Wanted: Cute Rhodes Scholar with passion for tent living, ancient poetry, volunteering and teaching. Job Description: Change the world.

After his freshman fall at Bowdoin, Willy Oppenheim decided to eschew his dorm room for a tent. For Willy, this was no big deal. You see he had already spent six months living out of a tent in Colorado, as well as three months living in a monastery in India. At Bowdoin, Willy braved the harsh winters, but something about that kind of living inspired and motivated him… to the point that he took an idea and turned it into a reality – self starting a foundation called Omprakash.

Omprakash is the name of a person who inspired Willy in India. He is an old gentleman at the Mother Teresa Home for the Dying and Destitute in New Delhi. “Omprakash told me that every day he feels lucky because the nuns treat him so kindly”, Willy stated.

Hence Omprakash: a network that, quite simply, helps people connect and learn from each other for mutual benefit.

The Omprakash Foundation links volunteer teachers to over 100 grassroots social projects in more than 26 countries. The organizations represented within the network address issues as diverse as deforestation, women’s empowerment, energy shortages, food security, and access to clean drinking water.

Willy is certainly changing the world. We caught up with him just last week and asked him to answer our favorite questions.

What is your idea of earthly happiness?
Going to the kitchen to make coffee after waking up early in my family's house in Maine.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I generally avoid superlatives. Hurting people feels pretty miserable.

Who are your favorite heroes in literature?
Han Shan, the madman mountain poet of ancient China.

Who are your favorite heroes in real life?
My teachers who are conduits of Han Shan's crazy wisdom.

Your most valued virtue?
I like straight talkers.

What is your favorite cause?
Love.

What is your present state of mind?
It is 10:02 am on Sunday morning. The sky outside my window is the same color as the walls of my room, and I like that.

How do you define “good”?
I try not to.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
To explain why I can't answer this question, let me quote the Tao te Ching here: "The Master does her work, then forgets it. That is why it lasts forever."

If that is too deep, I did win the spelling bee in sixth grade on the word "palindromic."

What one good thing have you done most recently?
Last night I made dinner for a bunch of friends. I cooked chick peas and potatoes and two kinds of bread and homemade pizza. Someone brought a salad. Friends came over and we played music with a guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, a fiddle, drums, harmonicas, and assorted kitchen utensils. We drank beer and wine. This was a very good thing.

What is your motto?
"No rush."

What has been the most difficult time/moment in your life?
There have been times when my decisions have caused pain for my loved ones, and this is a very difficult feeling.

What has been the happiest time/moment in your life?
Happiness finds me quite often and in many different forms. To quote one of my teachers: "Love doesn't play favorites."