between Afghanistan and Pakistan shaped his worldview, and how his time in the United States as an exchange student sharpened his awareness of global inequality. He recounts how he decided to attend college in the United States and focus on policy, a path that led him years later to Stanford, where he earned two master's degrees: one in international policy and one in management science and engineering.

Abuzar also shares the start of his entrepreneurial journey during his time at Stanford, as well as his current work developing fraud detection and anti-money-laundering solutions for banks in Nigeria. Finally, Eli and Abuzar discuss Abuzar's efforts to help evacuate 450 Afghan girls through the 30 Birds Foundation, and the lessons in leadership and courage he learned from that experience.

Highlights from the episode

(2:54) Growing up between Afghanistan and Pakistan

(5:56) Experiencing the United States for the first time as an exchange student

(9:34) Returning to Afghanistan with newly formed perspectives

(13:26) Coming to Stanford as a Knight-Hennessy scholar

(17:57) Lessons from entrepreneurship at Stanford and beyond

(27:26) Helping evacuate 450 young girls from Afghanistan through the 30 Birds Foundation

(33:59) Favorite Knight-Hennessy Scholars core memories