Humans of Minerva

Professor Woods-Puckett talks about her journey of growing up in a household that equally valued science and art and how that drove her to be an Arts and Humanities professor. Professor Woods-Puckett also reflects on the history that has led us to create a divide between what we consider traditional Art and Science. She makes her strong case for rethinking STEM into STEAM (and we are not talking a...

“I question why I take this job every day,” said the Taipei City Director.   Why? Wait, who is this city director anyway?   The Student Life team supports Minervan's learning and living outside of the Forum classroom. While this job could contain occasional crying and cruising (!), it is one that is filled with laughter and learning as well. The Taipei SL team includes City Director Fang...

Our host, Ben Chen, catches up with Minerva alumni by randomly calling them. Alumni share their New Year's goals, holiday plans, and other fun stories from flight cancellations to making peppermint bark chocolates.

M26 students gather together with our host Jules to discuss their favorite traditions, movies, songs, drinks, and so much more during this special holiday season. Tune in to hear stories from all around the world and learn about how these Minerva students plan to spend their holiday vacation.

Mvumeni (M22) believes that it's his purpose to open doors for other people because he's had the same done for him. He's starting with his family who've always supported his endeavors, his friends who are always available to listen to him rant about business, and teachers/mentors who invested in his growth.

One of Jonathan's biggest philosophies is "document as many moments in your life as possible". This manifests in his blog, his diary, and most importantly, the "Jokes and Stories" folder on his Notes app. In addition, Jonathan is the self-proclaimed "most optimistic person he knows." Yet when his peanut butter runs out, panic ensues.

Whether it's homeless nights in Times Square or opening iftar with biscuits on subways, Haider Gillani (M25) greets challenges with open arms and a hint of gratitude. When he's not chasing experiences, lost without a SIM card, Haider is learning AI to bridge the dystopian gap between technology and humanity.

Catch a glimpse into the life of a chaotic passionate artsy black girl with more self-awareness and love for dogs than she knows what to do with!

Thanh's (M20) favorite things to do: finding the best food in NYC, organizing meetups with Minerva's, pole dancing, traveling, and always looking for corgis on the street. 

Christine Looser is a a fan of curiosity, productive failure, and dangerous playgrounds. Prof. Looser is a behavioral scientist at Minerva where she has taught brand strategy, led the business college, and now heads professional learning partnerships. She's fascinated by how humans learn, change their minds, and build social connections.

Savannah (M24) is a French Canadian from Ottawa. She spent two years living in Costa Rica at UWC, an international boarding school. She is an Arts and Business major who strives to incorporate creativity into everything she does. She loves fashion, ballet, tattoos, painting, pottery, video editing, and more!

Kseniia (M24) is the definition of a tight schedule, constant adventures and being grounded. Her classmates refer to her as "the one who has her things together," while during the last two years, she has completed 9 internships, visited 16 countries and established a perfect algorithm to find an ideal coffee place to work from. She is into web 3.0, migration, tango, finance, coffee, investments an...

Alhassan (M26) has changed a lot over the years on the journey toward purpose and happiness, and like many Minervans, had to overcome a lot to get there. Currently, he lives in San Francisco and he is seeking internships in business and Tech. He's interested in mental well-being, helping others, and discovering himself better. In his non-spare time, he is playing video games, writing stories, watc...

Mark Kukis is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute and Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at the Minerva Schools, where he teaches government. Kukis spent a decade as a journalist before joining academia, including three years covering the American occupation of Iraq and the early phase of the American intervention in Afghanistan. He currently lives in the Boston area with his wife an...

Kay (M20) has changed a lot over the years on the journey towards purpose and happiness, and like many Minervans, had to overcome a lot to get there. Currently, she lives in Berlin and works for a startup on People & Culture topics. She's passionate about mental well-being, social justice, and the outdoors. In her non-spare time, she is bouldering, swimming, working on climate activism, going...

Jackie is an M22 at Minerva who is living in Seattle and working at Meta. She thinks she changed a lot over time, because she constantly cringes at herself for what she said or the things she posted about just a year before. But who cares because YOLO!

Nikki Eberhardt’s life goal is to power people with audacious solutions, armed to tackle the globe’s most intractable challenges. Aside from being on Global Citizen's talent team, on Delta Air Lines' Global Talent team, and a business professor at Minerva, Prof. Eberhardt is also a loving mother, sister, and wife. She hopes to pass the same value of service to one's community that her parents taug...

Hailey (M24) is an RV nomad and ex-Google software engineer interested in alternative education. She aspires to get her PhD in Computational Cognitive Science. When she is not studying, she is teaching people how to find their purpose or online shopping for Japanese office supplies. Pretty much everything she owns is teal.

Born and raised in Bangkok, Tara (M21) is a brand strategist living in New York City. Now navigating life post-grad, she continues to explore new hobbies (hello skiing, yoga, and cocktail-making), maintaining long-distance friendships, and redefining what it means to live a balanced life for herself.  At a party, you'll probably hear her laugh before you see her.

Professor Alex Terrana’s physical home is in Ontario, Canada, where she was born, raised, and continues to reside. She has happily found her virtual home at Minerva, where she gets to spend her days thinking about how to best help students learn. In addition to working with students, she also loves baking, gymnastics, cosmology, and spending time with her cat, Freddy.

Yashvardhan is an aspiring economist passionate about social impact from India. He cares about making the world a better place, in the best way possible, through engaging with effective altruism. You should definitely reach out to him for interesting history stories, music recommendations in the indie-folk genre, or understanding why Barça is the best football club to exist :)

Yueh-Han (also known as 岳涵 \ Johann) (M22) was extremely curious and brave as a child and still strives to live a life with such values. In his pre-Minerva life, he quit high school to experiment with his own "city as a campus" model, taking charge of his own learning path through homeschool. That worked well and eventually lead him to Minerva. Post-graduation, he continues to run life experimen...

Ha (M23) is a witty scholar from Vietnam with the power to change failure to a greater success and the unequivocal love of friends, family, and last but not least, boba. Studying in Singapore on a merit scholarship, she manifested that conflicts could turn into a strengthened friendship; despite a misfired endeavor to work in a crypto climate startup, she redirected the dejection to be successful...

Jonathan Powers lives in Montreal, Canada with his wife, two sons, and two cats. Born and raised in the United States, he has also lived in France and Sweden. Prof. Powers is an unrepentant generalist who reads promiscuously and still doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up.

Professor Trisha Stan is a generalist who specializes in learning new things, especially about science! She holds a PhD in Immunology and loves to sing. She is spending the summer enjoying all forms of art and might just have a secret album in the works. This episode was hosted by Leo Wu and edited by Cassandra Cruz.