In this eye-opening discussion, we explore what happens when access to opportunity is treated as a birthright instead of a privilege. Umaimah Mendhro, founder and president of One League, joins us to discuss how a childhood spent in exile led her to rebuild access to elite education from the ground up.

From fleeing a military coup in Pakistan as a toddler, to growing up in a village that doesn't appear on any map, to Cornell and Harvard Business School, Umaimah shares how nearly failing out of Harvard sent her back to build a school in her father's village first, and why she believes education, not talent, is the real bottleneck to opportunity.

We dig into what it took to convince Harvard's outgoing dean to hand over the entire MBA curriculum, the risk of reinforcing the very privilege the institution was built to break, and what changes when the people solving the world's hardest problems have actually lived them. Whether you're drawn to stories of reinvention or the future of higher education, this episode challenges you to rethink who gets a seat at the table.

Topics covered: exile and displacement, access to elite education, entrepreneurship, building institutions from scratch, generative AI in the Global South, community-rooted leadership, and redefining who gets to be a change-maker.

More about Umaimah:
One League Website: https://one-league.org/
Umaimah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/umaimah/

Learn more about the show: https://www.cjfpodcast.com/

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