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On Being an Outlier
In a world full of “Outliars”
The students stood quietly in line, their mortarboards balanced on their heads. Each was dressed in a slightly different graduation gown, often expressing their individuality or their culture. There were brilliant embroideries hung around their necks, or the simple, sober black gown of graduation. Some cried. All grinned. Big night.
As each person came on stage to accept congratulations, we in the audience were treated to about a minute of how and why each of these people of color had completed their PhD.
One said that she had lost eight family members during the course of her journey to complete her degree.
Let that sink in.
Eight family members. And yet, there she stood.
Another said that years ago, she was in an audience of youngsters when the speaker asked what they wanted to accomplish. She had raised her hand and said,
“I want to get my PhD!” The speaker icily stared at her, as though such a dream was beyond any realm of possibility. How dare she dream such a thing.
Yet here she stood on stage, with a PhD in mathematics.
Another told the story of how she scored the lowest possible passing score in basic math. Yet here she stood with a PhD in Modeling…