[Applause]
by the time I was a freshman in college
I had lived in Nigeria Sweden Burkina
Faso Vietnam in the United States five
countries four continents and the reason
I lived in all these countries is
because my dad was a diplomat and so as
a kid I would watch as he sought to
maintain international relations as they
pertain to peace war trade economics
human rights and the environment
I observed as he sought to establish
common ground with us colleagues locally
and internationally I studied him
I even had his morning routine down
every morning before he went to work he
would sit down on the dining table flip
out the newspaper
bear in mind who was the midnit so
people still read that but he will break
out the newspaper go with the rid from
front to back and then he would turn on
the news it’ll be CNN at first and then
BBC and then the local news station now
as a seven-year-old kid I didn’t quite
understand why my dad did all these
things and so I asked him dad well why
do you do all these things and he looked
at me and said something to the effect
of I can’t I owe the world is bigger
than you and so if you want to be
successful in it you have to understand
it so you know to my preteen years that
didn’t quite resonate so I just did what
any seven-year-old kid would do I
continued to mimic my dad anyway so I
took in the same information that he
took it I would read the same newspapers
I would even fill out the occasional
crossword puzzle if I saw and then I
would turn on to the news and follow the
same thing but it wasn’t until I found
myself in Burkina Faso in middle school
that I finally got what my dad was
trying to do he was trying to understand
the difference is around him so that he
could find the commonalities that
existed within them you seen Burkina
Faso I was embedded in a sea of
difference I was this skinny kid with a
thick Nigerian accent and a
french-speaking country and an American
International School going through
puberty and I suddenly found myself as
the odd one out in a place where
everybody was already different from who
I was and so for me to make friends I
had to understand the differences around
me and find the commonalities that
existed within them that ladies and
gentlemen is the art of diplomacy
understanding the differences around you
and finding the commonalities that exist
within them every year diplomats are
posted out to new countries new
environments with thousands and
sometimes millions of people that are
vastly different from from who they are
and their job is to find the common
thread that weaves through this new
environment I believe that this skill of
cultural competence is the most
important skill that we can develop in a
21st century I also believe that this is
the best way that we can combat the fear
and hate that we experience today the
fear and hate that is contributing to
the glowing divide that we experience in
as a world today you see if we’re to
ever have a chance of attaining a
peaceful future we must learn how to
come together and find common ground and
it’s with this in mind that I’d like to
share three ways with which we can
embrace the art of the policy the first
way numero uno the first way to embrace
the art of diplomacy is to collect and
gather information
I would watch as my dad did this because
he did this all the time he had his
little pens and
books and he would observe his
environment take notes
read on this culture and then interview
ways that you all can apply that is by
taking notice of your current
surrounding observing what brings people
together what put smiles in people’s
faces and what causes them to frown
taking mental notes of that reading up
on the cultures around you and then
interviewing asking questions ensure
that as your interview and you ask an
open-ended questions questions that
allow them to tell you about themselves
questions that allow them to tell you
how they interpret things in the world I
followed this same exact process when I
found myself in that very different
environment in Burkina Faso I looked
around me and I saw that the activity
that brought the most people together
was basketball and so I went to the
library and I checked out all the books
in basketball studied up on the history
and the culture of the game so what
natural ten-year-old to do and then and
then I picked up the the magazines the
Sports Illustrated for kids
once again that’s something that’s not
available anymore but I picked up on
that to make sure that I I knew who the
current players were the current
basketball players were so I was well
versed in the game of basketball once I
I felt well versed enough I went to the
best basketball player on campus Michael
Albright and asked him hey could you
show me some of this crossover I’m
trying to cross over like Allen Iverson
I’m trying to you know you know do that
dunk that Kobe Bryant did the other day
and that that conversation led to me
asking him to teach me how to play the
game of basketball and our one-on-ones
became two on Tuesday and at three and
three and then four and four and five
and fives
so pretty soon I found myself in a
position where I had new friends and my
new friends were now inviting me to do
thins outside of school what this
experience taught me was the importance
of coming together for a common goal you
see a lot of my new teammates they spoke
different languages they had
accents and they came from different
parts of the world but we realized that
in order for us to win to grow and to be
a good team we have to leverage our
unique talents for that one goal now
imagine what could happen if we applied
that to communities today magic could
happen if we learn how to leverage each
of our unique differences and talents to
solve a problem today understand the
differences around you and find the
commonalities that exist within them the
second way to embrace the art of
diplomacy is by being an active listener
now good diplomats when they’re posted
into new countries they make sure that
they understand the national interests
of that country they make sure that they
understand the intellectual and popular
culture of their new environment and so
what they do is they establish mutual
trust and relationships with the
influential members of this new
environment they do this so they can
foster a positive collaboration between
their national countries as well as the
countries they’re posted into and then
the best way they do this is by becoming
active listeners ways that you all can
become active listeners is by learning
not to listen to obtain information
learn now to listen to learn and learn
not to listen to understand I learned
this lesson at the age of 20 when I
found myself lost in Greece it was a
group trip a couple of my friends and I
at somehow managed to get lost and we
found ourselves in the position where we
were in a foreign country and didn’t
speak a word of Greek and so in a
frantic attempt to reconnect with the
rest of our party we started to approach
the locals and we used the combination
of English Spanish sign language in
French whatever we could piece together
to try and communicate to them and we
approached the locals and we
would engage with them and this went on
for about 20 minutes before we realized
that we weren’t actually listening to
them we were more focused on whether we
were being understood and so after about
20 minutes we realized that we should
change our approach and so we started to
observe the body language and read
between the lines if you will and pretty
soon we were able to get to a final
destination and the key takeaway for
from this experience for me was that it
takes an insane amount of concentration
and determination to become an active
listener you have to remind yourself
that the goal is to understand what the
other person is saying and so be
deliberate with your listening
paraphrase ask questions paraphrase back
to them if you will to make sure that
there is a mutual level of understanding
because if you don’t you find that
whatever you’re saying and whatever the
other person is saying are amazingly
different understand the differences
around you and find the commonalities
that exist within them the third way to
embrace the arts of diplomacy wish to
become an active member of your
community whether you go to school
whether you go to work or whether you
live in a different neighborhood ensure
that you become an inactive member of
this community I’ll use diplomats to
illustrate this example diplomats when
they’re posted out into a new country
they understand they are the
representatives of the heads of state of
the country and so they must have a firm
grasp of the politics the geography the
economics of the new environment and so
I ask you do you have a firm grasp of
the politics of the economics of the
geography of your current environment if
the answer to that question is no I’d
encourage you to start because it’s
important for us to understand how the
same set of rules affects different set
of people the reason why this is
important because this widens
spective and allows you to see things
from different lenses you see things
from different lenses you’re able to
solve a problem that you might not have
been privy to before you’re able to
approach a problem with much more
understanding now once you’ve embedded
yourself in this community and you’ve
understood your community I would
encourage you to expand your committee
and seek to understand that as well I
got my start in this in eighth grade
when mrs. McDonald came in one morning
and scrapped what we were supposed to do
that day and said you all are going to
learn every single country in capital of
the world and I’m going to add bodies of
waters to that that will be your final
exam now she said that she was making
sure we did this because it allowed us
to connect what we heard that the news
to places in the world and allowed us to
see that the world is much more
connected than we initially thought you
see the lesson that she was trying to
tell us was what my dad was trying to
tell me at a 7 years old who world’s
bigger than you and if you wanted to
succeed in it you have to understand it
so I wanted you all to do the same thing
I understand the geography of the world
but don’t just stop there
travel more embed yourself in this new
environments and if you at work join an
affinity group that has nothing to do
with you if you’re at school
join a school club that has nothing to
do with you constantly put yourself in a
place where you are the different one so
that you can learn how much bigger the
world is than you understand the
differences around you and find the
commonalities that exist within them a
lot of today’s problems are caused
because of people’s unwillingness to
accept change whether it’s due to race
gender orientation or ethnic background
but I believe if we tap into our inner
diplomacy we can learn how to come
together as one
seek to understand more because the less
you understand the more you fear and the
more afraid that you are the more
dangerous you become and to expose
yourself to new environments explore
your curiosity and be in a state of
constant learning because this is the
best way that you can build empathy
tolerance and acceptance collect and
gather information become an active
listener and be part of your community
so that you can embrace the art of
diplomacy thank you very much
[Applause]
by the time I was a freshman in college
I had lived in Nigeria Sweden Burkina
Faso Vietnam in the United States five
countries four continents and the reason
I lived in all these countries is
because my dad was a diplomat and so as
a kid I would watch as he sought to
maintain international relations as they
pertain to peace war trade economics
human rights and the environment
I observed as he sought to establish
common ground with us colleagues locally
and internationally I studied him
I even had his morning routine down
every morning before he went to work he
would sit down on the dining table flip
out the newspaper
bear in mind who was the midnit so
people still read that but he will break
out the newspaper go with the rid from
front to back and then he would turn on
the news it’ll be CNN at first and then
BBC and then the local news station now
as a seven-year-old kid I didn’t quite
understand why my dad did all these
things and so I asked him dad well why
do you do all these things and he looked
at me and said something to the effect
of I can’t I owe the world is bigger
than you and so if you want to be
successful in it you have to understand
it so you know to my preteen years that
didn’t quite resonate so I just did what
any seven-year-old kid would do I
continued to mimic my dad anyway so I
took in the same information that he
took it I would read the same newspapers
I would even fill out the occasional
crossword puzzle if I saw and then I
would turn on to the news and follow the
same thing but it wasn’t until I found
myself in Burkina Faso in middle school
that I finally got what my dad was
trying to do he was trying to understand
the difference is around him so that he
could find the commonalities that
existed within them you seen Burkina
Faso I was embedded in a sea of
difference I was this skinny kid with a
thick Nigerian accent and a
french-speaking country and an American
International School going through
puberty and I suddenly found myself as
the odd one out in a place where
everybody was already different from who
I was and so for me to make friends I
had to understand the differences around
me and find the commonalities that
existed within them that ladies and
gentlemen is the art of diplomacy
understanding the differences around you
and finding the commonalities that exist
within them every year diplomats are
posted out to new countries new
environments with thousands and
sometimes millions of people that are
vastly different from from who they are
and their job is to find the common
thread that weaves through this new
environment I believe that this skill of
cultural competence is the most
important skill that we can develop in a
21st century I also believe that this is
the best way that we can combat the fear
and hate that we experience today the
fear and hate that is contributing to
the glowing divide that we experience in
as a world today you see if we’re to
ever have a chance of attaining a
peaceful future we must learn how to
come together and find common ground and
it’s with this in mind that I’d like to
share three ways with which we can
embrace the art of the policy the first
way numero uno the first way to embrace
the art of diplomacy is to collect and
gather information
I would watch as my dad did this because
he did this all the time he had his
little pens and
books and he would observe his
environment take notes
read on this culture and then interview
ways that you all can apply that is by
taking notice of your current
surrounding observing what brings people
together what put smiles in people’s
faces and what causes them to frown
taking mental notes of that reading up
on the cultures around you and then
interviewing asking questions ensure
that as your interview and you ask an
open-ended questions questions that
allow them to tell you about themselves
questions that allow them to tell you
how they interpret things in the world I
followed this same exact process when I
found myself in that very different
environment in Burkina Faso I looked
around me and I saw that the activity
that brought the most people together
was basketball and so I went to the
library and I checked out all the books
in basketball studied up on the history
and the culture of the game so what
natural ten-year-old to do and then and
then I picked up the the magazines the
Sports Illustrated for kids
once again that’s something that’s not
available anymore but I picked up on
that to make sure that I I knew who the
current players were the current
basketball players were so I was well
versed in the game of basketball once I
I felt well versed enough I went to the
best basketball player on campus Michael
Albright and asked him hey could you
show me some of this crossover I’m
trying to cross over like Allen Iverson
I’m trying to you know you know do that
dunk that Kobe Bryant did the other day
and that that conversation led to me
asking him to teach me how to play the
game of basketball and our one-on-ones
became two on Tuesday and at three and
three and then four and four and five
and fives
so pretty soon I found myself in a
position where I had new friends and my
new friends were now inviting me to do
thins outside of school what this
experience taught me was the importance
of coming together for a common goal you
see a lot of my new teammates they spoke
different languages they had
accents and they came from different
parts of the world but we realized that
in order for us to win to grow and to be
a good team we have to leverage our
unique talents for that one goal now
imagine what could happen if we applied
that to communities today magic could
happen if we learn how to leverage each
of our unique differences and talents to
solve a problem today understand the
differences around you and find the
commonalities that exist within them the
second way to embrace the art of
diplomacy is by being an active listener
now good diplomats when they’re posted
into new countries they make sure that
they understand the national interests
of that country they make sure that they
understand the intellectual and popular
culture of their new environment and so
what they do is they establish mutual
trust and relationships with the
influential members of this new
environment they do this so they can
foster a positive collaboration between
their national countries as well as the
countries they’re posted into and then
the best way they do this is by becoming
active listeners ways that you all can
become active listeners is by learning
not to listen to obtain information
learn now to listen to learn and learn
not to listen to understand I learned
this lesson at the age of 20 when I
found myself lost in Greece it was a
group trip a couple of my friends and I
at somehow managed to get lost and we
found ourselves in the position where we
were in a foreign country and didn’t
speak a word of Greek and so in a
frantic attempt to reconnect with the
rest of our party we started to approach
the locals and we used the combination
of English Spanish sign language in
French whatever we could piece together
to try and communicate to them and we
approached the locals and we
would engage with them and this went on
for about 20 minutes before we realized
that we weren’t actually listening to
them we were more focused on whether we
were being understood and so after about
20 minutes we realized that we should
change our approach and so we started to
observe the body language and read
between the lines if you will and pretty
soon we were able to get to a final
destination and the key takeaway for
from this experience for me was that it
takes an insane amount of concentration
and determination to become an active
listener you have to remind yourself
that the goal is to understand what the
other person is saying and so be
deliberate with your listening
paraphrase ask questions paraphrase back
to them if you will to make sure that
there is a mutual level of understanding
because if you don’t you find that
whatever you’re saying and whatever the
other person is saying are amazingly
different understand the differences
around you and find the commonalities
that exist within them the third way to
embrace the arts of diplomacy wish to
become an active member of your
community whether you go to school
whether you go to work or whether you
live in a different neighborhood ensure
that you become an inactive member of
this community I’ll use diplomats to
illustrate this example diplomats when
they’re posted out into a new country
they understand they are the
representatives of the heads of state of
the country and so they must have a firm
grasp of the politics the geography the
economics of the new environment and so
I ask you do you have a firm grasp of
the politics of the economics of the
geography of your current environment if
the answer to that question is no I’d
encourage you to start because it’s
important for us to understand how the
same set of rules affects different set
of people the reason why this is
important because this widens
spective and allows you to see things
from different lenses you see things
from different lenses you’re able to
solve a problem that you might not have
been privy to before you’re able to
approach a problem with much more
understanding now once you’ve embedded
yourself in this community and you’ve
understood your community I would
encourage you to expand your committee
and seek to understand that as well I
got my start in this in eighth grade
when mrs. McDonald came in one morning
and scrapped what we were supposed to do
that day and said you all are going to
learn every single country in capital of
the world and I’m going to add bodies of
waters to that that will be your final
exam now she said that she was making
sure we did this because it allowed us
to connect what we heard that the news
to places in the world and allowed us to
see that the world is much more
connected than we initially thought you
see the lesson that she was trying to
tell us was what my dad was trying to
tell me at a 7 years old who world’s
bigger than you and if you wanted to
succeed in it you have to understand it
so I wanted you all to do the same thing
I understand the geography of the world
but don’t just stop there
travel more embed yourself in this new
environments and if you at work join an
affinity group that has nothing to do
with you if you’re at school
join a school club that has nothing to
do with you constantly put yourself in a
place where you are the different one so
that you can learn how much bigger the
world is than you understand the
differences around you and find the
commonalities that exist within them a
lot of today’s problems are caused
because of people’s unwillingness to
accept change whether it’s due to race
gender orientation or ethnic background
but I believe if we tap into our inner
diplomacy we can learn how to come
together as one
seek to understand more because the less
you understand the more you fear and the
more afraid that you are the more
dangerous you become and to expose
yourself to new environments explore
your curiosity and be in a state of
constant learning because this is the
best way that you can build empathy
tolerance and acceptance collect and
gather information become an active
listener and be part of your community
so that you can embrace the art of
diplomacy thank you very much
[Applause]
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