Weekly Article of Special Interest #63

I was an Assistant Professor at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI – a Historically Black College) for five years. While there, I taught and was colleagues with outstanding, motivated, and brilliant individuals. I grew to appreciate the value in different innate abilities and lived experiences when teaching students, solving novel problems, working in unusual situations, or addressing new challenges.

Reading Gladys Mae West’s obituary last week in Nature* reminded me of some of the accomplishments of “hidden” treasures such as Ms. West not only for the accomplishments themselves but the obstacles she had to overcome to achieve them. 

It also made me wonder how many more discoveries, contributions, and insights we are missing out on by using race, gender, religion, or other criteria to put impediments in the way of potential pioneers. And, given the extreme challenges we are currently facing, we need “all hands on deck” to pull together and solve them.

So, if this sentiment resonates with you, please help break bad habits and patterns. Reach out to “others” and start a discussion, ask for their opinion, listen to their stories, and see where your perspectives overlap. You’ll likely be surprised, more informed, and  better equipped to tackle our climate and other problems. 

As always, please let me know your thoughts on this post and others as well. And, if you know someone who might like to receive these emails, please send their name & email address to bill@socan.eco.

Cheers, Bill

_{* If you hit a pay wall to read the article, you can sign up with Nature for free and read it at no cost.}