In May of 2018 Khalil graduated from Champlain College with a BS in environmental policy and psychology. He is currently studying at the Maryland University of Integrative Health working towards a Master of Science degree in Nutrition and Integrative Health. His concentration is in Western Herbal Medicine. He is impassioned by learning and spreading knowledge of saffron to fellow growers, researchers and advocates of the plant. Khalil apprenticed at the North American Center for Saffron Research and Development, working directly with leading experts in the field.

• Social Entrepreneurship and Exponential Innovation

Entrepreneurs are impassioned individuals who seek to solve complex problems that are set in a specific time and place via innovating or inventing companies. That is my life’s passion and pursuit: to solve complex problems by innovating and inventing companies that are set in a specific time and place. In this sense, entrepreneurs stand out from businessmen and women because they are driven by purpose, inner-passion, and an external allure to the crazy ideas.

• Information Systems & Technology

After graduating from Champlain College with a BS in environmental policy and psychology in May of 2018, and now studying online for a MS in Nutrition and Integrative Health, with a concentration in Western Herbal Medicine at Maryland University of Integrative Health, I’m constantly looking to expand my 25-year learning journey into a variety of academic fields. My next academic journey may be in the nutritional genomics field. Moreover, and as a systems thinker, I am impassioned by integrating knowledge to make new meaning within any complex system. Thus, I see myself moving into information systems and the information technological fields after I have built a foundational-level understanding of human health and genomics.

• Culinary Pursuits

Lastly, I have always loved to be in the kitchen, cooking, organizing and cleaning. To my fortunate circumstances, I grew up in a household where family meals were omnipresent. As a kid, I was frequently drawn to the unique Middle-Eastern spices and herbs that my parents would regularly use in their recipes. The connection between my passions for outdoor activities, such as gardening, agroforestry and permaculture, and culinary pursuits within the indoor confinement of a kitchen, was made when my father nudged me to pick mint leaves off-of mint stems. From there, this tedious process was coupled by an even greater labor-intensive process of laying out towels to dry the mint leaves — whereby the process occurred over a week, and needed constant tending to. But this gave me a crucial value that is pivotal to cooking. . . and to my later-acknowledgement. . . life in-general: patience.