Born to immigrant parents, raised by a single mother, and astutely navigating the streets and his inner-city public schools, Karim won over a quarter million dollars in scholarship and aid to attend and graduate in the top 10% of his ivy league university. Upon graduation, he turned down his Wall Street job offer to commit his life to educational equity.

At 18, Karim founded Practice Makes Perfect (PMP) to level the playing field over the summer for kids growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods just like him. In the two years after college, Karim and his team raised over $2 million from some of NYC's most well-respected philanthropists - including the Rockefeller, Tisch, Mailman, Sackler, and Ackman families - all before turning 24 years old.

At 23, he was named to Forbes' 30 under 30 list in Education and at 25 he was ranked in the top 5 most influential entrepreneurs under 25 in the world. Karim is a 2017 TED fellow, a 2014 Global Good Fund Fellow, and a 2013 Echoing Green Fellow.