Harleen Kaur is a 2015 graduate of the University of Michigan where she received her BA in English and a minor in Community Action and Social Change. She is a recipient of the Bonderman Fellowship, a scholarship fund intended to encourage U.S.-based students to broaden their intention of future work and/or study to a global level. As a result, Harleen has spent the last year since graduation traveling throughout fourteen different countries across three continents. Living abroad for a year has given Harleen the opportunity to immerse herself in other cultures, but also deepen her understanding of her own privilege as an American and how she can use her voice in order to create deep, long-lasting social change.

As a solo female sikh traveler,  Harleen Kaur’s identity has had a large influence on her experience. By learning about other religions, cultures, and identities, Harleen was able to connect her practice of Sikhi to ideologies and people all over the world. In furthering her love for storytelling through writing and photography, Harleen Kaur hopes to spend her life amplifying the voices of communities that are silenced and forgotten, and thus spreading what she believes to be the true message of Sikhi.