Four Incredible women changed the way I look at education and women in the global scope of life and humanity. I have had the most amazing career thus far, but the last two months have truly been epic and surreal. Leslee Udwin, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, and Helen Mirren all took time to grace my lens for the most interesting and thought provoking interviews about education and supporting an initiative that was created by director Leslee Udwin. I was fortunate enough to sit down with all four on separate occasions and talk about the Think Equal initiative and how educating the world will bring peace and substance to communities globally.
Leslee's documentary India's Daughter shed light on what was going on in the world and how education was a key to driving love and humanity globally.
This is the second interview of my series with the Think Equal Initiative exclusive to my blog on the Huffington Post.
I remember waiting for Helen in my friend Anil's apartment in New York. We had set up a morning shoot in a very comfortable Manhattan setting. When she entered I was both enchanted by her presence and extremely humbled by how down to earth and easy to talk to she was.
Helen Mirren is one of the nicest and classiest women I have ever encountered. She was real and spoke about her feelings about how education for children was important for the world. She continued to share a very personal story about her tattoo on her hand meaning equality. Her support for the Think Equal initiative has not only contributed to a very worthy cause, but also added a new light to my own heart when it comes to communicating the stories of icons in our history that are making a difference. Helen Mirren is surely one of those wonderful people.
I continue to be in awe of the awesome opportunity to be a very select few to sit down with her and have a dialogue about subjects that are so important to mankind.
Please find my interview below.
Think Equal constructs and delivers an international curriculum, and acts as a global resource for educating the hearts of the world's children, and not merely their heads. The detailed, extended curriculum is a holistic approach to education, which provides concrete strategies, exercises and tools to secure an education in empathy, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, conflict resolution, respect, equality and diversity. Its objective is to break the cycle of discrimination and violence, and create a new generation of global citizens who can rise to the many challenges facing the 21st century.
Think Equal is the first implementation program of the objectives, which we have been merely talking about since the Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1928. It meets 6 of the 13 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our team includes world-renowned experts and visionaries in education, human rights, gender, neuroscience, and psychology, and embraces the latest, visionary philosophies on inclusive and holistic education.
See more about their work here: www.thinkequal.com