介绍： As a young girl, Maya Shankar was well on her way to a promising career as a classical violinist. Itzhak Perlman had taken her on as his private student at the Juilliard School. At the age of 14, and she was accepted to his prestigious summer program on Shelter Island. But not long after, she injured her fing...

介绍： As a young girl, Maya Shankar was well on her way to a promising career as a classical violinist. Itzhak Perlman had taken her on as his private student at the Juilliard School. At the age of 14, and she was accepted to his prestigious summer program on Shelter Island. But not long after, she injured her finger while playing a difficult section of Paganini's Caprice no. 13. She tore a tendon in her hand, bringing her musical career to an untimely end.

Today, Maya has reached a new pinnacle in an entirely different field. She served in the Obama administration as a senior adviser at the White House, working to create better policy using insights from behavioral science. Her work in government was far-reaching — helping students get to college, workers save more for retirement and millions of children get access to school lunch.

It's a calling she couldn't have anticipated at Juilliard, where she dreamed of being a concert violinist. What followed in the days after her musical career ended was an incredible sense of loss.