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Adnan Adrian Wood-Smith is an award-winning educator, speaker, and life direction coach. Growing up an only child with one foot in England and the other in America, he found purpose and place in the world by throwing himself into his academics. His drive for perfect test scores led him to be valedictorian of his Ivy League university, and by the time he graduated he was well on his way to becoming an FBI agent, a career trajectory he had taken from a standardized test he took in junior high. However, when life circumstances forced him to choose between his “dream job” and serving the kind of community he had found during college, he realized that the sense of belonging he had with those who shared his overall life mission was well worth the sacrifice of a personal vision that had never been fully rooted in his overall sense of purpose.
Since then, Adnan has mentored hundreds to define and defend their purpose so that they can live their potential and move forward confidently in life. To this end, he has served as a denominational counselor at Harvard Divinity School, the Muslim Chaplain at Brown University, and a staff and summer faculty member at Zaytuna College, as well as in volunteer positions in correctional facilities and various community organizations throughout New England, including his tenure as President of RICMA, the umbrella organization for the Muslim community in Rhode Island. He regularly speaks to audiences of hundreds throughout the US. Adnan is also nearing completion of his PhD in Religion at Harvard University, and has received numerous traditional licenses (ijāzāt) to teach Islamic spiritual mentorship, jurisprudence, Qur’anic Arabic, and other subjects, from master teachers in West Africa, Syria, and California.
Through his GREATER initiative, Adnan reorients individuals who feel misplaced—despite reaching a place in life they thought was good enough—to let their unique greatness emerge. His clients learn how to ascertain their true mission in life, unchain themselves from unhealthy mindsets and behaviors, retrain themselves to defend their mission against internal and external enemies, and finally attain the kind of success that is true to who they are, and not just what others expect of them.
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