Shabnam speaks five languages, is the recipient of Canada's Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, is the co-founder of both Big Bad Boo Studios (which produces multicultural content for kids) and Oznoz Entertainment (which distributes the content), as well as the creator of PersianMirror.com (an incredibly successful online magazine about Iranian culture)...

Aspiring to see more of the world, aesthetician and personal trainer Elana Schmid sold her well-established Australia-based beauty business, Elana Jade Essential Beauty, in 2008 and moved to Japan. Two years later, Elana's passion for personal health and wellness led her to re-create Elana Jade, this time as an organic beauty salon in Tokyo...

In Egypt during the civil unrest, the government shut down the internet. Try conducting banking activities without phone or Internet service. How would you move money, pay bills and conduct other necessary banking transactions if you were stuck in the middle of political unrest or living in a country that experienced a natural disaster...

I see myself moving quickly through the chaos of darkness, directed and determined - holding down the adrenaline panic that I know will explode alongside that volcano. I close my eyes and step through every move from the bed to the door, to the lobby. And then I am running, running against my own will, against my own trembling terror, across the bridge, past his cabaña and into the shadows...