Ready for the Ivy League Challenge?

Transcript

 

Part 1:

SPEAKER A

Welcome back to season two of the Ivy League Prep Academy Podcast. Equipping you to successfully pursue the college of your dreams. We believe everyone deserves to reach their full potential, and the admissions process shouldn't hold you back. Hello, and welcome back. Back. I am super excited for our guest today, we have Naika Faison. Now, there are a few classes at Harvard that are impossible to get into. Naica's class, her journalism and her podcasting classes are two of these. Absolutely impossible to get into classes until you're at the end of your degree, because Harvard staggers their registration so that you get to register early the later on, you are towards your degree. And I waited up the night of registration to make sure that I could get into this class. And sure enough, on the first day of class, half the class, when we did our introductions, talked about how they had tried multiple times to get into this journalism class before. And today we have the teacher on with us. This is Nika Faison. Not only does she teach at Harvard and is a very, very popular teacher there, she also got her fellowship at Harvard. She has studied at Harvard. She got her degree, her advanced degrees from Columbia, and she got her bachelor's degree from Princeton University. And so thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER B

Hey, thank you. No problem.

SPEAKER A

I'm super excited to just hear everything. Of course, our students, our listeners, are going to be interested in a number of different things that you can shed light on. And I think maybe we'll just start from the beginning, if you could tell us just a little bit about yourself beyond what we've said in the introduction here in the bio that the abbreviated bio that I read. Can you tell us just a little bit, maybe begin with Princeton and Columbia. What did you love about attending those schools?

SPEAKER B

First of all, thank you for having me. So I guess about attending those schools, they're very different schools, and I had very different experiences there. Princeton, I was an undergrad, and I was there for four years. Columbia, I was a graduate student, and I was there for twelve months. So I'll say that first, very different experiences. Princeton is a small town very much, only it's like the university and a little bit beyond that. And Columbia is obviously in New York City. So very different experiences that I think were right for the periods of time in my life. So, as an undergrad, I grew up in Philadelphia, outside of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. I grew up an hour and 20 minutes from where Princeton's campus is. So it wasn't very far. I was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Cornell and Brown. So when I was and some other schools, too. But just focusing on that sure ones for now, I did not apply to Columbia. I did not apply to Harvard. I did not apply to Yale. I did not apply. You know, I only applied to four Ivy League schools, and thankfully I got into them, so but I had always wanted to go to Princeton. My cousin went to Princeton, actually. That's how I got introduced to it. So, let's see, I think she got in 1995, and then she started there in 96, graduated in 2000, and I'm class of 2005. So when she got she got an early decision. It was December, Christmas time, 95, and I was 13 or something, and I went with my family to visit Princeton because she had gotten in. So her mom, my cousin and her brother, my other cousin, they came up for Christmas. Again, we're only an hour and a half away from Princeton. We all drove there so she could see it, because she got early decision. They don't have it anymore at Princeton. It's early action. But early decision back in the day basically meant you're going here, right? You're not applying, or else you're getting you're going here.

So when she visited and was falling in love with the school that she had fell in love with over pamphlets, I fell in love with the school just seeing it in person. So I said to myself, well, I'm going to Princeton. I'm going to go to Princeton, too. And my family said, okay, well, you got to work hard. And in our family, this cousin was always the smartest, the brightest. And I kept thinking, well, I'm not as smart as her, I can't get in. But I just had that goal in my mind throughout high school. And even though I always wanted to go to Princeton, when it was senior year of high school, I didn't apply early decision one, because I didn't get my application done in time. You're not the first order left, honest. Just so people I think sometimes people think folks who went to Ivy League schools are, yes, we're type A, but that they do everything perfectly and on time. And this net, no, I just did not get around to it. I was student body president. I also was a three sport athlete. I was playing field hockey that fall, applying to schools, student body president, taking advanced placement classes. I just didn't have time. So I went to a boarding school, and in boarding school, you have a month off for Christmas. So it wasn't until that month off that I did my college application. So I did a bunch of them. This is probably not great advice, but I applied to Cornell because my best friend had gotten an early decision to Cornell. So I said, okay, why not? And I applied to Princeton because I'd always wanted to go there. I applied to UPenn because it was down the street. I applied to Brown because my school is sort of a feeder school to Brown. A lot of the especially the student body presidents from my school a lot of them always got into Brown. So I kind of thought of Brown as a safety Ivy, if one exists. Kind of crazy, but we just had crazy to say relationship with my high school. A lot of kids had gone there and done well. And then I applied to two others. I applied to Johns Hopkins and Georgetown. And fun fact, I did not get into Johns Hopkins and Georgetown, but I got into every Ivy League school I applied to.

SPEAKER A

There you go.

SPEAKER B

It's kind of random sometimes, right? At some point, you're just like, I don't know. But for some reason, I thought I could get into Hopkins and Georgetown if I didn't, just in case. Yeah, if I didn't get into the Ivy League school. And at the time, I thought I was going to be premed, which is why I applied to Hopkins. But I think that's why they rejected it's very competitive to get into their premed program, and I just don't think I was a competitive enough candidate anyway. So that was my journey. And I still remember the day I got into Princeton. As I said, it was my first choice. And I had heard from all the other schools and the Ivy League at the time. I don't know how it is anymore, but at the time, they sent all their acceptances on the same day, not by email. Some places were just starting to do email acceptances, but I got all of mine over from letters.

SPEAKER A

I think they do send them at the same time today as well, but they do it over here.

SPEAKER B

Yeah, they sent the packets at the same time. So it was April 4. I remember they sent them all out April 5. I got my acceptance to Penn. So then my dad said, well, if we think geographically, you might hear from Princeton tomorrow, because New Jersey, right? So Pennsylvania. And I thought, well, the rejections are probably not sent first class mail, so I might not remember. I had already heard from Hopkins. I didn't get in. I had already heard from Georgetown. I didn't get in. So in my mind, I was like, I'm not getting into an Ivy League school, but I got into Penn, so I was like, okay, great. I can go to Penn. And then the next day so I went to boarding school, and boarding school was in Pennsylvania. So the way it worked was you had mailboxes, and if something was too big to fit in your mailbox, you got a slip that said you had a package. So I mailbox, and I had a slip that said I had a package. I'm like, oh, my gosh. So I run to the front office, and I said, I have a package. So she goes to the back, and she's looking for it. She goes, Princeton University. And I was like, oh, my God, it's the front office, mind you. So it's these ladies on typewriters or computers or whatever, and it's quiet, and I'm like, oh, my God. And then one of my friends was near the office at the time, and she's like, Nica got into Princeton, and they went to the dining hall because my sister was a freshman and she was having lunch at the time. They wanted her to come be with me. So someone went and got my sister, and the lady is giving me the package, and I'm shaking it. I'm like, oh, my God. And then I opened up, and the first line of the letter says yes, and I didn't even read the rest of the letter. I was like I just, like, crying. I've, like, cried tears of joy a few times in my life. That was the first time ever that I cried tears of joy. So it was awesome that my sister came. We're hugging and cheering, and then my other friends were nearby. It was great.

SPEAKER A

Wow.

SPEAKER B

Yeah, it was great.

SPEAKER A

You can almost just feel it over the sound waves. It just feels amazing. I want to celebrate your admittance with you.
SPEAKER B

Thank you.
SPEAKER A

Good for you. How exciting. And was it everything you imagined? I mean, you'd been to campus. Your cousin had been and had shared her experiences with you, but here was your dream. You'd fought for it since 13. How was life as a student at Princeton? How did you enjoy school there?

SPEAKER B

It's an interesting experience because I'll say the positive first. I made lifelong friends. I still talk to every day. I had awesome professors and awesome classes. Some of the most challenging experiences of my life to date were there. You just felt like you were in this protected place with all these great thinkers. You had access to these amazing people that came onto campus. If you get into Princeton, you should go to Princeton. I say this to everybody. Even though my into Princeton, she went to Harvard. But not to get too real on your podcast, but back then, 20 years ago or whatever or 15. I graduated 15 years ago. Socially, I did have a good time. I am a social person. I went to parties weekly and all that stuff. I studied abroad. I studied abroad in Spain. I had a great time. But I will say some things were not a great fit for me. The whole eating club culture, not a great fit for me. I did go to eating club parties and stuff, but I don't even want to explain eating clubs because I didn't join one. But they're basically like frats, but they're coed. But it's very elitist. A lot of money that my parents did not have the money and did not prioritize, that sort of thing. So I joined one. Princeton is very wealthy, at least when I was there. I mean, I went to private school my whole life, and I never saw the wealth that I saw at Princeton until I went to Princeton, and it's ridiculous.

So if you're poor, it's very or middle class or lower middle class. It's very apparent you feel it at least. And again, I know they've made strides in the last few years to accept more students who, for example, they're the first generation in their family to go to college or their parents are lower income. When I went there, they started their no loan policy, which basically means if you qualify for financial aid, they will meet your need. And you don't have loans, it's all grants. So they are starting to attract more lower income people. But you have kids who are flying to Europe for fall break. I mean, that was not my life. Still not. So that's my only gripe. But I will say, when I returned to campus, I was there two years ago, they invited alums who volunteer a lot. They had this like, Alum, thank you. I do volunteer a lot with annual giving and things like that. So they had us all on campus for this kind of thank you weekend, for your service and things like that. Also to kick off our 15th reunion campaign. And I saw some people that I never talked to there or who were really snobby there.

One girl even admitted that she was a bee, you know what I'm saying? And they were all everybody. Now it's like we all relate. We're all working. A lot of us have kids, little kids. We're kind of in that same struggle. So I felt more of a commonality with people that I didn't feel maybe when I was there all the time. But I'm telling you, but if you go to Princeton, you will find your people. I found my people. Most of my are first generation American, like me, but from different countries. First generation, but from Korea, from China, from Liberia, from Nigeria as well. I mean, we all could relate on the level of being children of immigrants, growing up in America, and then having your parents be crazy and push you to apply to these schools. So you will find your people, you will find your classes, you will be invigorated. I tell you those negative things, but yeah, I would still go. I wouldn't change a thing if someone said, this is what it's going to be like.

SPEAKER A

Amazing. So I love that you shared the good with the bad, the sweet with the sour. And when push comes to shove, you give everyone the same advice. If you get in, go for it and find your people and live your life because it'll open a lot of doors.

SPEAKER B

Yeah, you will find your people. Do the things that you're interested in. Do things that you didn't have a chance to do in high school, too. You'll find that you and your friends have had similar experiences in high school and maybe are trying to reinvent yourself in college. You should go. Anyone that if you get in, you should go. I say that to everybody.

SPEAKER A

I love it. And then you studied extensively at a couple of other elite universities, and I know that we've had just an amazing storyteller, clearly. As you share your experiences getting into Princeton and what you experienced while you were there, any thoughts that you have contrasting these three amazing schools? What thoughts might you leave with the listeners who are considering any or all of these schools?

SPEAKER B

Yeah, first of all, if you're considering Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard, wow. I'm intimidated. Here's the difference, because my sister went to Harvard undergrad, and my other sister went to Columbia undergrad, and I went to Columbia as a grad student, and I went to Harvard as a fellow. But I did learn about the undergrad experience from them. I actually will still say Princeton's the best undergrad experience. And I don't work for the university. Nobody's paying me to say this. I wish they were.

SPEAKER A

Yeah, pretty bold. Pretty bold.

SPEAKER B

It's the best undergrad experience. It's small. It's very undergraduate focused. They don't have a med school, they don't have a law school. If you go to a school that has those, that's the focus. Right. That's where the attention goes. But if you're undergrads are an afterthought at Princeton, the undergrads are first. So everything is built around you there. It's amazing. I studied abroad and was able to get a scholarship to help pay for my study abroad. When I had an internship that was unpaid in New York, I found money through the university to help fund undergrads with unpaid internships. I don't know of any other school that does that. As far as Harvard goes, my sister had a great experience at Harvard. I think she loved she really was active in the you know, how they have different houses at Harvard, she was very active in her house. She was in Kirkland house. If anyone's listening. She had a great experience there. But from some of her stories, it did feel like Harvard is definitely more focused on the big names, the big schools. I'm just saying, in contrasting to Princeton, I'm not saying that absolutely only focus. This is from what I've gathered from her and then at Columbia, my other sister went to Columbia undergrad. I actually was in grad school, and my sister was a freshman. And I remember thinking, there's so many things she's not doing that I did as an undergrad. Right. Going to sports games. That's not cool at Columbia because you're in New York. Right. It's like you could do other things. A lot of kids there are from New York City, so they're not spending time on campus. New York City is your campus. You even see all their signage and their promotion says Columbia University and the City of New York. Right. So there isn't that same kind of campus camaraderie, which I think you do get at Harvard and you do get at Princeton. But I was a graduate student at Columbia. For me, I felt like I went to a smaller graduate program. The journalism school is much smaller than the business school and the law school and the med school there. So we definitely had camaraderie within the journalism school. But I wanted to go to journalism school in a city because I wanted to. You cover New York City, right. Like, you go to press conferences.

SPEAKER A

Absolutely.

SPEAKER B

You're next to the other New York City stations. I would cover press conferences with Hillary Clinton, who was the senator in New York for the state of New York at the time. So I'm thinking, I'm a grad student, and I'm covering the woman who late, everybody knew was going to run for president one day.

SPEAKER A

Right.

SPEAKER B

That's pretty cool. And then I wouldn't recall that experience if I went to journalism school in another city and I had the opportunity to intern. My friends interned at all. CNN, Fox News. I interned at a local station there. So there's so many opportunities for graduate students. So if I were to give advice to somebody, I would say, really get that college experience. If you're looking at the Ivy's, even a Dartmouth, Princeton, Brown, Harvard to a degree, cornell. Cornell is very big, but Cornell even, too, you get that kind of small campus yale, too, you get that small campus experience. And then for graduate school, I would look at the bigger ones penn, Harvard, Columbia that are in cities.

SPEAKER A

Harvard's kind of in a city, but not far removed.

SPEAKER B

Yeah. My two sons.

SPEAKER A

Such great advice. I love it. Thank you. That's a pleasant surprise. I didn't think we'd get such in depth advice and personal experience. I didn't realize that you had two sisters. I knew you come from a family of six siblings. Right.

SPEAKER B

Six kids, five siblings, six total. Yeah.

SPEAKER A

And just didn't know that half your siblings went to Princeton, Columbia, and Harvard. Well done. Your parents.

SPEAKER B

I went to Princeton, Columbia, then did my fellowship at Harvard. My brother, who's right under me, went to Boston University for his undergrad and went to Howard for medical school, and then he actually returned to Boston University for the hospital there for his residency. And then my next sister went to Harvard and then Harvard for graduate school, and then my next sister went to Columbia and then Temple University in Philly for law school. My little brother went both my younger siblings went to state schools in Pennsylvania, and then my little brother also went to grad school at Bud.

SPEAKER A

Parents, I hope.

SPEAKER B

Parents are crazy.

SPEAKER A

I love it. Okay, well, as we discussed a little bit in class, I know you're a little bit familiar with the Ivy League challenge and my mission, which is to shift young people's mindsets right away from this idea that I'll wait till some other time when I'm more qualified before I begin to make an impact in my community. I say, you know what? You're twelve. You're 13. Even if you're eleven, right. Your sphere of influence is tiny. Yes, but so are the risks. If you fail. All you do is learn. No one loses their livelihood, no one loses a job because you made a big mistake. So gather these skills. Shift your mindset towards this problem solving mindset and start making an impact within your community. And I know we've discussed that and just how important that is. First of all, perhaps a little bit of street cred. What would you say among your peers at these three elite universities? How many of them would you say are people who, before they were quote unquote qualified with a bachelor's or an advanced degree, were the kinds of people who developed problem solving skills and were the kinds of people who made an impact in their sphere of influence?

SPEAKER B

That's a good question. I would say the Ivy Leagues could have classes of all perfect Sat scores and perfect grades. If they wanted 2000 kids with perfect SATS and perfect grades, they could have it. Right. That's not what they get. Yes, they get top performers, but they also get star athletes. They also get kids who started nonprofits, or kids who volunteered weekly at their churches, or kids who started, who started something startups or things like that. I started a newspaper as a kid. I also volunteered a lot in my church and I played sports. It did well. It's not enough just to get good grades. And I know that sounds like a lot of pressure, but you can't just focus on I have good grades and I have Sat scores. And then when you don't get into those schools, you start claiming that there's some other reason why you didn't get in. But they're all because they brought something else to the table. These admissions folks are creating a class. If they wanted a class of nerds, we're going to sit in the library all day. What good does that do to the school? Right?

SPEAKER A

Right.

SPEAKER B

They want who are going to leave the school and work in finance, work in law, work in media and journalism. Right. They want to have stars in multiple industries. They don't want to just churn out the same person times 2000.

SPEAKER A

Absolutely.

SPEAKER B

What you're trying to do for students is really important. It's not enough to just say my grades are perfect, my Sat scores are perfect. Why didn't they accept me? Well, they have 20,000 applicants who look just like you. What's going to make you stand out when these missions people are reading all these applications that look the same?

SPEAKER A

Absolutely.

SPEAKER B

I would say that most of the kids that came to Princeton had something really cool about them that they had done or were studying or wanted to do. I remember the first year there just being awed by all the kids I met. I'm feeling a little insecure. Not going to lie but also just being like, wow, this kid started a nonprofit. Oh, this kid has a business. It's just crazy. But also inspiring and great.

SPEAKER A

Yeah, absolutely. And couldn't say it any better than that. Not only are we kidding ourselves if we think that we're going to take advantage of these opportunities at some future date, if we have never taken advantage of them earlier. Right. So if we don't develop the skills at some point, then we don't have the skills to take advantage when those opportunities arise. But the other thing is the greatest indicator of future success. So the likelihood that you're going to make an impact after you graduate from this university, which is what these universities want, the best chance of finding someone who's going to make an impact is just finding someone who has already made an impact. That's by far the greatest indicator of future success. So you're going to find these campuses are full of people who make a difference in some meaningful way, right?

SPEAKER B

I think so. And I think sometimes even when you're there and people are thinking about, oh, we're graduating, what are you going to do? Yes, there's a large majority that go to med school, law school, finance, but I've also found so many other people who do cool things, and they all become leaders in those cool industries because I think of the background they had pre Princeton and then while they were there.

SPEAKER A

Thank you so much for joining us in part one here. Be sure to tune into the next podcast episode where Nika, my journalism teacher at Harvard, who also did her undergraduate work at Princeton as she shares her expert advice around journalism in those impact projects. It's some brilliant advice. Stick around and enjoy the next episode.

 

Part 2:

SPEAKER A

Welcome back to season two of the Ivy League Prep Academy Podcast. Equipping you to successfully pursue the college of your dreams. We believe everyone deserves to reach their full potential, and the admissions process shouldn't hold you back.

Hey, really quickly, let me just tell you that this is part two in a two part series with Naika, my teacher from Harvard. She did a fantastic job explaining her experience doing her undergraduate work at Princeton, her graduate school at Columbia, and then her work teaching at Harvard. And as a fellow at Harvard. She also contrasted the experiences of some of her friends and siblings who attended Harvard and Columbia as undergrads. That's all in part one. I highly recommend you go back and listen to it if you haven't heard it yet. And here in part two, get ready for her own expert advice around how to be more productive and be more effective with your impact projects that are journalism based. This is amazing. And we'll jump right in to part two here.

Hello and welcome back. I am super excited for our guest today, we have Nika Faison. She is the executive producer of Chronicles on Wcvbtv, the ABC station in Boston. So Chronicle is the longest running, locally produced news magazine show in the country think CBS Sunday Morning, but focused on New England. And recently, Nica was named one of Boston business journals, 40 under 40. Now, there are a few classes at Harvard that are impossible to get into. This might feel like a bit of a jump until you realize that NACA's class, her journalism, and her podcasting classes are two of these absolutely impossible to get into classes until you're at the end of your degree because Harvard staggers their registration so that you get to register early the later on, you are towards your degree. And I waited up the night of registration to make sure that I could get into this class. And sure enough, on the first day of class, half the class, when we did our introductions, talked about how they had tried multiple times to get into this journalism class before. And today we have the teacher on with us. This is Nika Faison. Not only does she teach at Harvard and is a very, very popular teacher there, she also got her fellowship at Harvard. She has studied at Harvard. She got her degree, her advanced degrees from Columbia, and she got her bachelor's degree from Princeton University. And so thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER B

Hey, thank you. No problem.

SPEAKER A

So some of the students that I work with want to share or want to make their impact through education, through creating video blogs or creating podcasts or communicating in a meaningful way with a real audience. And of course, I took a journalism class from you. And I know you have another one that's extremely popular at Harvard. And perhaps we can just spend a few minutes talking about a student, a middle school or high school student that has ambitions to share their story or to aggregate and to share multiple stories, to interview people and get stories out in the world. And so what advice would you give to a young student who wants to begin either a podcast or a blog or a blog or their own newspaper? It sounds like you started your own newspaper. What advice would you give to a young student wanting to do something like that?

SPEAKER B

Are you finding that I guess what types of, for example, podcasts are you finding the students are starting

SPEAKER A

Oh my.Goodness, anything and everything. So if there's a student who really gets into model United Nations, for example, then they might share their own thoughts or interview other students around social issues or around bigger kind of climate change and racism and injustice in all its nasty forms around the world. So big issues that they want to talk about. I have a student who is saddened by the misunderstanding of theism and religion in general and its role in shaping humanity and talks about what we're missing by not taking them as seriously as we should be. I have another who has a brother with autism and wants to teach this is not a podcast, this is a video series, but wants to teach Stem some of the cool things in the Stem classes to young kids age seven, eight and nine with autism. Because that's the age group that he started working with, with his brother. Anyway, the the spectrum is wide and expanding and different students. I have one who is excited about starting a podcast around fitness and fitness for students. A lot of students want to do things around mental health and improving their lives in some way or the lives of teenagers in some way. Yeah, the list goes on and on. So the issues that are important to young people I think are wide and expanding, like I said.

SPEAKER B

Yeah, I think that I was going to say just that thinking of a subject matter, I think too many people just have random podcasts, for example, that are I'm just focusing on that medium for now, just rambly but without focus. Right. Let me just talk to this person. Let me talk to this person. You have to give people kind of a why they're listening. But also I think it's find good characters and stories. So yes, I think at first you're just going to reach out to your friends and acquaintances that you can get on your podcast or your blog or whatever. But beyond that, try to find people that are representative of whatever larger issue you're covering. Autism, religion, what have you. And my other piece of advice would be to be consistent because with media it's so hard to break in, so hard to get attention, it's so hard for people to get followers or people to become loyal to you. But if you believe in it and you are excited by what you're doing, be consistent and people find it eventually.

SPEAKER A

I love it. Yeah. It is that stone cutters mantra, right? That you hit the stone a hundred times and the 101st time the stone breaks in half. And it's not the 101st time, it's not that hit that broke the stone, it's the hundred that came before. It that cumulative effort. Over time, you begin to make a difference and then it cracks and suddenly it pops. Right. But without that consistent effort, when you're not seeing any results, it doesn't break. Nothing pops.

SPEAKER B

It's really hard to keep going.

SPEAKER A

Absolutely.

SPEAKER B

Anything in life exercise, losing weight, whatever, it's all hard. Not everybody tries, not everybody does it. Not everyone's consistent. So hopefully if you are yours, be different.

SPEAKER A

Absolutely. And you mentioned finding really good characters and telling good stories. Maybe one last piece of advice around how to find or how to tell the right story. How do you find the right characters and how do you tell the right stories?

SPEAKER B

One thing I always say to students at least, is that people connect to people. So while it might be easy to lean into talking to someone who sent you a press release or a doctor or teacher or lawyer or whatever, those people are going to give you yes, your expert opinion and advice and expert perspective. But people really want to hear from the people on the ground. Think about the election we just had in the United States. Every story was about voters and what voters were thinking and how voters were feeling that day, what it was like for them, waiting in lines and all that stuff. And the press conferences, which many of us probably thought were boring, were from the officials of the election bureau talking about counting and numbers. That's their job. Right. You want to hear from human beings. So I would say try to interview people who have no stake in you interviewing them or not. If a public health official or business or something, they have a stake in it, they need to get some sort of message out there. Find someone who has nothing to win or lose or gain from being interviewed or being included because you'll get a more authentic story from them and then.

SPEAKER A

Pull the human elements out. How does this event affect them? How does this affect their families, their emotions, that sort of thing?

SPEAKER B

Yeah, because even if you're from different countries, different religions, different whatever, the human experience really is the same. Right. I heard this podcast about a woman who's getting evicted during the pandemic and just talking about how she's just been trying so hard to keep her apartment in her house for her kids because she just wants them to have a comfortable just somewhere comfortable and safe to live. What parent doesn't want that? And I really felt for her because I think sometimes people look at poor people, for example, and say, oh, they're not trying. They don't want their kids to have a healthy, safe environment. Of course they do. They're the best they can, given their circumstances. I connected to that woman's story because I've been trying throughout the pandemic to make my home comfortable for my kids in the ways that I can. I think that feeling of I want to give my kids whatever I can the best that I can, that's universal, right? So even if that woman is from I forget what city she was from, but she's from a city, urban area, low income, lost her job. But that feeling of what a parent will do to keep their kids happy, healthy and safe, that's universal, right? So that's why that story would connect to so many different people. So just find the stories that you can always get those basic human desires and elements and motivations from anybody, and then we can all kind of connect to it that anyone that drops in and listens to your podcast or reads your blog or watches your video would be able to connect on some level.

SPEAKER A

Beautiful. There you have it. From a professional doing the work and teaching the class at Harvard, how to get a good story, how to ask the right questions and pull out the right emotions and help people connect. When it's all said and done, this is all about connecting and finding ways where we're all similar and how much we impact each other, how much we can connect with each other, as long as the story gets across, right? Absolutely. Beautiful. Well, one last thing, if you could, any meaningful advice that you could give to maybe a 7th or 8th grade girl who listens to this podcast and is just inspired by you, in awe of what you've done, maybe wants to walk that same path, what advice would you give to your 13 year old self?

SPEAKER B

Gosh.

SPEAKER A

What about it? No pressure.

SPEAKER B

I also would say don't only be driven by getting good grades. It's also important to learn about what you're doing. I did spend a lot of my life being concerned with getting A's, and I find I have students who not so much the grad students, but I have undergrads who will try to nickel and dime a point or two here. And I'll always say to them, do you care about the grade or do you care about learning? There are some students I don't hear from all semester, and then I hear from them only when they have a.
SPEAKER A

Grade they don't like when it's time to negotiate.

SPEAKER B

Yeah. And then I say, hello, you literally never talk to me, so why so impassioned about one or two points? But do you actually care about learning or do you actually care about getting a good grade? And you have to remember that because admissions people can tell that your teachers can tell. I'm surprised by how much I can tell about students, and I think, oh, my God, what do my teachers know about me? It's not just about being the loudest person in class or saying the most or it's about just really enjoying the process of learning. You just get to spend the next few years of your life just learning, and you don't have to learn and work or learn and take care of kids. You just get to learn, and that's really a privilege. So focus on learning, not just honor it.

SPEAKER A

Appreciate it, love it.

SPEAKER B

If you actually enjoy what you're doing, it'll all come. Just like success. If you enjoy what you're doing, it'll come.

SPEAKER A

I love it. Thank you so much for joining us, sharing your experience and your wisdom with us. We are certainly blessed by having heard your voice and heard your story. Thank you for sharing it.

SPEAKER B

Sure, no problem.