Faces of FIUTS: Meet Niraj
Faces of FIUTS is a social media campaign that collects personal stories from individuals who are part of our work. In honor of the International Day of Happiness, meet Niraj, FIUTS alum and founder of the Nepal-based company Offering Happiness!
Where are you from?: I am From Nepal. Currently I live in the capital city, Kathmandu, but I was born almost 500km away from Kathmandu.
What's your FIUTS story? My six weeks with FIUTS in the U.S. gave me so many experiences that I always share back home. From experiencing the university, to learning through student ambassadors, to seeing how the FIUTS team conducted programs, I learned so much about running institutions in a different way. My best experience was staying with a host family, where I got to know about American culture and society. Living with completely new people gave me valuable feelings of how beautiful relationships could be.
How will you change the world? I run a company called Offering Happiness, which provides experiential gifting and surprises. The idea behind Offering Happiness is that more than 5 million Nepalese live abroad, and it’s very hard for them to celebrate special occasions with their families due to distance. We want to bridge the gap of love and compassion by celebrating their special moments with surprises. These expressions of love can slowly make our society a better place to live.
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Niraj Kafle is an an alumnus of the 2016 cohort of the FIUTS Study of the U.S. Institute on Journalism and New Media. He is a founder of the company Offering Happiness, whose work has been praised by the national and international community and media.
Faces of FIUTS is published regularly on the FIUTS blog, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Read past posts collected here!
Interested in being featured as a Face of FIUTS? Contact Ellen Frierson at ellen@fiuts.org or go ahead and fill out the form.
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SUSI programs promote a better understanding of the people, institutions, and culture of the United States among international students, teachers, and scholars. Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSIs) are short-term academic programs for groups of undergraduate leaders, educators, and scholars from around the world. Hosted by academic institutions throughout the United States, these 5- to 6-week Institutes include an intensive academic residency and an integrated educational study tour. Extracurricular cultural and community activities help to broaden the participants’ understanding of U.S. society. Learn more about SUSI programs here.