 Braun attended Brown University, where he played varsity basketball for the Brown Bears and graduated "magna cum laude" with a bachelor's degree in economics, sociology, and public & private sector organizations.Braun went abroad through the Semester at Sea program to see the world while studying and traveled to over fifty countries after graduation.According to Braun, while visiting different countries, he asked local children what they wanted most in the world, and in India, a young boy begging on the streets told him that he wanted a pencil.