Taylor Placity—Telling Timeless Stories

by Jeff Whitten | Mar 2, 2022 | Achievements, MIU News

March 2, 2022 • ISSUE 612

Taylor Placity

Telling Timeless Stories

Taylor Placity is an actor, musician, and filmmaker who is currently enrolled in MIU’s online Cinematic Arts and New Media Program.

Taylor grew up in Arizona, acting in community plays and playing in bands as a child. At age 17 Taylor began performing professionally at Old Tucson Studios, singing, dancing, and doing stunts in the Wild West theme park. Taylor then moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and had a variety of roles in films and TV productions.

The Wild West days at Old Tucson Studios

In 2016 Taylor joined the indie rock band Hey, King! with partner Natalie London, and they released their first album in 2020. Taylor and Natalie have been making all of their own music videos as well and collaborated on writing and producing films.

Performing with Hey, King!

At the start of the pandemic, Taylor decided to take a step back from acting and focus on songwriting and filmmaking. At around the same time, their band manager gifted the duo scholarships to learn the Transcendental Meditation® technique. Taylor heard about MIU and its online film program and decided to enroll.

Studying filmmaking, which requires a team, can be challenging online. But it also gave Taylor the opportunity to step into new roles, including producer, cinematographer, and editor.

Acting in and directing a music video

“MIU has done a great job,” Taylor said. “The professors are always just an e-mail away. I never felt like I was being left behind or lost.” The TM® technique has also been a helpful addition to Taylor’s routine. “I am able to process uncertainties more easily without experiencing a negative emotion right away.”

For a documentary class assignment, Taylor made a short film about an 84-year-old man named Al who rode his bicycle around his neighborhood with the goal of covering the circumference of the globe—24,901 miles. When he reached his goal, Taylor and Natalie surprised him with a neighborhood party to celebrate his achievement.

“I want to tell stories that are timeless,” said Taylor, who now wants to focus on directing films and acting in them.

A scene from the documentary “Around the World in My Neighborhood”

Jennifer Moore—Laying the Foundation for a Creative Life

by Jeff Whitten | Feb 24, 2022 | Achievements, MIU News

February 22, 2022 • ISSUE 611

Jennifer Moore

Laying the Foundation for a Creative Life

Jennifer Moore recently completed her second campus visit in MIU’s low-residency MFA in Visual Art Program, which allows artists all over the country to pursue their degrees remotely with a two-week stay on campus each semester.

Jennifer lives outside Austin, Texas, and has toured with the indie pop duo Deep Time in the US, Australia, Europe, and Mexico. After being on the road for a decade, she decided to settle down and attend Texas State University to study opera. However, when she took a class in video art she found a new calling and completed her bachelor’s degree in visual art in 2018.

Playing with Deep Time in Austin, Texas

One of her professors, Joey Fauerso, introduced Jennifer to the work of the MIU art faculty. When the new low-residency program opened last August, Jennifer applied. She was drawn to the program’s creative approach combined with MIU’s focus on student well-being.

The MFA program has helped her maintain a regular creative routine even when she returns home. She has discovered that she prefers the quiet of the art studio over the hectic touring schedule of a musician.

Art work Jennifer made during her latest residency at MIU

“I love the MFA program because it is setting you up for a creative life,” she said. “Now I have a working routine and the TM technique is really helpful with that. I am also getting creative ideas when I meditate.”

Through the program, Jennifer receives regular feedback from MIU faculty and an artist mentor, and enjoys the community of fellow art students. In her small studio she makes sculptures from found objects.

Jennifer’s studio space at MIU

Jennifer is interested in becoming a teacher or an art therapist, combining art with the Transcendental Meditation technique in her work. Her current goal is to continue solidifying her studio practice so that she can help others achieve the same.

Jay Banerjee—Businessman With a Purpose

by Jeff Whitten | Feb 14, 2022 | Achievements, MIU News

February 14, 2022 • ISSUE 610

Jay Banerjee

Businessman With a Purpose

Jay Banerjee is chief operating officer of Immersive Touch, a Chicago-based company offering virtual reality medical devices that convert 2D patient images into 3D simulations for surgical planning and training. Jay is also a full-time student at MIU.

Jay has a bachelor of science degree in systems engineering, economics, and finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and had always wanted to start a business with the higher purpose of improving healthcare.

In 2014, he and his father founded Immersive Touch to make surgeries safer and more affordable for patients. The company’s technology is used by surgeons in over 100 hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins.

At last year’s company holiday party, with his father on the very left

While at the University of Illinois, Jay became interested in studying Vedic knowledge. In 2021 he was looking for a program to help him cope with family loss and work pressure, and his father recommended MIU. When he saw the MA in Consciousness and Human Potential Program, he knew he found what he had been seeking for a decade.

“The way the knowledge is delivered here is fantastic,” he said. “It’s very easy to understand, and you experience what you are learning intellectually. I had never found this anywhere else.”

With fellow Maharishi Vedic Science students during a Diwali celebration

Jay’s company has been thriving since he began studying Maharishi Vedic Science℠. He attributes this success to his practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique, which has helped him become more relaxed and allowed him to take a more creative and efficient approach to managing the day-to-day activities of the company.

“There are so many decisions you need to make every day in business,” he said. “I tend to do the right thing more spontaneously without having too much needless turbulence.”

At his TM-Sidhi graduation with TM-Sidhi Administrator Doug Birx

In December Jay completed the TM-Sidhi® program and is now planning to offer the TM® technique to his employees. He feels inspired by the history of the Transcendental Meditation organization and the university, and hopes to contribute to their expansion nationally and globally.

Denise Cagley-Jefferson Bringing Regenerative Farming to Jamaica

by Jeff Whitten | Feb 7, 2022 | Achievements, Excluded from search, MIU News

February 7, 2022 • ISSUE 609

Denise Cagley-Jefferson

Bringing Regenerative Farming to Jamaica

MIU student Denise Cagley-Jefferson got her first taste of volunteering when she accompanied her mother to the local soup kitchen in Waterloo, Iowa. That experience, Denise said, shaped her future and led her on a service-oriented career path.

For 25 years she has worked in non-profit management, international development, and humanitarian assistance with organizations such as Volunteers of America and the Peace Corps. For the past five years, she has coordinated international humanitarian efforts for USAID in war-torn and disaster areas, including Syria and Venezuela.

In Samoa in 2011 at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Peace Corps with staff and former Samoan Prime Minister Malielegaoi (center) and former US ambassador David Huebner (third from right)

In 2004 Denise founded an NGO in the rural mountains of Jamaica and established two health and educational resource centers, serving five villages. In 2020 she purchased a small farm in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica and now splits her time between her farm and her home in Atlanta, Georgia.

With counselors of the Blue Mountain Project’s summer camp in 2019

Denise is also a yoga teacher and has known about MIU and its Consciousness-Based℠ approach to education for a long time. After purchasing her land, she wanted to learn about becoming a farmer. When searching online, she discovered MIU’s new online master’s in Regenerative Organic Agriculture Program and applied the same day.

She learned the Transcendental Meditation® technique in Jamaica and found it helpful in her sometimes stressful job. “I have noticed that I have more calmness in conflict and in tense situations,” she said. “I am not getting emotionally affected.”

Through her classes at MIU, Denise has had the opportunity to learn more about the tropical fruits in her orchard, and met a farmer in Florida who volunteered to mentor her. She has also applied for a fall internship with the Rodale Institute.

Planting fruit trees on her farm in Jamaica

Her orchard already has a variety of fruits and vegetables, including avocados, plantains, papayas, mangos, and bananas. She hopes to transition into full-time farming in the future and help educate local farmers about regenerative organic practices.

Sanaa Sayani—Pursuing the Science of Everything

by Jeff Whitten | Feb 2, 2022 | Achievements, MIU News

February 1, 2022 • ISSUE 608

Sanaa Sayani

Pursuing the Science of Everything

MIU student Sanaa Sayani, from Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in geography and a minor in anthropology. She has a keen interest in science, including neuroscience, physiology, and physics.

Sanaa began studying astrology while in college and is fascinated by the patterns and connections she sees between the movement of the planets and the events in people’s lives. She hopes to apply the scientific method to astrology and discover its mechanics.

While researching astrology, she found a talk by Dr. John Hagelin on consciousness and unified field theory. She wanted to know more and enrolled in the MA in Maharishi Vedic Science℠ Program.

On a TM retreat with her classmates

“I had mostly academic goals when I came here, but now I see that TM is the root of everything,” she said. Sanaa recently completed the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Program℠ and has been observing the benefits of her practice with a scientific approach. “My life is on a smooth transition,” she said. “It has been easier with the regular TM practice and my physiology is more energized.”

She is currently taking an online course on Maharishi Jyotish and would like to research the connection of unified field theory to Jyotish. Sanaa envisions herself a researcher and wants to stay in academia, starting by pursuing a PhD in Maharishi Vedic Science. “I want to help support this paradigm shift of full consciousness being available to everyone,” she said.

With her sister in Colorado

Her latest research interest involves the effect of the TM® technique on the gut microbiome and the gut-nervous system connection. She also wants to publish creative science books for children written in rhyme.

In addition to reading astrology charts, Sanaa enjoys sports and outdoor activities and works as a swim instructor in the Fairfield Recreation Center.

Sanaa enjoying the water in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland

Karena Jones—Pursuing Self-Fulfillment to Support Others

by Jeff Whitten | Jan 24, 2022 | Achievements, MIU News

January 24, 2022 • ISSUE 607

Karena Jones

Pursuing Self-Fulfillment to Support Others

Karena Jones is a childcare specialist from Colorado who is pursuing a master’s degree in Maharishi Vedic Science℠ at MIU. Karena earned an undergraduate degree in contemplative psychology from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Colorado Denver.

She has spent 18 years in private childcare, specializing in the care of infants and children under three. She also has experience in parent education regarding the development of young children. In 2012 she spent a year volunteering in a Tanzanian orphanage, where she supervised the care of infants.

Karena has a passion for supporting families and making an impact on children’s development during their most receptive years. But she wanted to shift her career so that she is not limited to working with families only.

With MIU friends Sanaa Sayani and Sarah Bozann

In 2021 she began looking for higher education that would facilitate the development of her consciousness and personal growth. In June she found MIU and in August she arrived on campus. Within a few months she completed the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Program℠.

“This has been one of my most profound and beautiful experiences,” she said. “What a blessing to receive this technology and be able to rise to my full potential.”

With children in the Cradle of Love Baby Home in Arusha, Tanzania

She currently works as a residential advisor in the women’s dorm and enjoys interacting with others and supporting them in the fulfillment of their goals.

“The more self-care I do by maintaining my regular TM practice, the more I can offer to the world at large,” she said.

Karena’s new calling is to integrate her experience of the TM® technique and the knowledge of Maharishi Vedic Science with her education in psychology and background in energy healing in order to reach a wider audience through coaching and education.

Performing a devotional dance in 2019 celebrating the life of innovative speaker, futurist, and author Barbara Marx Hubbard at her memorial

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