Events & Calendars Making a Difference: Pathways to Social Impact Careers

- Thank you for coming to tonight's panel discussion of Pathways to Social Impact Careers. I want to say special thanks upfront to our alumni guest speakers, who will be introduced shortly, for generously joining us and traveling to share their reflections on their career pathways. This week marks the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit to the Amherst campus to dedicate Frost Library. At the dedication he delivered a powerful address, actually, his last major address before he was assassinated, on power, politics, and the importance of public service, asking, among other things, "What good is a private college or university unless it is serving a great national purpose?" President Kennedy posed this question at a time of turmoil in the nation and the world, a time when the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights brought a special urgency to the quest to take action and to make a difference. In asking this question at Amherst, Kennedy noted the college's long tradition of preparing students to work for the greater good and on behalf of democracy. Today, too, we live at a moment when existential challenges and patterns of injustice and inequity lend exceptional urgency to the very human inclination to commit ourselves to working to make a difference. With an increasing number of Amherst students expressing the desire to pursue careers in the service of the greater good, we're celebrating the anniversary of Kennedy's remarks by reaffirming as a college our ongoing commitment to preparing students for a lifetime of contributing to the greater good. Among other actions that we'll be announcing next week, we're formally launching initiatives designed to support this aspiration, and here to tell you more about them is Emily Griffin, the executive director of the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning. Emily.

- Thank you, President Elliot. Good evening. In my role at the college, I have had the great pleasure of getting to know many alumni over the years who have built careers dedicated to social impact and public service, and I've learned that there are endless ways to do so. I'm so pleased that we have the opportunity to hear about three of those examples tonight. Amherst has long supported students pursuing public service pathways. The first fund to support internships in public service was established in 1968. Since then, dozens of additional alumni donors have built a robust internship stipend funding portfolio that allows the college today to support over 200 students every year interning in a variety of nonprofit organizations. In recent years, in close consultation with student leaders from groups like A Better Amherst and Amherst Students for Democracy, the Loeb Center has reinvigorated its focus in the social impact space. This year we officially relaunched an expanded Careers in Social Impact career program, which is led by Loeb Program Director Micah Owino. The program includes an annual alumni-in-residence visit. This year, that alum is Jennifer Estrada, Class of 2008, who works for Amnesty International. She'll be here on November 13. Look out for that. The program facilitates the Rosenberg Senior Grant program that awards $2,000 grants to graduating seniors going into nonprofit jobs, as well as the $10,000 Projects for Peace Grant that supports students with independent summer projects looking at peace and conflict studies. The program also includes an annual career trek to Washington, DC that connects students with alumni working in a range of roles across the government and nonprofit sectors. The application for that trek is currently open and the deadline to apply is this Thursday. Really glad I have an opportunity to boost that. This week, in honor of the commemoration of 60 years since President John F. Kennedy's speech here at Amherst that inspired that generation of students to pursue careers in public service, the Loeb is launching a new career pathways resource called Interning for Democracy. This new initiative will provide cohort-based support and guaranteed internship funding for students who want to intern in democracy-supporting organizations. Students will meet as a group in the spring, summer, and fall, and get close mentoring from our social impact advisor, Micah, in addition to alumni connections. We hope this approach encourages this generation of students to consider professional pursuits that strengthen our democracy and help students and alumni who share similar aspirations to form stronger bonds. Everything we do in the Loeb is made better by listening to and collaborating with students. The students on campus today who are passionate about social impact and the future of our democracy are truly remarkable and I'm happy to call some of them up now to introduce tonight's panelists, Lori Alarcon, president of the Association for Amherst Students, Lucas Romualdo and Isaac Bindman, representing the Amherst Political Union, and Ava Knapp, member of Amherst Students for Democracy. Will Lori, Luke and Isaac, Ava, our panelists, please join me on stage with President Elliott.

- Good evening, everyone. My name is Lorett Alarcon, but I go by Lori. I am the Association of Amherst Students' president this year. I want to talk a little bit about what AAS does. AAS is the student representation of the student body. We're also the student government of Amherst College. It makes recommendations to the administration based on student inputs, supports student programming, and puts on campus-wide events like this weekend's upcoming Pink Out Rave. We're also running the Spirit Week for this week, and as a reminder, Wednesday is Dress Up as Michael Elliot Day. And not to put you on the spot, but I hope to see everyone dressed up as Michael Elliot this Wednesday. We asked permission. Don't worry. We compromise the senate and the executive board. We compromise with a senate, which is a 33-member senate, and we're also, there are five executive board members, and I'm one of them. Shane, unfortunately, couldn't join us tonight, but he's our amazing VP, and through doing so, we serve as a bridge between administration and the student body. Our main role comprises of distributing the $1 million student activities fees that we collect from students and then we use it to disperse it across all of the organizations on campus, which lets us run all the wonderful events that we do throughout the year. We work also on representing the unheard voices on campus, such as advocating for undocumented students, and this is a great passion of mine. I'm super excited to be here and I can't wait to hear more from our panelists. Now I have the pleasure of introducing our first panelist, Yinan Zhang. As a 2012 graduate, Yinan is an operations officer at the World Bank where she manages a $63 million program to support joint climate action and building climate resilience in South Asia. She previously held a leadership position at the World Bank Trust Fund and worked on the Ebola response in the education sector in Sierra Leone and Liberia, early childhood education in China, and vocational education in East Asia and the Pacific. The co-author of the bilingual book, "Challenges and Opportunities: Early Childhood Education in Yunnan," she also holds a master's degree in international education policy from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

- Hello, my name is Isaac Bindman. I'm a senior here at the college and I'm the vice president of the Amherst Political Union. The Amherst Political Union was founded in 1939 by Robert Morgenthau, Class of '41, and Richard Wilbur, Class of '42. Its original goal of increasing political discourse on Amherst campus still holds true today. The APU prides itself on its nonpartisan structure and serves as a safe environment for individuals with varied political views. Since its founding, the political union has sought to fight the political apathy that plagues many other colleges by engaging members of the Amherst College campus in productive conversations relating to salient and pressing political issues. As a student organization dedicated to engagement with democracy, we're excited to introduce the alumni speakers here today. If you leave wanting to learn more, we'd love to see you at our weekly meetings and our speaker series events.

- Great, thank you, Isaac, and good evening, all. I am a co-president, along with Ava, of the Amherst Political Union, of which Isaac is vice president, and I'm incredibly grateful to introduce another one of our alumni panelists this evening, Helena Burgueno. A 2019 graduate, Helena currently lives in Chicago where she serves as the creative and video producer for Unify America, a non-partisan nonprofit on a mission to replace politics with problem-solving. She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in film and media studies and a Five-College Certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies. She's a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an amateur stop-motion animator, and plays the French horn in a glam marching band called Clamor & Lace Noise Brigade.

- Thank you, Lucas. My name is Ava Knapp. I'm also a senior at the college, and as Lucas mentioned, I'm the other co-president of Amherst Political Union. But today I wanted to take a mention to moment to highlight the work of Amherst Students for Democracy, which is a new student organization that's planning a first-of-its-kind democracy pledge initiative. The aim of this initiative is to get students to sign our pledge, which asks them to spend some amount of time volunteering for or working for an organization that promotes democracy at home or abroad. We will be tabling for this pledge initiative starting November 1 at six o'clock with the event with President Elliot and Governor Healey. We hope to see you all there and we hope that you'll take a minute to sign the pledge. I'm now excited to introduce our final panelist, Senator Mike Simmons. A 2006 graduate, Mike represents the 7th District in the Illinois State Senate where he's been a committed advocate for seniors, refugees, the transgender community, people experiencing financial instability, single mothers, and other silenced voices in our democracy. He serves as a chair of the Human Rights Committee and is the first Black person to serve the 7th District, the first openly gay member of the Illinois Senate, and the third openly gay Black state senator in the nation. He previously served as deputy director of My Brother's Keeper Alliance, an initiative of the Obama Foundation, a group seeking to break down the barriers to opportunities standing before boys and young men of color. Thanks again, and I'll now turn things back over to President Elliot to begin tonight's conversation.

- Thank you, Lori, Isaac, Lucas, and Ava for the introductions and to the organizations for all being here, and especially thank you... Please, we do our little stage shuffle here. You can tell this is raw and authentic, because we have not rehearsed. we'll do this kind of Dick Cavett-style. First of all, I want to just acknowledge a name that Emily mentioned earlier, Sandy Rosenberg from the Class of '72, who has been an ardent supporter over many, many years. Sandy represents, I think, the 41st or 42nd legislative district in Maryland and has been an ardent supporter of our efforts to ensure career support for students who are interested in public service, nonprofits, government, and it's through his grant that we're able to offer some of the support for students entering nonprofit careers. So in absentia, we want to acknowledge Sandy. But let me turn to our guests today. Thank you, again, all for being here. And, you know, let's, I guess, just sort of open up by talking a little bit about how you got here. I don't mean how you got to Stirn. We walked across the quad, that was fine. But, you know, a little bit about what led you to pursue, you know, a pathway where you'd be trying to make a social impact, right, make a difference in the world? And Yinan, maybe we could start with you. You know, I know you had a lot of interest probably as a student, you've worked on healthcare and transportation, sort of how did you end up working for the World Bank doing the kind of work that you do?

- Sure. Well, first, I'll say, I'm sorry I'll miss Wednesday, 'cause I definitely look forward to that. So I grew up in Shanghai, China. I have some typical Chinese parents who've always placed a high value on education. So coming into Amherst, I've been very interested in exploring educational opportunities and I think I was able to structure my curriculum and my internships around that interest. I think it was the support of Center for Community Engagement, that's what it was called when I was there, I was able to get an internship, a paid internship in a public school in Brooklyn. I interned in a college. I interned with an education nonprofit. I did my econ thesis on educational opportunities. So through all that, I think I was able to quite intentionally build a toolbox of skills and experiences. Back then, we didn't have a major in education studies, so I'm very jealous of the students here, that now you have that major and the curriculum to support that. So then I went on and I got my master's in international education policy, and from there on I got a job offer to work at the World Bank. If I have one minute to do my spiel on the World Bank is that we are a bank, but we're actually, maybe when you think about working in a developing country, you think about the UN. We are one of the largest financing and knowledge partners for the developing world. What that means is that we provide grants and loans to developing countries and technical assistance on a wide range of topics. So the people you meet working at the World Bank are actually economists or education specialists, health, transport, energy, you name it. So we work closely with the government to implement those projects to reach beneficiaries on the ground. So now that you hear my one-minute promotion, I hope you have that on your career map. But that's sort of how I reached where I am.

- That's great. Thank you, Yinan. Helena, tell me a little bit more. So you were a media studies major, yes, and we know about the glam marching band, although we want to hear more. And now you're really working on behalf of democracy in the current organization that you're working for.

- Yeah. My name's Helena, everybody. It's nice to see you all. So I am a creative and video producer at a nonprofit called Unify America, which is based out of Chicago. I can speak a little bit more about how I found my way to Chicago, but I also feel like it's kind of necessary to give like a minute of a context of what is this organization called Unify America. So Unify America is a non-partisan nonprofit. The founder of Unify America also founded, I don't if you're familiar with, like, Jackbox Games, he's that guy, and he also founded another for-profit company before moving on to this world of civic engagement. But the idea of Unify America is that when we start from a place of shared goals that we can work towards a place of civic dialogue that is non-partisan or across the aisle. It's a non-partisan nonprofit. So it's really important in our work, there's no political agenda. The idea is getting people to speak to each other. We use elements of game design, which is really cool. Video, which is why I'm there, thankfully, is a part of the mode of change. And it's also about making political conversations less... You know how when you're talking about political conversations, sometimes it feels like you can't get your way into it because it feels so academic and, like, you don't have all of the data or the information that you need? Unify is really about kind of removing that barrier to having political conversations. Anyways, so I did major in film and media studies. I also majored in, or I did a certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, Latino studies. The major was just coming to be in my final year at Amherst, which is really exciting. Also super jealous. And one of the paths that I think is sort of driven or, like, drawn out in regard to film is going to Hollywood, right, like, working your way up in the biz. And so that's what I did after graduating. I worked in LA as a production assistant. I got people coffee and I took out the garbage and I was like, "Not the most satisfying work," but I realized early on that even if I was to keep working my way up that ladder, that the work in and of itself was not necessarily going to be what I wanted to do. I was working to get to a point where I could be selective about the type of projects I was working on and kind of the way I was investing my time. I wasn't really willing to, like, wait that long to start feeling like I was making a difference. Anyways, so then the pandemic hit and I had no work. So I went home and lived with my parents for a year and a half, and while I was doing that, started finding my way back to working with some nonprofits based out of western Massachusetts, actually, mostly based out of Holyoke, and doing some creative work with them. And that was like a really beautiful kind of, like, unlocking for something with me, where I could overlap, kind of find the middle of that Venn diagram between creative work and social impact work. And so that's what led me to look for a full-time job at Unify America. Also, the desire to have healthcare was, like, really nice, so I decided to stop freelancing. But yeah, now I find myself in this world of political engagement, and it's really fun to get to do that in a world of, like, creative video production and also kind of work towards some of my values of, you know, creative problem-solving without getting rid of some of that, like, very sticky political fighting.

- That's great. I love... I think we'll come back to this question of values and how you are motivated by values and think about that. But let me ask Senator Simmons, Mike, if you could say a little bit about, you know, why public service, when did you decide you wanted to run for office, what's it been like as an elected official.

- Good evening, everybody. My name is Mike Simmons and I was a graduate here in 2006, served as student body president when I was here as a political science major, and it's good to be back here tonight with you all. My path to public service was very zigzaggy and indirect. If you don't remember anything else I tell you tonight, please remember that. I serve as a state senator for the Far North Side of Chicago, covering about eight different neighborhoods, one of the most diverse districts in the country. I'm the first Black person elected to serve my district at the Illinois Senate. My dad was an asylum seeker from Ethiopia, so that makes me the first Ethiopian American to serve in either chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, and I'm also the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the upper chamber of state government in Illinois. So how the heck did I get there? The first thing I would say is that at Amherst, my senior year as student body president, I worked with a number of activists on campus to organize, to push the college to divest its endowment from Sudan, which had a humanitarian crisis happening at the time with the Darfur region. That was really kind of one of the seminal experiences that allowed me to really cut my teeth in terms of how you organize with people and how you push power and hold power accountable, and that's definitely something I've taken with me in my current role. But throughout my career, I started off on Capitol Hill working in the United States Senate as a legislative aid focusing on homeland security, banking, housing, and economic issues. And I will say that part of what enabled me to do that internship was actually, or that job, was an internship that I got as a junior here, that I was able to get a scholarship from the college to actually be able to even make that possible. So if you don't come from money, please don't think that getting in public service is not for you. And I worked on the Hill for two and a half years, went back to Chicago, because I wanted to be closer to my family. I worked in city government for a number of years as an urban planner and as a policymaker focusing on so many different issues having to do with economic insecurity, housing, and homelessness, and ended up starting my company after a few years, 'cause I got bored of working for other people. I'm a kinetic person. I don't like to sit still. I ran my company for three years, Blue Sky Strategies, doing anti-racist public policy consulting and equitable urban planning. Some of the happiest years of my life, just being my own boss. I'm somebody that really ticks from just being able to drive my own agenda. And during the pandemic my company started to, didn't have as many clients. The George Floyd protests started to happen. That really re-politicized me, just seeing how many issues of racial justice had been taken for granted by all power structures in our society, and the state senate seat opened up. My partner and I had a discussion, and 30 minutes after we talked about it, we both decided that I was gonna be a candidate. Two and a half years later, here I am sitting before you.

- That's great. That's a great story in every way. And I want to pick up on something you said a second ago, or started going down to, which is thinking about this question of values, and, you know, it goes a little bit to your comment, Helena, about needing healthcare, and, you know, I think for a lot of students, that question of, "Well, how am I going to pursue a career oriented around my values and still, you know, be financially solvent, right, still make a living, and the financial pressures that I might be feeling to serve my family?" How have you all negotiated that combination of needing to materially sustain yourself but also wanting to find career pathways that serve the values that you bring to your work?

- I can definitely, as a former freelancer, I'm a big fan of the hustle, but, I mean, realistically, it would be wrong for me to sit up here and be like, "This is my path to my career" without talking about, like, the real benefits that I had and the choices you make, you know, to be able to pursue something, to have the luxury of doing something that you care about and that feels important to you. And so some of those choices were like living with family members, right, and the luxury of having family members that would house you pretty much rent-free for a long period of time, right? I lived with an aunt and uncle, I lived with my parents, and those were, like, really important pieces that have led me to be able to make choices, to save up money so that I could move to Chicago and work at a nonprofit. There's also, you know, the work of, sort of like the unglamorous side of it, right? It's really cool. We kind of romanticize this narrative of dedicating yourself to civic impact or social impact, and as I was kind of, you know, wanting to pursue a career in something that felt more meaningful while I was working in the biz, in Hollywood, what I was also doing was, like, scooping ice cream at an old-timey soda fountain, which was honestly one of the most fun jobs I've ever had. I got to make, like, ice cream look like little clowns, which was awesome, and the kids loved it, and I also worked at, like, a cashmere sweater company. You know, it's like kind of piecing together these things. But yeah, you know, I think that's ultimately the balance that you have to find. I made a conscious choice to move into full-time work, in part because the work just so happened to align really nicely with my skillset and my interests and my hopes for a better world, but also because, you know, it's helpful to have full-time income and it's really nice to have dental insurance for the first time in your life. So as you think about shaping a path, I think it's really easy to focus on, like, the end result, like the really cool thing of getting to sit up here with these, like, incredible people and the president of Amherst College, Michael Elliot, and get to talk about it. But I think it's really important to note that, like, the path is not always as, like, we talk about these timelines in terms of, like, here are the landmark moments, right, like, this is the path, but there's a lot of in-between that's not always the most glamorous, and yet is in service ultimately to a career that you're pursuing,

- Yinan, how have you thought about values and the choices that you've had as you've negotiated your career path?

- Sure, so if I have one piece of advice, especially for the seniors, is to start a 401k account once you start your job. For those of you who don't know what that is, maybe it'd be good summer reading after graduation, and I heard you have a financial literacy workshop coming up, so maybe that's something to learn about. But jokes aside, I think there are challenges along the way, but there's also jobs in the public sector that will provide a good package of benefits that will allow you to pursue your interest while at the same time think about financially how you want to plan for the future. But in order to get there, sometimes maybe it requires you to work in the field. So I work in development, and working in the field in a developing country is a hugely valued experience, because you can understand the local context better, you might know better how to collect data from the ground, and that's something that will help you get to perhaps a position that requires a bit more experience, requires maybe an advanced degree to get there. But there are, you know, the World Bank is one of the development agencies, there's USAID, there are also international nonprofits, I think, that do offer stability as you pursue your interest.

- [President Elliot] Mike, you know, I hear politicians are all insanely independently wealthy, so I'm assuming that's your pathway. How have you balanced all of this?

- Yeah, so I definitely would say I'm not wealthy at all. Of all of my 58 colleagues that I serve with in the Illinois Senate, I think I'm probably the only one that doesn't own a car. My partner, Michael, who's here with me tonight, you know, we rent. We don't even own the place where we live, and we live in a neighborhood that's gentrifying, which means that rents are going up all the time, and we feel that. We feel the same economic pressure that a lot of my constituents feel. So, you know, more people I think are running for office, too, that are not wealthy, and frankly, for anybody here who's thinking about getting into public service, you never know, you might decide you want to run for office someday, and I think that you should never think that you have to have money to do this work. I take the train back and forth to the state capitol, which is a 300-mile commute by Amtrak. I get a lot of work done on the trains. I'm a transit geek anyway, so it ends up being a good fit for me. But to the larger question around values, you know, the gift that I really have is that my mother, who is the proudest Amherst parent ever, you know, when I was a freshman here, she might've been the youngest Amherst parent at 36 years old, as a single mother with a son who was going to an elite college for the first time in our family's history to go to a school anywhere like this, and she really cheered me on, and the gift that she left me with is she didn't prescribe what she wanted her son to do. My mother was fiercely an advocate of educational excellence and she pushed me really hard to do well in terms of the kind of grades I got home and the kind of opportunities I took advantage of, but only so that I could go do whatever the heck I wanted to do with my life, and that's a gift. Unfortunately, I lost my mother three years ago, but that gift is still with me in terms of showing up as a state senator with freeform dreadlocks, right? First time that's ever happened in state government in Illinois. I have colleagues who are 82-year-old white men that, you know, just don't even have a framework for that. You know, and when my partner come to visit me, we walk on the floor of the Senate together, and there's something powerful about that, about that kind of representation where you literally are living your values and doing so in a way that is, you know, definitely homage to my mother and her legacy, but also, I think, blazing a trail for other people to be able to show up as themselves. And so far as also the types of legislation I've been able to pass, I passed the bill this session that outlaws book-banning in all Illinois schools. That's become a big issue now. Thank you. When I was a student here, I never would've thought that we'd see book-banning happening in schools. It's live now, you know, and legislation that protects access to gender-affirming care for those that come from the trans community, another issue right now. It's the first time in, you know, modern times where healthcare is being taken away from people because of who they are. And so those values are the things that are allowing me to do this job effectively every day.

- That's great. And, you know, you mentioned your mother, and I've been thinking about it since you we were talking about her earlier. I'm sure your mother would be just incredibly proud to see you sitting up here. Let's talk a little bit about some things you carried forward from Amherst, that looking back now maybe you think helped prepare you for the work that you're doing. And you mentioned, all of you, I think, some internships, you mentioned being in student government. What about, you know, are there academic experiences, are there things about the liberal arts that you think brings you a different sensibility in engaging in this work than maybe somebody who hasn't had that same set of educational experiences? Like, you were talking a little bit about this at dinner.

- Yeah, I would say that, honestly, one of the things that gives me the most power as a state senator is what I learned to do at Amherst College, which is to think critically, and there are a lot of people that don't know how to do that. Like, don't take it for granted, 'cause it really is a skill, and you work on that all the time here in your classes and how you talk with your student peers, et cetera. I would say also just, you know, Professor Ferguson, Jeff Ferguson was a Black Studies professor here for some years. Unfortunately, he, too, passed away at 46 years old from cancer in 2018, 2017. And, you know, he left such an impact on me in terms of appreciating what it means to write well, which is something, I think, that Amherst College really does better than a lot of other higher educational institutions. And as a state lawmaker, right, being able to sift through issues in a community meeting where people are pissed about an issue and being able to lay out all the arguments, to educate peoples and empower them to be able to voice their own opinions, like, that's the thing I love doing as a state legislator. And so, you know, I credit that back to the education I got here.

- [President Elliot] That's terrific. Yinan?

- Sure, I think similar to what Mike has said. So maybe it was mentioned before that I started entering the Bank working on education projects and now I manage a program in climate change, and I had no experience in climate change. But I think what the Amherst education prepared me well was to have the ability to learn on the job, to think critically, and to write well, and those are the skills that are so useful, whatever career paths that you choose. In addition to that, I think being able to talk well. In our line of work, you interact with government ministers, or people work in a certain ministry who might not have had the certain sectoral knowledge that the Bank colleagues have, and being able to present that clearly, being able to present that with data and evidence is really critical. And I want to give a huge shout-out to the Econ department. Professor Ishii, Professor Sims, and Professor Reyes were all my professors, that I feel very thankful for, for being able to get that skills along the way.

- Yeah, so like I said earlier, I majored in film and media studies, and, for me, a big part of that was just learning something new and exploring a creative practice and engaging with that from a critical lens. And what's interesting, and I think the impact of my Amherst education is the sort of freedom I was given in that creative space to use that as a mode of personal investigation and to really engage with that academically. And part of my choosing to do the certificate in Latin American, Caribbean, Latino Studies was because I was coming into Amherst, I'm Mexican American, and I came into this school really excited to get to, for the first time in my education, engage with that identity in an academic context, right, to get to learn in a variety of classes, in history and American studies and sociology, about what that identity was. And so I think part of the reason why my experience at Amherst felt so intense was because so much of my classwork was kind of reflected back on me, and like, who are you as a person? How do you engage with these big, like, kind of... I think Amherst really excels at kind of drawing out these large trends, these threads that happen across disciplines. I don't know if anybody's had that experience of being in, like, classes in different disciplines, and all of a sudden they feel like all of your professors are, like, in cahoots with each other, 'cause everything kind of lines up in this, like, weird way.

- [President Elliot] Yeah.

- Yeah, they are in some strange way, or maybe everything's interconnected, who's to say? But, so I really found that because of the freedom and the skills and the training I was given in my film program, I really started finding a really natural tendency to use my film projects as kind of these, like, personal investigations. Professor Hastie knows this well, having seen them. But yeah, so that was, like, a really exciting place to come from, and I think there's a really direct thread between that kind of practice, the thinking about yourself, in presenting yourself in a career in social impact, right? Like, you can't meaningfully engage with any issue without seeing what your stake in it is, or, like, how you relate to it, or what your relation to power in that issue is. And I think about that a lot through the frame of documentary and education video, which I do a lot in my work, but I think it applies broadly. And so I think that's one of, really, the strengths of an Amherst education, particularly one where you're taking advantage of that open curriculum, is really thinking of yourself as, like, a person in this world, as an individual, and how that connects to all of the bigger things. So that's something that I see every day in my work and I feel like I'm a more responsible filmmaker and more thoughtful person and also video producer as a result of that.

- That's terrific. So I'm gonna ask one more question and then we'll open up the floor, so be ready. And the last question I want to ask is, all of you are working on really big questions, and I want to ask you what this phrase that I use all the time, this kind of cliche phrase, making a difference, means. Like, unfortunately, it rolls off my tongue all the time: "We educate students to make a difference, your careers will make a difference." You're working on problems like democracy, climate change, injustice, inequity. How do you sort of at the end of the day come home and ask yourself, like, "Did I make a difference?" How do you think about that? What does that mean to you? How do you sustain yourself and know that you're making a difference in the face of such large challenges?

- I'll go first. Okay. I love this question, because I think, again, like I was saying earlier, we think in these, like, broad pictures around things, and I love, and I think it's necessary to start reframing making a difference, we were talking about this earlier at dinner, in thinking of these as the smaller things, because the issues we're engaging with are so heavy and so urgent and so difficult to solve. Like, my organization is trying to push back against this, like, really intense bipartisanship that we see in the US in our political discourse. And so I think it requires, in part, reframing what we consider making a difference. And something I've learned in some of my documentary work with those nonprofits in western Massachusetts, I credit them absolutely with teaching me this, and also in the work that I'm doing at my nonprofit now, is seeing the value in these little baby steps. Like, you know, you come home at the end of the day and you think like, "What did I do today? I didn't save democracy." But, you know, it's cumulative. And so I think part of that, especially when we're doing work that is engaged with people, is really valuing the human-to-human interactions that we have. So my nonprofit is currently working in a small town in Colorado, Montrose, Colorado. We're piloting our first in-person deliberation there, so gathering a panel of community members to discuss their childcare shortage and possible solutions or actions that can be taken, really driven by the community. And part of, you know, we think of the result of that, what would success look like, what would making a change look like? And I would love to say like making a change would be, you know, kids have access to safe and affordable childcare, you know, enriching childcare. But the work of that on a daily basis is one of my coworkers going to, like, pick up one of the delegates and bring him to the meeting so that he can get there, or me going to Walmart to buy balloons so that the event looks nice, you know? Like, these things don't feel in the day-to-day maybe like you're solving the big picture, but all of these things collectively, I think we have to in order to maintain this work. You have to kind of have like a little bit of faith and comfort in that, like, these little bits that you're doing, the things you're chipping away at, putting the extra effort in to engage with these things and give these things that are kind of unglamorous, like, taking out, again, I'm back to taking out the garbage at events, like, I'm back in my PA work, but they do add up, and there's no way to do that, there's no way to do social impact work without some of the unglamorous stuff. And so I think it's really not so much, like, how do you make more of a difference, but how do you reshift, how do you reframe what you see as impactful work.

- [President Elliot] Mike, how do you sustain yourself coming back every day after the Illinois State Legislature?

- You know, it's a journey. It is. If I could just cheat and give you a quick answer to that last question on making a difference.

- Cheat, cheat.

- I want to just add to just kind of riffing off of what you just said, that, you know, as a person that doesn't look like anybody else that's ever held this position of power in the state government, right, I grew up in public housing, father's an asylum seekers, all this stuff, for me it's about how you show up. You know, 90% of my staff are foreign-born or are children of immigrants, right? That's the intentional decision that was hard and took months of effort to find those people. The type of legislation that I'm able to pass, protecting residents of affordable housing, making sure that they have the same protections of people in luxury housing, making sure that we have air conditioning in low-income housing, these kind of things that no one has ever advocated before, and then actually passing bills, when people come into my office and they're having a domestic violence situation, me, as the senator, sitting down and talking with them and not just letting a staff person do it and trying to hide from them, I feel like are the ways that I know I've made a difference, because people have never seen that level of public service around where I grew up. I never saw that growing up. That's why I decided to be a candidate. So that then brings us to the question, how do you recharge yourself after doing all the work? 'Cause god, is it exhausting to put all of that empathy and heart out there all the time. My staff also, right, there's a bit of an empathy tug that goes with this, and I would say that, for me, it's a struggle. I mean, honestly, physical exercise, for me, is so important. I'm an avid cyclist. One of my personal heroes is Major Taylor, who was a Black cyclist, who was an Olympic bike rider in the early 1900s that no one knows about. And my partner can tell you, I get on a bike 50 miles a week by myself with my headphones, with my phone off. It is what I have to do to stay sane in this work. Family time, when the two of us are together, or when I'm with my family, I turn off my freaking phone, 'cause everything can wait. I think about my mom all the time. I journal, I meditate. I'm honest with myself where I feel like I could have shown up better in a situation, 'cause I make mistakes all the time. There are times I talk to people and wish I had spoken to them with more compassion. There are times I wish I spoke to myself with more compassion, because god, this is hard work. But it's a journey and there's never a silver bullet. And the last thing I'll say there is it always looks different for the individual. So everything I'm telling you is my example, but there's something very personal to you that you and only you can do that helps you to recharge yourself and sustain and preserve yourself in the field of public service, because it does take a lot from you.

- Yinan, how do you think about public service and making a difference?

- Sure, I think as somebody who work in development, the most exciting thing is when you go to the field, you see, let's say, a classroom of kids with learning materials, with access for two clean toilets. But that's just one of the ways that you can make a difference. Let's say if you are an economist, you can make a difference by working on impact evaluations to look at what policy actions can have positive results. If you're into water or if you're an engineer, then look at building bridges and roads that have less of an impact on climate change. So I think what I'm trying to get through, is you can use your interest. If you're into investment banking, think about investment banking in emerging markets with green growth opportunities. So I think there are different ways that you can utilize your interest and your passion to make a difference.

- Thank you. I'm happy to open up the floor to questions for any or all of our panelists. I think we have a microphone over here and we're gonna pass it around because we are recording this for posterity, for the archive, so we can play it at Mike Simmons's presidential inauguration.

- [Belem] Is it working?

- Yes.

- [Belem] Okay. My question is, Helena, is that how you say it, you touched upon it a little about, like, that dirty work that comes from working in, like, non-profits, social justice work. My question to you is, have you ever encountered maybe a moment where you feel like you are in a movement that is talking about doing social impact or fighting for positive change, but the place that you are in doesn't necessarily uphold the values that you hold? Did you feel that disconnect? Did you feel discouraged? Because it's not all glamorous in the nonprofit sector, or at least just anywhere that you're trying to do social change. Everyone has different ideas of how to see that change happen. So my idea to all of you, whether at any point were you discouraged, feeling that like, yes, you're in this something called social change, but do you feel like you were doing enough, or maybe you felt like it wasn't the right place for you, and how did you deal with that sentiment?

- What is your name?

- [Belem] My name is Belem, Class of '24E. Yeah, I think that's...

- Belem, you say?

- [Belem] Belem, yeah.

- Thanks for that question, Belem. Does anybody else want to take it away?

- Okay, yeah, you know, I think that's one of the tricky things particularly about nonprofits, is they are oftentimes focused on an issue that feels really pressing, and you want to, like, put all of your time and energy into the cause that you're working for, right, the thing that you're working towards. And there's also the reality that you have to grapple with that these are organizations that require money and they require funding and there's bureaucracy and all of this stuff. And so sometimes it's really tricky when you, like, have your heart so much in the work that you're doing. It feels like that stuff is, like, oftentimes like brain clutter. And I think you're right. Like, my organization is nonpartisan. We talk a lot about the importance of the power of different perspectives and speaking across difference, and something that we internally have been struggling with is trying to recruit staff that is representative of, like, the diversity of viewpoints in the United States, right? I think there is a little bit of skepticism about bipartisan work, especially on the extremes of the political spectrum. And so it's really about, you know, this isn't like a great, like, "This is the final answer." It's just something that you constantly are kind of struggling with. I feel like me, personally, the work that I'm doing right now, I'm able to continue working in a nonprofit space with this work because it's something that I care about, but it's not like, you know, how we have the things that we, like, feel in our core that we like really need to, like, fight for and work for? Protecting our democracy, high on that list. But I think, for me, like a lot of our sort of social issues about human rights and rights around identity and protections of that, that's the work that, like, makes me enraged, and our work around our democracy is like something that makes me angry or scared that I want to work towards. So it's almost like selectively choosing something that feels like just a little bit, like, cooler, a little bit less hot on that feel of, like, what you're working in, that allows you to have just enough distance that you can keep working in it, even if... Like, my personal identity doesn't feel often as tied up in the work that I'm doing, and so that I think has helped me feel like it's more sustainable. You know, it's something I absolutely care about, but I don't feel like, yeah, I am like, my, like, warmth is at risk doing that work. And so I think there's an inevitable tension in nonprofit spaces, but that's been something that's been really helpful for me.

- [President Elliot] Either of you want to say more about the unglamorous work of nonprofits?

- I could just quickly observe that there was a stretch in my career from 2017 to 2020 where I ran my own company. I started Blue Sky Strategies in 2017 after taking a one-year sabbatical where I traveled through 23 countries because I felt a bit exhausted with the nonprofit, so-called nonprofit industrial complex, which oftentimes feels like it's trying to solve problems that it's number one goal should be that the problem never gets solved because the nonprofit then would be extinct. And I saw through that in a lot of the spaces I navigated, and I needed to have my own company so that I could draw parameters around the kind of clients and the kind of organizations we'd work with, the type of contracts we would take, the type of deliverables that we would proffer, and that was my way of helping to isolate or insulate myself from some of that kind of dynamic that you sometimes see with nonprofits, where particularly, President Elliot and I talked about mission work earlier and how much of you that takes and how it can be hard to stop thinking about missions after you're home because there's not a boundary when you really care deeply about the work and it's tied up with your identity. And so I think just having intentionality around that and then structuring who you work around and the kind of environment you're in is helpful towards protecting your peace.

- That's great. Next question.

- [Sebastian] Hi. Sorry. my name is Sebastian, Class of '27, and my question is hopefully to all three panelists. So as you may know, the people we surround ourselves with have the ability to influence our behavior, interests, careers, and so on. Throughout each of your professional and educational pathways, would you say that a certain crowd has influenced who and where you are today?

- Seeing some heavy nods. Yinan.

- Well, so I think cherish your friends at Amherst, because my best friends right now that I talk to, that I share stories with, most them are friends from Amherst. So I think it's not necessarily the way you pick your friends. It's more how you come together because you share a common background, you took some classes together, you made a huge mistake, messed up something together, and remember about it all the time. But I think, you know, cherish your professors, cherish your friends. I went to a graduate program, but I could tell you, the professors that you have here at Amherst are really special. The kind of experience you have, the kind of advice that you have outside of the classrooms are some of the ones that I remember that have an impact on me throughout my career. So maybe I'll just stop here.

- I would say that, you know, the thing that prepared me the best for a political career, Sebastian, where I'm a state senator for a district that doesn't have a majority, by the way, the thing I love most about my district is no one group is a majority. We have everybody. Even the block that we live on is like the whole globe. The friends that I had at Amherst, and just literally the people that we are surrounded by at Amherst, prepared me to be in a multicultural context like the one where I live in now, which is actually the same community that I grew up in and that shaped me, and the same communities that I now represent as a state senator. The thing about Amherst that I think really was most special for me and that I learned the most from, even beyond the classroom, are just the students that come here. They're from all over the world. They have so many different interesting stories, and, you know, I came here as a bit of an introvert, right? In high school, all I did was study, straight-A student. Like, I just worked. And so when I came here, it was really a cultural shock for me, but people here really took me in, and my lifelong friends, I was texting with the text thread of people that went to Amherst with me about all the changes on campus earlier, and they write right back, you know, 15 years later. So I really would say that just the folks that I was surrounded with here, that multicultural environment, really has, you know, been an important part of how I've gotten to where I am now as an influential state senator.

- [President Elliot] That's great.

- Yeah, I'll really quickly echo that. Thanks for the question, Sebastian. I think as I was talking earlier about engaging with the idea of identity through an academic lens, I think college, and particularly a school like Amherst College, is a really impactful place to think about identity, self-identity in a social lens, and I think inevitably you're impacted by the people you surround yourself with. I know absolutely, I credit Amherst with being a place where I really came into my politics and my sense of self, and I think a huge part of that was me kind of just like, "What are my friends doing? You know, wow, when they're going to this action, I'm gonna go to this action," right? And then maybe sometimes coming back to my dorm room at night, I'd be like, "Did I really, was that really how I wanted to approach that? Was that really how I wanted to engage?" And so I think, you know, one of the benefits of coming to a place like Amherst is its diversity in all of the spectrums, right? And I think it's really easy to kind of find, you know, you inevitably find the people that are kind of like you or that have the same interests as you, but I think it's also really important, and I didn't necessarily do the greatest job of this during my time at Amherst, of finding the people who, like, make you a little bit uncomfortable or who think things that are a little bit different than you or come from, like, an even more like, you know, a different background in wider scope than we think of just like geographic or regional, right? I'm thinking of this a lot in terms of political diversity of viewpoints. And so as, you know, just barely on the other side of being here at Amherst, I think it's really exciting to see my friends that I knew in this context here, one of whom is here tonight, seeing them on the other side, right? When you meet people in college, you only know them in this very particular context, and so it's really cool to see how things kind of shake out for people, what parts of them stick, what parts of them they kind of let go of. I was just talking to a current student earlier, and I was like, "Listen, everyone's skin gets so much better after you graduate. Like, your skin gets clearer, you rest, like, it's all gonna be okay." But that's, like, really cool to kind of get to... Every time I've seen somebody that I knew at Amherst, I always, like, make a point of being like, seeing them for the first time after graduating, I make a point of being like, "We're reintroducing ourselves," because it's the first time seeing yourselves outside of this very particular context. And it definitely, those people shape you in a really significant way that I've found really long-lasting. But it's also kind of cool to see what happens when you're taken out of this, like, really particular context. So absolutely, like, stay in touch with the people that you know here, 'cause they have known you at this very particular time in your life.

- Maybe one last question.

- Hello, my name is Doyhan. I'm a Class of 2026. I want to hear about, like, your approach to career planning, because some people tell me you need a well-crafted, you know, like a career roadmap, whereas other people tell me, "Ditch your five-year plan, be open to spontaneous decisions." I guess, like, the best way is to find the balance between the two, but I'm just curious how you approached that dilemma in your career path.

- Yeah, I can start. I would say both of those two groups are right, but, so I think everybody's a little bit different. I think, with me, because of my interest, like I said, I had been a little more intentional in terms of the internships and the academic courses that you take. But that doesn't have to be the case. I would say be intentional in terms of the toolbox of skills that you want to build. That could be writing skills, that could be analytical skills, that could be public speaking skills, and you can do that through taking multiple courses and explore multiple subjects, right? But if you are interested in following a certain path, also be intentional about it. I think Amherst is this great place where you have so many resources. Reach out to alumni. Do an informational interview. I've done that quite a bit when I was at Amherst, and I would say seven out of the 10 alumni I reached out, were willing to talk. So, you know, that's another way to think about it. Try something different. Maybe study abroad, learn a different language, definitely do an internship if you can in the summer. And now I heard from Molly that we have even more opportunities to do that. Go to the Career Center to polish your resume and cover letter and maybe perhaps interview skills as you're preparing for those practical situations. So I think it's a little bit different for everybody.

- I would say I think Yinan was probably a little bit more of a responsible career planner than I was. But I think the cool thing about a place like Amherst, at least for me, like, the huge draw was the open curriculum, right? And I think one of the reasons that so many of the people that come to Amherst are so impressive is because they're people who have, like, a natural curiosity, right? And I think the open curriculum really nourishes that and fosters an environment where people are kind of picking and choosing a lot of things that are interesting to them. And so when I think about, when I was talking, joking earlier about, like, those weird overlaps between things that seem really, like, disconnected that happen in our academic studies, I've found that a lot in my career path. And so I think there's a real value to kind of continuing to follow your nose in terms of your curiosity, even when the things don't really seem like they fit together. Because inevitably, if you are consistently engaging with stuff that is of interest to you, you're going to keep finding communities and people and work that is also of interest to you, right, that, like, you'll just keep following that road, and ultimately it'll feel, like, more satisfying. At least in my experience, it has felt that way. And I think especially we're at this panel on impact careers, right, social impact, and I think because so much of what people are engaging with feels so, like, weighty, it can feel sometimes like any time or energy that we spend away from, like, directly engaging with the thing that we want to fix in the world can feel like time wasted, especially at a school as, like, productive and efficient and successful as Amherst, right, this kind of environment of constantly being on that treadmill. And I think I would encourage people to, like, engage with the things that feel like a little bit tangential, and not only because they'll, like, help you sustain, like you were saying earlier with your cycling, right, like, these are the things that help us get through the day, but they're also from a real career readiness point of view, like, they make you a stronger candidate. They make you more interesting when you're somebody who's engaged, who has, like, a strong background in one field but also speaks this language or plays a French horn in a weird marching band. You know, like, these are the pieces that make you unique, and I think you'll find that they make you, like, a happier worker or a happier contributor to our society.

- And finally, I would just add that the framework of extracurricular activities that you have as students, take that with you when you, for those of the freshmen and sophomore, your summers here, and for those of the junior and seniors, when you leave here, you know, extracurriculars are gonna be those extra activities you do. So, you know, you're gonna start joining junior boards of directors. I was telling a student earlier who wants to break into public service after a stint in finance to make sure that you're joining a junior board of directors for youth issues or for immigrant issues or whatever it is that you're interested in, so that when you do get ready to move into the next phase of your career, you've got some friends that are in a different space that maybe can help you. And then I would also, you know, just make sure that you're doing some things that have nothing to do with your career, as was said earlier. But really, just a thing no one told me when I was a student is just this whole component of, like, civic organizations, volunteering your time. I know that sounds trite and hackneyed. It doesn't have to just be volunteering, right? It can be a side job, right, like, really nurturing an interest that you may have. I got into photography, you know, about 10 years ago. I started taking pictures when I was bored at my job, and when I did my traveling around the world, I ended up doing two photo exhibits when I got back to the States from, like, thousands of photos that I took in 23 different countries, because I spent time and let that really develop. So I want to encourage you to give yourself that gift, too, in the work you're doing.

- There's lots of great advice here, and I think we could go on all night, but let's stop for now and thank our panelists for a terrific session.