In this personal narrative, Izzy Kiver recounts her professional background in learning, development, marketing, and engineering, and how the suicide of her brother ten years ago profoundly shaped her identity. A pivotal remembrance service allowed her to process guilt and grief, leading to a new perspective that framed her brother as a guardian angel who inspired her achievements, including graduating from Harvard and working at Google. This realization prompted Izzy to pivot from career pursuits to founding Covenant Education, a nonprofit dedicated to "harmonizing humanity through education and loving‑kindness." She describes her early work mentoring students and adults, and notes that the primary donors were women in corporate roles who also sought coaching. Consequently, Covenant Education’s 2024 focus is a six‑week coaching program for women in tech, corporate, and finance, addressing burnout, societal pressure, and work‑life balance. The program provides techniques for prioritization, boundary‑setting, self‑knowledge, and aims to increase fulfillment and appreciation for life.
Chapters
So my name is Izzy. I spent most of my professional career in learning, development and corporate training before I did some marketing and engineering type work. And definitely was not my main focus, though. So last year I started a company, a nonprofit, actually, in living memory of my brother. Passed away about 10 years ago, took his own life. And that was actually a big part of who I was and my identity. No matter what I was doing, it seemed to really creep into many areas of my life consciously. And then last year, I was at this remembrance service. He came up and he was, you know, just really. I really felt him close next to me during that time. And I was able to essentially transfer this feeling of hurt and guilt, you know, hurt from the fact that essentially he didn't consult with anyone before doing it, and the guilt for not being able to help him, which is, you know, of course you can't actually help someone, but that you can't trick your brain into understanding that. I was able to take a lot of that experience and formulate a new perspective, understanding what his life was and able to see things for the way really they really were in a big way. He was my protector, a sense of guardian angel for me, and allowed me to go on to do the things I was able to do, which is graduate from Harvard, work at Google, start various companies with various levels of success. But the biggest lesson he taught me was that he was able to do his mission and essentially move on. And in a sense, that moment, it really was very clear to me that what I need to be doing is not keep kind of spinning the wheel and sort of building a career, sort of trying a startup or sort of doing something else. I really have to pivot, focus, and do what I'm doing right now, which is Covenant Education. It's a nonprofit. Its mission is focused on harmonizing humanity through education and loving kindness. Now, the way I did that last year was essentially being the guardian angel and being a coach and mentor to tens of students, helping them with their college journeys. Adults as well. What I realized was that the donors who were coming through that really supporting the organization were not that demographic at all. They're actually women who were in corporate that believed in the mission. They themselves needed some advice and business coaching, and I was able to help them and they were able to help coe. I focus this year to primarily focus on women in tech, women in corporate, women in finance, and not only because the problems that I'm focusing on this year, they don't only pertain to women. I feel like they speak to the entire general workforce, and these problems mostly orient themselves with societal pressures, mounting work pressure, and feeling of burnout that a lot of employees are either feeling or they're on the verge of. The purpose of the program is to walk someone through six weeks of coaching as well as resources and training so that they come out with those six weeks with techniques, learning, have new knowledge of themselves, greater awareness so they can actually understand how to prioritize their life better, how to say no where they need to say no in instances. But more importantly, they feel a sense of more fulfillment and appreciation for their life because they have a better understanding of how to work through different situations. They have the techniques, and they also have knowledge of themselves to be able to move forward.
