okay so thank you so much for having me
here today I am particularly excited
because it’s been I counted exactly ten
years since that audience is an eighth
grader just a little alarming in those
ten years I have faced my fair share of
challenges as I think everyone does
whatever stage of life threatened and I
could found that recognizing challenges
let alone confronting them or even
trying to fix them can feel really
see a challenge and I know that I tend
to ask myself should I do something
about this if I do something will it
even make a difference
should I shine shine bother and also
what is the something that I should do
and I think when you recognize a
challenge and it can be you know at any
scale and then you see yourself relative
to that challenge that’s pretty scary
and it can make you freeze
and that happens you know because
challenges can come at many many scales
for example if you’re in school walking
in the hallway and you hear a friend
make a comment and it leaves you feeling
a little bit uncomfortable you have to
decide should I say something
right now is that the best move will it
make a difference or maybe you are at
the dinner table
can you hear your family discussing some
topic that has really been dividing the
community it happens a lot and you find
out that they are going to a protest
about it and you have to decide how you
want engage or maybe place an item now
I’ve realized that there’s three four
five ten different enormous or small
challenges facing myself faced with
world and I have to figure out how do i
you know how do I spend my time where do
I invest my resources and that in itself
is a challenge that’s very scary but the
fortunate thing about the lucky thing is
that you don’t have to always come up
with everything on the spot every time
comics is made every time action is
taken
it has to be based on something that
happened in the past so for example I
currently work at Roswell and cancer
research and I am working on the study
that looks at bladder cancer in western
New York when I was devising the study I
was ready for my rationale I had to
prove that I knew what I was talking
about I have to write about all the
other studies that worked on similar
things because that’s how I would find
my idea that’s how I came up with
something new something that I could
contribute something I could figure out
how I wanted to change the field the
same is true for technology can just
invent a computer right if it’s based on
technology that has been invented over
time the same is true for philosophy
you’re always responding to insistent
and I think that framework can be
applied to any time if you face a
challenge anytime you have an
opportunity to take change and you don’t
know what to do I think you can rely on
other people’s ideas and experience but
importantly I think you can also rely on
your own experiences you’re only past
actions when you take one small action I
think it can have an enormous ripple
effect that we sometimes underestimate
so I’ll give you an example from my life
this this wasn’t meeting my friend about
and we were a grodman time that was our
costume it’s just it wasn’t working with
this so around the time this having
created YouTube with two years old and
viral videos were just becoming a thing
and there was a comedian Jeff Dunham who
had released he had a ton of viral
videos it was very famous man money one
of his videos
was was about a puppet called Achmed the
dead terrorist might have watched it and
it anytime everybody watched and
everybody voted it who didn’t heed my
friends I think about this video you
know it was mocking Muslims
it was probably funny probably he mocked
a lot of groups
offensive humor has an audience but I –
and that Muslims
oh I engaged with the video differently
than my friends in the edge of the video
and so I mean we would quote it he would
repeat lines we could go back toward
this one on for a long time and I knew
that you know maybe I didn’t actually
find it that funny equip that was what
was funny at the time
then I made a few times sake I went home
I told my mom about this video era so
she gave me an ultimatum
she told me a job you do not go into
school tomorrow tomorrow not two days
you don’t confront your friends I will
confront your friends I will confront
the French parents I will talk about
headmaster I mean it was crazy so I got
three new choices and it summoned up all
my courage walked into the school the
next day we were a half assed favorite
class and all my friends and as we did
it every day quoted the video and I
summon up all my courage you know what
can we uh let’s not let’s just not quote
anymore and of course my friends were
like okay I I mean it wasn’t meant to be
offensive like not so that was one
moment and it was so hard for me but I
did it fast forward I gave this is me
and my friends in high school same
friends fifteen Achatz so we’re in high
school it was junior here once again
that we believe in math class setting
Roman stories and one of our classmates
made a joke as we were walking that was
also about Muslims because I’m just like
that and it was along the same lines as
you know a joke and I remembered you’re
going to go again
got a numbered up no one more time have
to be the person that says I don’t think
it’s funny right now everyone’s pretty
but do the right thing before I can open
my mouth what my friend
who had been there in seventh grade when
I had that first interaction
she said no we don’t like jokes like
that
stop she walked away and I had nothing
to say anything and I at that moment I
remember the reason and just being so
grateful that one she had said that I
didn’t have to but – it felt like what I
had done in seventh grade had paid off
that that discomfort had had an effect
the little action that I had taken had a
reverberated over time and in fact
someone else who may be affected this
very person now as I was preparing his
talk actually thought of the story first
when I thought about the change I have
that friend she said no she doesn’t but
the point is I remember I took those so
another five six years went by and I was
in college and I studied global health
in college which looks at certain
disease and of different levels
including a population level and
understanding different local context so
in this particular project that I was
working on I was in Tanzania I was in
central Tennessee it was town called
Sangeeta and we were interviewing women
in several villages outside the town we
were talking to them as we were
preparing for a project we wanted to
understand the gender roles and their
communities you know what tasks did the
women perform what did the men perform
and how did they feel about those
assignments and in between interviews my
colleagues and I were just standing and
chatting about our lives and one of my
colleagues asked me a very personal
question about my life specific to being
a woman something about why I wasn’t
married yet why I didn’t have kids
it was like what I am I’m here as a
scientist that’s the role that I’m house
this place right now and it was so
ironic given what we were working so I
was leaving all of that but comfortable
I was in different context
that’s colleague was my senior and I
didn’t know I just didn’t know what to
do but I did have my own past
experiences to guide me and the defining
factor was that there were people
standing around me there were women and
I knew that they were watching this
interaction so I wouldn’t just be
standing up for myself in the moment but
I would also potentially have an effect
on the people standing around me and I
wanted them to be able to walk away
using my behavior and let that be an
influencing factor in their future
actions and so I did respond that’s this
person an appropriate question this is
so irrelevant to what we’re doing and
I’m hearing the scientists not to about
we did and again I don’t know if it’s me
and I hope that it did influence other
people so that story worked very well
right great it may or may not have been
putting someone else and that may or may
not even puts another person but it
stayed with me very very long time I
still think about it often but of course
there are many times in my life and I’m
sure other people’s lives where they
haven’t always made the exact right
choice for example I can think of two
instances in the recent past one image
telling me to comment and brought up
race and I didn’t think because the
context I felt so uncomfortable and I
let it go and then another situation
where someone brought up race at the
dinner table and I didn’t say something
immediately off the bat I’m really
I’m very proud of my liver I did but
again you know one of them worked out
for them both of them I bring that with
me as I move forward and I think that’s
okay that’s still importance your
actions it’s okay to make mistakes but
my takeaway from all of it is that when
you do have an opportunity to make
change you have an opportunity to take
actions whether the challenge that
you’re facing is it’s really been a
taking or if it’s very manageable you
should take it not just for yourself in
the moment and for the people around you
in that moment but you should take it
for your future self and for the people
around you their future if you practice
that if you practice change if you can
give it as a muscle and you exercise it
if you stretch yourself them in the
future you can stretch just a little bit
more and when you come up against
something that feels overwhelming that
feels impossible to tackle whether it’s
a society level or individual level you
can look to other people you can look to
them and see what they did but you can also look to yourself for inspiration
here today I am particularly excited
because it’s been I counted exactly ten
years since that audience is an eighth
grader just a little alarming in those
ten years I have faced my fair share of
challenges as I think everyone does
whatever stage of life threatened and I
could found that recognizing challenges
let alone confronting them or even
trying to fix them can feel really
see a challenge and I know that I tend
to ask myself should I do something
about this if I do something will it
even make a difference
should I shine shine bother and also
what is the something that I should do
and I think when you recognize a
challenge and it can be you know at any
scale and then you see yourself relative
to that challenge that’s pretty scary
and it can make you freeze
and that happens you know because
challenges can come at many many scales
for example if you’re in school walking
in the hallway and you hear a friend
make a comment and it leaves you feeling
a little bit uncomfortable you have to
decide should I say something
right now is that the best move will it
make a difference or maybe you are at
the dinner table
can you hear your family discussing some
topic that has really been dividing the
community it happens a lot and you find
out that they are going to a protest
about it and you have to decide how you
want engage or maybe place an item now
I’ve realized that there’s three four
five ten different enormous or small
challenges facing myself faced with
world and I have to figure out how do i
you know how do I spend my time where do
I invest my resources and that in itself
is a challenge that’s very scary but the
fortunate thing about the lucky thing is
that you don’t have to always come up
with everything on the spot every time
comics is made every time action is
taken
it has to be based on something that
happened in the past so for example I
currently work at Roswell and cancer
research and I am working on the study
that looks at bladder cancer in western
New York when I was devising the study I
was ready for my rationale I had to
prove that I knew what I was talking
about I have to write about all the
other studies that worked on similar
things because that’s how I would find
my idea that’s how I came up with
something new something that I could
contribute something I could figure out
how I wanted to change the field the
same is true for technology can just
invent a computer right if it’s based on
technology that has been invented over
time the same is true for philosophy
you’re always responding to insistent
and I think that framework can be
applied to any time if you face a
challenge anytime you have an
opportunity to take change and you don’t
know what to do I think you can rely on
other people’s ideas and experience but
importantly I think you can also rely on
your own experiences you’re only past
actions when you take one small action I
think it can have an enormous ripple
effect that we sometimes underestimate
so I’ll give you an example from my life
this this wasn’t meeting my friend about
and we were a grodman time that was our
costume it’s just it wasn’t working with
this so around the time this having
created YouTube with two years old and
viral videos were just becoming a thing
and there was a comedian Jeff Dunham who
had released he had a ton of viral
videos it was very famous man money one
of his videos
was was about a puppet called Achmed the
dead terrorist might have watched it and
it anytime everybody watched and
everybody voted it who didn’t heed my
friends I think about this video you
know it was mocking Muslims
it was probably funny probably he mocked
a lot of groups
offensive humor has an audience but I –
and that Muslims
oh I engaged with the video differently
than my friends in the edge of the video
and so I mean we would quote it he would
repeat lines we could go back toward
this one on for a long time and I knew
that you know maybe I didn’t actually
find it that funny equip that was what
was funny at the time
then I made a few times sake I went home
I told my mom about this video era so
she gave me an ultimatum
she told me a job you do not go into
school tomorrow tomorrow not two days
you don’t confront your friends I will
confront your friends I will confront
the French parents I will talk about
headmaster I mean it was crazy so I got
three new choices and it summoned up all
my courage walked into the school the
next day we were a half assed favorite
class and all my friends and as we did
it every day quoted the video and I
summon up all my courage you know what
can we uh let’s not let’s just not quote
anymore and of course my friends were
like okay I I mean it wasn’t meant to be
offensive like not so that was one
moment and it was so hard for me but I
did it fast forward I gave this is me
and my friends in high school same
friends fifteen Achatz so we’re in high
school it was junior here once again
that we believe in math class setting
Roman stories and one of our classmates
made a joke as we were walking that was
also about Muslims because I’m just like
that and it was along the same lines as
you know a joke and I remembered you’re
going to go again
got a numbered up no one more time have
to be the person that says I don’t think
it’s funny right now everyone’s pretty
but do the right thing before I can open
my mouth what my friend
who had been there in seventh grade when
I had that first interaction
she said no we don’t like jokes like
that
stop she walked away and I had nothing
to say anything and I at that moment I
remember the reason and just being so
grateful that one she had said that I
didn’t have to but – it felt like what I
had done in seventh grade had paid off
that that discomfort had had an effect
the little action that I had taken had a
reverberated over time and in fact
someone else who may be affected this
very person now as I was preparing his
talk actually thought of the story first
when I thought about the change I have
that friend she said no she doesn’t but
the point is I remember I took those so
another five six years went by and I was
in college and I studied global health
in college which looks at certain
disease and of different levels
including a population level and
understanding different local context so
in this particular project that I was
working on I was in Tanzania I was in
central Tennessee it was town called
Sangeeta and we were interviewing women
in several villages outside the town we
were talking to them as we were
preparing for a project we wanted to
understand the gender roles and their
communities you know what tasks did the
women perform what did the men perform
and how did they feel about those
assignments and in between interviews my
colleagues and I were just standing and
chatting about our lives and one of my
colleagues asked me a very personal
question about my life specific to being
a woman something about why I wasn’t
married yet why I didn’t have kids
it was like what I am I’m here as a
scientist that’s the role that I’m house
this place right now and it was so
ironic given what we were working so I
was leaving all of that but comfortable
I was in different context
that’s colleague was my senior and I
didn’t know I just didn’t know what to
do but I did have my own past
experiences to guide me and the defining
factor was that there were people
standing around me there were women and
I knew that they were watching this
interaction so I wouldn’t just be
standing up for myself in the moment but
I would also potentially have an effect
on the people standing around me and I
wanted them to be able to walk away
using my behavior and let that be an
influencing factor in their future
actions and so I did respond that’s this
person an appropriate question this is
so irrelevant to what we’re doing and
I’m hearing the scientists not to about
we did and again I don’t know if it’s me
and I hope that it did influence other
people so that story worked very well
right great it may or may not have been
putting someone else and that may or may
not even puts another person but it
stayed with me very very long time I
still think about it often but of course
there are many times in my life and I’m
sure other people’s lives where they
haven’t always made the exact right
choice for example I can think of two
instances in the recent past one image
telling me to comment and brought up
race and I didn’t think because the
context I felt so uncomfortable and I
let it go and then another situation
where someone brought up race at the
dinner table and I didn’t say something
immediately off the bat I’m really
I’m very proud of my liver I did but
again you know one of them worked out
for them both of them I bring that with
me as I move forward and I think that’s
okay that’s still importance your
actions it’s okay to make mistakes but
my takeaway from all of it is that when
you do have an opportunity to make
change you have an opportunity to take
actions whether the challenge that
you’re facing is it’s really been a
taking or if it’s very manageable you
should take it not just for yourself in
the moment and for the people around you
in that moment but you should take it
for your future self and for the people
around you their future if you practice
that if you practice change if you can
give it as a muscle and you exercise it
if you stretch yourself them in the
future you can stretch just a little bit
more and when you come up against
something that feels overwhelming that
feels impossible to tackle whether it’s
a society level or individual level you
can look to other people you can look to
them and see what they did but you can also look to yourself for inspiration
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