Making a Difference: Zoe Weil in the World

Please share what you do: I teach and write about how we can create a just, healthy, and humane world for people, animals, and the environment.

Why do you do what you do? A better world is possible, and each of us has a role to play. I do what I do because I believe it matters that I (and all people) use my talents and skills in service of a world in which all can thrive.

What are you currently fascinated by in your work? I’m fascinated (and inspired!) by the power of young people — when provided with the tools and motivation — to collaboratively solve the world’s challenges. That’s why our organization, the Institute for Humane Education, has launched the Solutionary Congress Program, to enable youth make a difference.

How did you come to your path? Any aha moments or key teachers? In 1987, I taught a week-long humane education summer course at the University of Pennsylvania to middle-school students. I watched in amazement as my students became change agents in five days. In one case, a boy became an activist overnight, making hand-written leaflets about what he’d learned to pass out on a street corner the next day during lunch. Another guy in that class told me decades later that the course changed his life. It also changed mine, as I discovered my life’s work as a humane educator, teaching about the interconnected issues of human rights, animal protection, and environmental preservation.

What book(s) are you currently reading? Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am and Lisa Kemmerer’s Eating Earth.

What do you enjoy about teaching at the ashram? When I come to the ashram to teach, I become a more relaxed, devotional person. I slow down and feel deeply connected to everyone and everything.