Editors

Annie graduated from the University of Utah with a Major in International Affairs and a Minor in Spanish. Annie pursued her interest in Spanish education, culture and economics in Santiago, Chile and Oviedo, Spain. In addition to education, Annie is dedicated to serving the local and global communities in which she lives as a world citizen. From volunteering for Create Common Good, an experiential job training program for refugees, to being a Big Sister in the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, to helping fellow Chilean students build a modest school house, Annie has cultivated an interest in the health and well-being of children and youth worldwide. To read Annie’s interview with Carsten kindly click here.

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Karim’s daughter, Sophia 

 

She wants to go on for an MBA. Her older sister Davina graduated with a degree in English Literature from University of San Francisco and her younger sister, Anastasia, is heading to Cambridge University, UK on a scholarship program to study International Relations. Sophia is currently a summer intern in the Performance Management Group at PG&E headquarters in San Francisco. A couple of years ago, after Sophia visited Kenya, she was requested to write a Foreword to her dad’s stories of growing up in Kenya.

Sophia shares these thoughts from her Foreword about her dad [To read more, click here.]:

Before I left for Kenya, my dad handed me a book of stories about his childhood days in Nairobi. I am going to quote something he said about the tribal Kikuyu ladies because it gave me an insight into Africa:

“The Kikuyu vegetable ladies, they mix with the earth.

They don’t wear shoes because they are poor. Or, is it because they are rich?

Perhaps if they wore shoes their bare feet wouldn’t mix back in with the fertile rich red soil in the shamba where they grow their vegetables and sell them door to door. And if their feet stopped mixing with the earth, they may forget who they are, where they came from, and where they will return and mix back into.”

Carsten’s daughter, Callie 

As I stumble my way through my twenties, I find myself inevitably talking, walking, speaking, and in general going about my life exactly the way my parents have.

It could be argued where the evidence of this is most apparent because there is so much of it.

Thanks to growing up in the Henningsen household, I am not easily angered, always have the cleanest kitchen sink you’ve ever seen, and offer up a lot more philosophical comments when I do choose to speak than practical ones. In appearance and demeanor alike, I take after my parents in a way both the nature and the nurture teams could get excited about. I would agree with both, but will take this opportunity to focus on learned behavior and tradition.

Growing up around my Dad’s Nyenrode group has been an influence that has had a major impact on me.

Watching the members of this close-knit circle travel across the world thirty years after they first met not only inspired me to study abroad my junior year of college, but has played a role in the bond of my own group of friends and roommates: three people I would love so much further than to the moon and back – the very kind of love I am capable of because I have been fortunate enough to bear witness to it from the time I was very small. There are so many typical things we learn from our parents, but I consider myself very fortunate to have been taught by example that friends are the family we make, and that distance means so little when someone (or in this case, many someones!) mean so much.

Thank you to all of you for your great love for one another – I carry it in my own relationships every day.

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