-: I think the greatest strength in my path
to this role, which I'm relatively young
to be a CEO of this organization,
was just to always be willing to try
something different, and to really listen
to myself when it was time to leave.
I even still, in this job, check in
with myself, "Am I still feeling like
"I'm getting enough out of this,
"that this is the right place for me?
"Is there something out there in the world
"that I would rather be doing?"
And then just being brave enough to change.
You know, actually, my freshman seminar at Pomona
was like, the last one I picked on the priority
listing that I was able to give,
and it was a class on, it was called,
Muslim Literary Landscapes, and it was about
understanding, really, the global south
through their own literature, rather
than Westernized literature.
And that was so far from anything
I had ever taken in high school,
and I actually entered Pomona as a Physics major.
And so, being sort of, forced into this
mode that was much more
nuanced and analytical, and I don't think,
really, anyone in that class had picked it,
so, you got a really diverse group of students,
and so much of my job right now,
is really, very similar to that.
Where I have to just be open to topics
that I know nothing about, and go into them
with a really curious ear, and try to hear
what people are really saying, which is
sort of what the, what the class was about,
is that letting someone tell their own story
is a lot more powerful than the story
you can project onto them.
So, I think of that class pretty often.
When I'm looking to hire people, what I'm
really looking for is, it doesn't matter
that they've done anything in this field,
because chances are, they haven't.
It's such a relatively new field.
But, are they curious?
Do they ask good questions?
Do they really listen to the answers to those questions,
and then ask follow up questions?
All of those pieces show to me,
that they'll be able to step into a role
that they don't really know or understand,
and not come to it with a position
of the right answer, but to finding
an answer in collaboration with others.