At the age of 15, Jamil Jivani was labeled illiterate by the public school system because he refused to put any effort into his education. Seven years later he was admitted to Yale Law School. His experiences propelled him into activism, focusing on issues such as bridging the gap between police and communities, overcoming the radicalization of youth, and encouraging young people to achieve success. His transformation offers lessons for all students on how to make the most out of their opportunities, persevere through failure and build a skillset that can carry them as far as their imaginations can take them.

Raised by his mother in a mostly immigrant community in Toronto, Jamil knows what it is to watch a teen’s future influenced by gangster culture or radical ideologies associated with Islam. His new book ‑ Why Young Men: Rage, Race and the Crisis of Identity ‑ pursues a positive path and offers a counterintuitive, often provocative argument for a sea change in the way we look at young men, and for how they see themselves.