The career you plan and the career you build aren't always the same thing. For Ali Khaleel, that gap turned out to be the whole story.

In college, Ali decided to major in international studies with the idea of becoming a foreign diplomat. Then a friend of a friend arranged a coffee conversation in DC with someone who'd actually done the job, and in about an hour, Ali had a clearer picture of what that life would really look like. After realizing the role wasn't for him, he began exploring other areas, which led him on a path through teaching, college access work, teacher training, and leadership development, each chapter building on the last.

Some of what he was building, he didn't have words for yet. On a competitive college dance team, when practices got tense and people started getting testy with each other, he threw parties because he understood that people who know each other outside of practice have more to draw on when things get hard.

He now works at Interfaith America, building bridges across religious, racial, and political differences, which, as pointed out near the end of our conversation, is close to the diplomat he once thought he couldn't be.