when I was growing up math and the hard
sciences and other STEM related subjects
always made me feel uncomfortable and
this was because they seemed like such
difficult subjects to me but my goal for
my senior year at UCLA was to do
something new so entered UCLA’s future
as X invention contest which directly
deals with using STEM subjects so this
was quite intimidating to me but I’m
glad I entered because my experience
with the contest taught me this it’s
important to do what intimidates us
because that is how we change the most
and I experience has changed when I
participated in the contest for the
contest the problem I chose to tackle
was air pollution in Los Angeles and for
this problem I had to do a lot of
research involving unfamiliar topics
like environmental science health
technology topics that intimidated me
but through this process I began to look
at the world a lot differently for
example the invention I made was
designed to capture pollution from the
air and this design was inspired by
certain properties of leaves that I
learned about by reading research about
pollution and plants so now with this
new information when I see plans I think
wow I wonder what are some new and
unexpected ways we could use other
properties of plants to help us could I
help think of some so by participating
in the contests and being exposed to
this research about pollution plans
involving biology and environmental
health instead of seeing them as
esoteric fields that I would never be
involved with I began to think about
them in relation to the rest of the
world and for me this was a big change
and another change happened before the
contests when it came to solving big
problems like air pollution my mind
would usually only turn to policy or
economics but now after reading a lot of
research about science and tech I have
newfound interest in using these things
to help solve world problems not that I
didn’t think they weren’t important
before but now these things are also at
the forefront of my mind and I wonder if
I had this outlook a few years ago would
I majored in a stem subject before in my
eyes I was not a part of that world at
all but now I brought it into mine and
this change came from directly
confronting what I was intimidated by
and in my case this change was so
significant because the things that tend
to intimidate me are the furthest away
from my personal world and daily life
but when we explore the things that
intimidate us we learn about them and
bring them into our bubbles like I did
during the contest and it transforms how
we view the world and turning to the
subject of intimidation by definition
when something intimidates us and makes
us feel timid or fearful it’s different
than the type of terror we get from
other fears like giant spiders or in my
case clowns
if I encounter these I’d want to scream
and run away because I’m afraid of
getting physically hurt but when I’m
intimidated by something I’m tempted to
avoid it and timidly navigate my life
around it and ironically that’s what
hurts me because it limits what I do and
how I think in life so that’s why I
believe that everybody should seek out
what intimidates them like me and might
be a certain subject that you avoided in
school and all you have to do to start
exploring that subject is pick up a book
or Google a sentence or it might be
something totally different like public
speaking or going to a new gym for the
first time or opening up emotionally to
someone it doesn’t take much to start
exploring your Intimidators think about
what intimidates you and if you don’t to
dive into it right away you can always
dip your toes in and see what happens
as I conclude I want to leave you with
this each time that you go out and
confront your Intimidators the changes
that result add up and transform how you
think about life and it ultimately
changes who you are so chase after what
intimidates you and your world will grow
thank you
[Applause]
sciences and other STEM related subjects
always made me feel uncomfortable and
this was because they seemed like such
difficult subjects to me but my goal for
my senior year at UCLA was to do
something new so entered UCLA’s future
as X invention contest which directly
deals with using STEM subjects so this
was quite intimidating to me but I’m
glad I entered because my experience
with the contest taught me this it’s
important to do what intimidates us
because that is how we change the most
and I experience has changed when I
participated in the contest for the
contest the problem I chose to tackle
was air pollution in Los Angeles and for
this problem I had to do a lot of
research involving unfamiliar topics
like environmental science health
technology topics that intimidated me
but through this process I began to look
at the world a lot differently for
example the invention I made was
designed to capture pollution from the
air and this design was inspired by
certain properties of leaves that I
learned about by reading research about
pollution and plants so now with this
new information when I see plans I think
wow I wonder what are some new and
unexpected ways we could use other
properties of plants to help us could I
help think of some so by participating
in the contests and being exposed to
this research about pollution plans
involving biology and environmental
health instead of seeing them as
esoteric fields that I would never be
involved with I began to think about
them in relation to the rest of the
world and for me this was a big change
and another change happened before the
contests when it came to solving big
problems like air pollution my mind
would usually only turn to policy or
economics but now after reading a lot of
research about science and tech I have
newfound interest in using these things
to help solve world problems not that I
didn’t think they weren’t important
before but now these things are also at
the forefront of my mind and I wonder if
I had this outlook a few years ago would
I majored in a stem subject before in my
eyes I was not a part of that world at
all but now I brought it into mine and
this change came from directly
confronting what I was intimidated by
and in my case this change was so
significant because the things that tend
to intimidate me are the furthest away
from my personal world and daily life
but when we explore the things that
intimidate us we learn about them and
bring them into our bubbles like I did
during the contest and it transforms how
we view the world and turning to the
subject of intimidation by definition
when something intimidates us and makes
us feel timid or fearful it’s different
than the type of terror we get from
other fears like giant spiders or in my
case clowns
if I encounter these I’d want to scream
and run away because I’m afraid of
getting physically hurt but when I’m
intimidated by something I’m tempted to
avoid it and timidly navigate my life
around it and ironically that’s what
hurts me because it limits what I do and
how I think in life so that’s why I
believe that everybody should seek out
what intimidates them like me and might
be a certain subject that you avoided in
school and all you have to do to start
exploring that subject is pick up a book
or Google a sentence or it might be
something totally different like public
speaking or going to a new gym for the
first time or opening up emotionally to
someone it doesn’t take much to start
exploring your Intimidators think about
what intimidates you and if you don’t to
dive into it right away you can always
dip your toes in and see what happens
as I conclude I want to leave you with
this each time that you go out and
confront your Intimidators the changes
that result add up and transform how you
think about life and it ultimately
changes who you are so chase after what
intimidates you and your world will grow
thank you
[Applause]
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