[Applause]
every minute 24 people around the world
become refugees by the time I end this
talk with all of you today 300 people
will have joined the world’s worst
humanitarian crisis around this time
last year I was reading headlines about
the refugee crisis I was engaged in
rhetoric by our then-presidential elects
as they discussed immigration reform and
what it meant to be a refugee in America
and I quickly discovered that the fate
of millions of people was being
determined by a select few I saw
pictures of children being washed up on
shore and I learned that 13 migrants
died a day trying to cross bodies of
water in order to escape war in poverty
as a 21 year old business student I felt
frustrated more importantly I felt
useless I didn’t know how to engage with
this global community in this global
issue it didn’t feel like it was enough
to share a facebook status or engage in
conversations or find some money to
donate and I think that’s a feeling that
we all collectively feel often as we
discover more and more awful things in
the news and were engaged in
conversations of something that’s
occurring every single day that’s what
the power of the Internet has done so
for me I kept thinking about this other
21 year old girl in Syria one who
probably had the same dreams as I did
the same ambitions as I did the same
work ethic the same talent if not more
and I thought about what made us
different and I
couldn’t come up with anything except
the fact that I was lucky and she wasn’t
and that just seemed so fair that there
was no equity when it came to luck but
then I came across something that could
only be described as an open door
because doors lead to opportunity and
that door was called the whole prize the
Hult prize is a global challenge that
asked students to create for-profit
business model to solve the world’s
biggest problems and this year’s
challenge was to restore the dignity of
1 million refugees by the year 2022
through a sustainable business model the
Hope prize pushed students to engage in
social entrepreneurship and as the CEO
of the organization
Ahmed oscura often likes to say it’s a
way in a field to do good and also do
well and the most exciting part was that
the winner would win a million dollars
in investment money now I didn’t think I
was going to win but I thought that this
was an exciting way to finally create
action to do something to engage with a
global community in a way that was
beyond just social media I was excited
to maybe be a part of an opportunity
where I could be given taking any look
that was given to me and helped make
sure that it was given to someone else
so that they could create value as well
so that there was a domino ripple effect
and that was what was exciting about the
whole prize plus it would be pretty cool
if I could say I won a million dollars
about a year later I found myself and
with my incredible team on the stage at
the United Nations as one of six global
finalists pitching our transportation
solution
roshni rides that day on September 16th
we were awarded 1 million dollars by
President Bill Clinton for our
transportation solution it was an
[Applause]
but to get from that 21 year old who is
frustrated by the way the world worked
to a part of being part of a million
dollar team was not a journey without
its struggles and that’s what I want to
talk to you about today I learned a very
important lesson in human connectivity
and the way that that empowers people
not only in a team setting and ours a
social entrepreneur but us us as global
citizens and how we can engage in
empathy and human connection to create a
better world I started this whole prize
journey with three of some very
important people to me although when I
first met them I didn’t feel that way
about them at the time
hana hudson oneof and I actually met
three years ago in a financial
management class when I obnoxiously
asked them if they wanted to do a case
study competition with me because I
didn’t have any other friends in the
class who I thought would say yes and
that was the first time we really worked
together as a team we discovered two
things very very quickly the first was
that we were all very competitive people
and the second was that we really liked
to win so we decided to our do our first
competition and we were able to win and
then we engaged in another that year
after and then the third year was when
we really discussed this conversation
about the whole prize but when we read
about the whole prize and wanted to
engage in it we learned some things and
that made them different from the case
studies we had done before first it was
bigger than anything we had ever entered
it was a hundred thousand applicant pool
to be exact we were not even a drop in
the bucket and second it was something
that was so much bigger than us and it
was a problem that we really cared about
these were people who felt like extended
family to us you know all four of us are
children of immigrants some of us our
grandchildren of refugees and it was a
problem that we saw reflected in our own
communities we felt so connected to the
refugees around the world who were
struggling they felt like family to us
even if we didn’t know them and so
that’s what made the whole prize so
important and so as I began to work on
the whole prize with this team of
incredible individuals I learned
something very quickly but it’s easy to
want to go out and save the world and
help these other people and be
empathetic and sympathetic to their
causes but it doesn’t work if you’re not
paying attention to your first inner
circle first we all learn about teamwork
from preschool when you’re trying to
figure out what blocks to share or to
the college level when you’re trying to
figure out if you’re gonna be the
student that does all the work or not
and engage on group mean messages
teamwork is something is a skill set
that we all learn but what we don’t
understand is how to identify human
connectivity while you’re working as a
team and if you really want to put your
empathy and human connectivity skills to
the test get a group of your closest
friends and try starting a business with
them and tell me what happens so what I
realized was that this was my time to
identify what that meant to me human
connectivity is a step beyond empathy we
all have some kind of natural empathetic
instincts that was why I felt there was
so much injustice in the world and I
connected to this girl in Syria that was
empathy but to really walk a mile on
someone else’s shoes to be ready to
catch them before they even fall that’s
what human connection is about and
that’s what I learned from these three
people and that’s how I identified that
was that was the first time I was able
to identify what human connection meant
and empathy it’s not something that’s
just natural is what I learned it’s a
skill that requires practice and I can
tell you I had a lot of time to practice
over the last year and I’m still
learning but I didn’t realize what the
impact of human connection and empathy
is until much later for us we realized
that we wanted to create a solution that
connected refugees to resources and it
started with our own homes in Pakistan
where our parents were from we wanted to
really analyze the pain points there we
saw that there was 40 million urbanized
refugees in Pakistan which was the
largest host country to refugees in Asia
and it was shocking that there wasn’t a
lot of work being done there so that’s
where we wanted to start we came up with
a solution called roshni rides and for
us we wanted to connect the refugees we
were engaging with in Pakistan to
resources that they couldn’t access
before opportunities that they couldn’t
access before what do you think of the
refugee crisis most people think that
this hardest part the most terrifying
part is the actual fleeing which it is
but we often forget about the much
longer struggle that comes after that
limbo in between transit and
resettlement a lot of refugees come into
camps or informal settlements thinking
that they’re only going to be there for
a couple months but on average they end
up staying there for five years or
longer they have to make a home out of
something that has never felt like home
and it’s difficult because their
opportunities for survival are taken
away there’s no infrastructure
development for them to create upward
social mobility for them to create any
kinds of self-sufficiency that’s why we
thought transportation was such an
important solution to invest in it was a
way to develop infrastructure and bring
these refugees to the resources they
needed so that they could help
themselves
our motto or the word roshni means light
in or do which is the main language to
use in Pakistan light means many things
to a lot of us it’s hope joy it’s
happiness but for us it was really about
lightning pun totally intended the
burdens of our customers and how we
could
in ways that were both big and small
that’s why our motto is to create
brighter lives one ride at a time we
decided to pilot in a small city called
Rangi or slum called the ronke town
Pakistan which is home to about 2.5
million urbanized refugees and while we
were there I learned some of the biggest
lessons in my social entrepreneurship
journey we met a woman named nesrin and
her friends where we were able to sit
down on a focus group and I realized
that as I sat in her home small humble
home that she shared with three other
families on the ground cross-legged in
front of her with an open courtyard in
the back that they shared they had that
one washing machine for all the families
the floor was a plastic mat it was hot
it was in the month of ramadhan where
Muslims abstain from food and drink as I
sat before her I realized had come into
that room thinking that I was going to
help and save her I realized how
incredibly wrong that was that is not
what human connectivity is about that is
not what empathy is about I think that
we are all on this earth with a purpose
some of us figure out what that purpose
is the minute we know how to speak
others reflect on our deathbeds but I
think most of us figure it out on our
journey and what you’ll learn is that
your purpose can’t be fulfilled alone
it requires intertwining and connecting
and talking and discovering and learning
with this global community that we have
with us and I learned sitting that day
with Nasreen that my purpose was so
clearly intertwined with hers that I had
so much to learn not from institutions
or prestigious programs but from human
beings from just talking to others about
their experiences what she was able to
tell us and relate to us on that day
is still something that I carry with me
and it anchors me in our mission of
social entrepreneurs there’s a lot of
glamour around winning the whole prize
I’ve been able to do cool press releases
and be on this stage and say I want a
million dollars but none of that matters
if you don’t understand what your
empathy is coming from neither that
matters if your mission to be a human
connector to connect with others is not
anchoring you and this is why Nasreen
was such an inspiration for us and the
reason that we were able to win the
whole prize outro she rides we want to
create brighter lives one ride at a time
and it’s something that I’ve learned
that connection happens in so many
different ways things moments that are
big and small it’s in the different ways
you interact with your friends and your
family and your team and your co-workers
it’s not just about the big aha
we can all be people who exercise
empathy who learn it as a skill who hope
to be participants as global citizens
that want to change the world I think I
learned empathy from my friends and my
family for my best friends who would
take my calls at 1:00 in the morning
when I needed to event from my mother
who makes him breakfast on days that I’m
just running out of time so I can sit
down think relax from my team was
patience with me when I’m going crazy
for my advisors behind roshni rides who
spent hours of their time on Saturdays
editing proposals and grants when they
could have been spending that time with
their family those are the small moments
of exercising empathy when you sacrifice
parts of yourself to parts of your time
to help others to relate to them to help
them so I want to before I end today’s
talk do two things first I want to thank
all the people who allow me to be on
this stage who have shown me what it
means to practice human connectivity
in both small and big moments many of
you who are in the audience today so
thank you and second I’d like all of you
to exercise human connectivity in your
first step to being a global citizen
that wants to change the world and you
can do that today right now I want you
to turn to the person next to you I want
you to introduce yourself and I want you
to ask them how can I serve you and then
I want you to watch what the power of
human connection can do thank you
[Applause]
every minute 24 people around the world
become refugees by the time I end this
talk with all of you today 300 people
will have joined the world’s worst
humanitarian crisis around this time
last year I was reading headlines about
the refugee crisis I was engaged in
rhetoric by our then-presidential elects
as they discussed immigration reform and
what it meant to be a refugee in America
and I quickly discovered that the fate
of millions of people was being
determined by a select few I saw
pictures of children being washed up on
shore and I learned that 13 migrants
died a day trying to cross bodies of
water in order to escape war in poverty
as a 21 year old business student I felt
frustrated more importantly I felt
useless I didn’t know how to engage with
this global community in this global
issue it didn’t feel like it was enough
to share a facebook status or engage in
conversations or find some money to
donate and I think that’s a feeling that
we all collectively feel often as we
discover more and more awful things in
the news and were engaged in
conversations of something that’s
occurring every single day that’s what
the power of the Internet has done so
for me I kept thinking about this other
21 year old girl in Syria one who
probably had the same dreams as I did
the same ambitions as I did the same
work ethic the same talent if not more
and I thought about what made us
different and I
couldn’t come up with anything except
the fact that I was lucky and she wasn’t
and that just seemed so fair that there
was no equity when it came to luck but
then I came across something that could
only be described as an open door
because doors lead to opportunity and
that door was called the whole prize the
Hult prize is a global challenge that
asked students to create for-profit
business model to solve the world’s
biggest problems and this year’s
challenge was to restore the dignity of
1 million refugees by the year 2022
through a sustainable business model the
Hope prize pushed students to engage in
social entrepreneurship and as the CEO
of the organization
Ahmed oscura often likes to say it’s a
way in a field to do good and also do
well and the most exciting part was that
the winner would win a million dollars
in investment money now I didn’t think I
was going to win but I thought that this
was an exciting way to finally create
action to do something to engage with a
global community in a way that was
beyond just social media I was excited
to maybe be a part of an opportunity
where I could be given taking any look
that was given to me and helped make
sure that it was given to someone else
so that they could create value as well
so that there was a domino ripple effect
and that was what was exciting about the
whole prize plus it would be pretty cool
if I could say I won a million dollars
about a year later I found myself and
with my incredible team on the stage at
the United Nations as one of six global
finalists pitching our transportation
solution
roshni rides that day on September 16th
we were awarded 1 million dollars by
President Bill Clinton for our
transportation solution it was an
[Applause]
but to get from that 21 year old who is
frustrated by the way the world worked
to a part of being part of a million
dollar team was not a journey without
its struggles and that’s what I want to
talk to you about today I learned a very
important lesson in human connectivity
and the way that that empowers people
not only in a team setting and ours a
social entrepreneur but us us as global
citizens and how we can engage in
empathy and human connection to create a
better world I started this whole prize
journey with three of some very
important people to me although when I
first met them I didn’t feel that way
about them at the time
hana hudson oneof and I actually met
three years ago in a financial
management class when I obnoxiously
asked them if they wanted to do a case
study competition with me because I
didn’t have any other friends in the
class who I thought would say yes and
that was the first time we really worked
together as a team we discovered two
things very very quickly the first was
that we were all very competitive people
and the second was that we really liked
to win so we decided to our do our first
competition and we were able to win and
then we engaged in another that year
after and then the third year was when
we really discussed this conversation
about the whole prize but when we read
about the whole prize and wanted to
engage in it we learned some things and
that made them different from the case
studies we had done before first it was
bigger than anything we had ever entered
it was a hundred thousand applicant pool
to be exact we were not even a drop in
the bucket and second it was something
that was so much bigger than us and it
was a problem that we really cared about
these were people who felt like extended
family to us you know all four of us are
children of immigrants some of us our
grandchildren of refugees and it was a
problem that we saw reflected in our own
communities we felt so connected to the
refugees around the world who were
struggling they felt like family to us
even if we didn’t know them and so
that’s what made the whole prize so
important and so as I began to work on
the whole prize with this team of
incredible individuals I learned
something very quickly but it’s easy to
want to go out and save the world and
help these other people and be
empathetic and sympathetic to their
causes but it doesn’t work if you’re not
paying attention to your first inner
circle first we all learn about teamwork
from preschool when you’re trying to
figure out what blocks to share or to
the college level when you’re trying to
figure out if you’re gonna be the
student that does all the work or not
and engage on group mean messages
teamwork is something is a skill set
that we all learn but what we don’t
understand is how to identify human
connectivity while you’re working as a
team and if you really want to put your
empathy and human connectivity skills to
the test get a group of your closest
friends and try starting a business with
them and tell me what happens so what I
realized was that this was my time to
identify what that meant to me human
connectivity is a step beyond empathy we
all have some kind of natural empathetic
instincts that was why I felt there was
so much injustice in the world and I
connected to this girl in Syria that was
empathy but to really walk a mile on
someone else’s shoes to be ready to
catch them before they even fall that’s
what human connection is about and
that’s what I learned from these three
people and that’s how I identified that
was that was the first time I was able
to identify what human connection meant
and empathy it’s not something that’s
just natural is what I learned it’s a
skill that requires practice and I can
tell you I had a lot of time to practice
over the last year and I’m still
learning but I didn’t realize what the
impact of human connection and empathy
is until much later for us we realized
that we wanted to create a solution that
connected refugees to resources and it
started with our own homes in Pakistan
where our parents were from we wanted to
really analyze the pain points there we
saw that there was 40 million urbanized
refugees in Pakistan which was the
largest host country to refugees in Asia
and it was shocking that there wasn’t a
lot of work being done there so that’s
where we wanted to start we came up with
a solution called roshni rides and for
us we wanted to connect the refugees we
were engaging with in Pakistan to
resources that they couldn’t access
before opportunities that they couldn’t
access before what do you think of the
refugee crisis most people think that
this hardest part the most terrifying
part is the actual fleeing which it is
but we often forget about the much
longer struggle that comes after that
limbo in between transit and
resettlement a lot of refugees come into
camps or informal settlements thinking
that they’re only going to be there for
a couple months but on average they end
up staying there for five years or
longer they have to make a home out of
something that has never felt like home
and it’s difficult because their
opportunities for survival are taken
away there’s no infrastructure
development for them to create upward
social mobility for them to create any
kinds of self-sufficiency that’s why we
thought transportation was such an
important solution to invest in it was a
way to develop infrastructure and bring
these refugees to the resources they
needed so that they could help
themselves
our motto or the word roshni means light
in or do which is the main language to
use in Pakistan light means many things
to a lot of us it’s hope joy it’s
happiness but for us it was really about
lightning pun totally intended the
burdens of our customers and how we
could
in ways that were both big and small
that’s why our motto is to create
brighter lives one ride at a time we
decided to pilot in a small city called
Rangi or slum called the ronke town
Pakistan which is home to about 2.5
million urbanized refugees and while we
were there I learned some of the biggest
lessons in my social entrepreneurship
journey we met a woman named nesrin and
her friends where we were able to sit
down on a focus group and I realized
that as I sat in her home small humble
home that she shared with three other
families on the ground cross-legged in
front of her with an open courtyard in
the back that they shared they had that
one washing machine for all the families
the floor was a plastic mat it was hot
it was in the month of ramadhan where
Muslims abstain from food and drink as I
sat before her I realized had come into
that room thinking that I was going to
help and save her I realized how
incredibly wrong that was that is not
what human connectivity is about that is
not what empathy is about I think that
we are all on this earth with a purpose
some of us figure out what that purpose
is the minute we know how to speak
others reflect on our deathbeds but I
think most of us figure it out on our
journey and what you’ll learn is that
your purpose can’t be fulfilled alone
it requires intertwining and connecting
and talking and discovering and learning
with this global community that we have
with us and I learned sitting that day
with Nasreen that my purpose was so
clearly intertwined with hers that I had
so much to learn not from institutions
or prestigious programs but from human
beings from just talking to others about
their experiences what she was able to
tell us and relate to us on that day
is still something that I carry with me
and it anchors me in our mission of
social entrepreneurs there’s a lot of
glamour around winning the whole prize
I’ve been able to do cool press releases
and be on this stage and say I want a
million dollars but none of that matters
if you don’t understand what your
empathy is coming from neither that
matters if your mission to be a human
connector to connect with others is not
anchoring you and this is why Nasreen
was such an inspiration for us and the
reason that we were able to win the
whole prize outro she rides we want to
create brighter lives one ride at a time
and it’s something that I’ve learned
that connection happens in so many
different ways things moments that are
big and small it’s in the different ways
you interact with your friends and your
family and your team and your co-workers
it’s not just about the big aha
we can all be people who exercise
empathy who learn it as a skill who hope
to be participants as global citizens
that want to change the world I think I
learned empathy from my friends and my
family for my best friends who would
take my calls at 1:00 in the morning
when I needed to event from my mother
who makes him breakfast on days that I’m
just running out of time so I can sit
down think relax from my team was
patience with me when I’m going crazy
for my advisors behind roshni rides who
spent hours of their time on Saturdays
editing proposals and grants when they
could have been spending that time with
their family those are the small moments
of exercising empathy when you sacrifice
parts of yourself to parts of your time
to help others to relate to them to help
them so I want to before I end today’s
talk do two things first I want to thank
all the people who allow me to be on
this stage who have shown me what it
means to practice human connectivity
in both small and big moments many of
you who are in the audience today so
thank you and second I’d like all of you
to exercise human connectivity in your
first step to being a global citizen
that wants to change the world and you
can do that today right now I want you
to turn to the person next to you I want
you to introduce yourself and I want you
to ask them how can I serve you and then
I want you to watch what the power of
human connection can do thank you
[Applause]
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