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Executive Biography
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Jehan made her career in technology for more than 15 years with the majority of time invested in the Pacific Northwest. Jehan earned a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy & Law from City University of New York.
Jehan is a veteran of Occupy Wall Street, having lived and worked within the original encampment at Zuccotti Park in the Canyon of Heroes in New York City. She has invested the majority of her time since 2011 raising awareness about the universal nature and commonality of human needs and evangelizing the path of true loving kindness as conceptualized by the teachings of Jesus, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Jewish texts.
Jehan's path of spiritual development is practicing monastic austerity and solitude. Inspired by a conversation with Toni Packer while visiting Springwater Center in Rochester, New York, Jehan has lived simply with as few possessions as possible since 2008, travelling the United States as a nomadic nun, bartering work for lodging and food as well as sitting on the streets of large cities as a street beggar, avoiding the amassing of wealth for its own sake.
During these ten years of austerity and solitude, Jehan has lived a life primarily supported by way of true loving kindness received in the form of coins and dollars placed in her begging bag. Jehan's life as a street beggar is commemorated in the documentary film Orca: A True Story. Filmed during Summer 2017, Orca: A True Story describes Jehan's path to return to a "normal" life after having lived as a street beggar in the years after Occupy Wall Street.
Jehan is a baptised Mormon, having converted during 1996 after studying with Missionaries while living in the United Kingdom. Physically, Jehan is female but in her heart and soul, she is male. Jehan practices celibacy in observance of her religious ideology and monastic path.
Jehan was recognized as a gifted student in 1982 after reading and explaining the meanings of a grouping of words school officials believed she would have no way of knowing or understanding while registering for third grade at PS 108. Consistently testing several grade levels beyond her current grade on standardized tests within the New York City public school system, Jehan perceived school as an activity designed to pass the time.
Jehan attended Philippa Schuyler School for the Gifted and Talented in Brooklyn, New York from which she was dismissed during the 8th grade for truancy. While repeating the 8th grade at IS 218, from which she was also truant, Jehan successfully auditioned to study voice and performance at Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of Performing Arts and received an acceptance letter from prestigious Stuyvesant High School, both located in New York, New York. Making certain to acknowledge Jehan's successful audition, Laguardia's letter gently communicated their concern that although school officials believed Jehan to be talented, truancy would negatively affect the opportunity.
Jehan registered to commence 9th grade at Stuyvesant High School during the Summer of 1989.
Jehan's school absences, which eventually developed into truancy, started after the birth of her siblings in 1982. Jehan's mother entrusted the responsibility of caring for the younger children to Jehan because their father was a heroin addict who routinely ventured to destinations unknown while Jehan's mother was working. This condition, being the primary caregiver of her younger siblings, the associated absences and the derivative truancy, continued until 1991 when Jehan let go of the dream of an Ivy League education, choosing to sit for the GED instead of continuing the path to graduate from Stuyvesant High School.
On her 17th birthday, Jehan promptly signed the documents to cease attending high school, sat for the GED at the first available opportunity and after earning a score of 315, which qualified her to apply to a four year university of her choice, and her mother's refusal to allow Jehan to attend college while living at home, Jehan started on the path of escaping her childhood home.
Jehan arrived at Oneonta Job Corps during October 1991 with the desire to become an electrician, a path divinely diverted by a temporary placement in the Business Clerical trade, which became permanent when Jehan was introduced to a computer. Jehan promptly matriculated at State University of New York at Oneonta in Spring 1993 and started experimenting with something called HTML.
In January 2000, Jehan started working as a Web Developer at Amazon.com in Seattle, Washington.
During the days that Jehan chose truancy instead of attending school, Jehan invested her time at the library reading books and studying the subjects and literature of her choice until the school instructed the library to insist that she not study there during school hours. Instead of participating in her preferred activity of reading, Jehan started a regimen of walking for hours each day, an activity she also implemented during the first year of her "training" and odyssey as a homeless person in New York City.
Jehan believes that given a more peaceful childhood home, there is good reason to believe that Jehan would have successfully graduated from Stuyvesant High School. Jehan also believes that although she has lived a life blessed by intelligence and intellect, her level of success was obviously affected by her environment as well as her perception and response to her environment.
Jehan Semper is now an actress, singer, artist, writer, director and filmmaker as well as a lifetime web developing nerd. It is Jehan's desire to provide similarly gifted and talented people, Virtuous Dreamers, with an environment that leads toward success.
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