Kunle Oladehin was on track to becoming a doctor as a biology student at Harvard. But he switched paths when he realized his love of dance was something he could use to help communities thrive.
Oladehin explained to HuffPost Rise in a new video that he felt pressure from his parents to become a doctor. But the longer he worked in health care, the more he realized his heart wasn’t pulling him toward medicine.
“I started to explore the way to intersect these two things of being really passionate in dance but really, really also deeply caring about the health of people and the health of humanity,” Oladehin said. “So I just thought to myself what if dance is a way that I’m supposed to have an impact in making communities as a whole healthier?”
Oladehin is now the national executive director of Everybody Dance Now!, a nonprofit that brings dance to kids in low-income communities. When he teaches children how to dance, he said he feels like a “proud” parent.
“But the real spark comes, I think, when kids do something I didn’t expect them to do. When kids just let their creativity go,” he said. “They take dance much further than even I can take it. So I think that’s the feeling of I am reassured that I am in the right space.”
This video was produced by Rebecca Halperin and Susannah Gruder, and edited by Alfred Marroquin.
When to Jump, an independent media partner of The Huffington Post, is a curated community featuring the ideas and stories of people who have made the decision to leave something comfortable and chase a passion. You can follow When to Jump on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For more stories like this one, sign up for the When to Jump newsletter here. (Note: The When to Jump newsletter is not managed by The Huffington Post.)
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