Yolanda O'Bannon

About Yolanda Things I love Lobsang Wangdu, travel, Tibet, the Himalayas, watermelon, hiking, photography, fried chicken Things I hate Squash, shopping of any kind, running Transformative moments in my life • Buying a one-way ticket to magical Kathmandu when I graduated from grad school at UC Berkeley • Stepping off the night bus from Delhi to Dharamsala, falling in love with the mountains and Tibetan culture, and deciding at that moment that I was going to stay • Meeting Lobsang Wangdu in Dharamsala • On arriving in California for grad school, getting off the Airporter on Durant Street when the driver announced “Berzerkley,” and feeling my soul smile • Attending a ten-day Lamrim teaching by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Mungod, India I’m proud of • Supporting both travelers and Tibetans inside Tibet through the online travel business that I run with my husband (YoWangdu Experience Tibet: yowangdu.com) • Interviewing His Holiness the Dalai Lama • Volunteer English teaching for Tibetan refugees for a year in Dharamsala, India • Reading my This I Believe radio piece — Living What You Do Every Day — to 11 million people on NPR one morning and having my piece chosen for the book series • Getting a black belt in Aikido after 5 years in Japan • Serving as President of the Berkeley Student Cooperative (Known then as the USCA) • The work that I do at my day job for Dr. Bruce Alberts and Ron Vale (iBiology.org). Even though science is not my personal passion, both of these great science leaders light my path by totally living in their path of joy, and being good people doing good work for the world. My greatest teacher His Holiness the Dalai Lama My purpose on this earth • Serving the Tibetan people • Helping people reconnect to their joy and purpose by seeing and appreciating their true self, even when the true self seems weird or uncool For more information about Yolanda O’Bannon’s work visit yolandaobannon.com (manifesting and positive mindset work) and yowangdu.com (Tibet travel)