News & Events

In her popular 2017 TED Talk “Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable,” bestselling author, speaker, and podcast host Luvvie Ajayi pointed out the undeniable power of fear. That powerful force can wind up controlling our actions — or inaction, as is often the case. But Ajayi encouraged her audience to use it as a motivator. “I’m not going to let fear dictate what I do,” she said. “Anything that scares me, I’m going to actively pursue it.” Feeling afraid doesn’t have to be a warning sign of what to avoid; instead, it can act as a beacon, lighting a path for us to push outside our comfort zone, which is the only way to grow.

In 1960, primatologist Jane Goodall went into the Tanzanian jungle to observe the chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park. Day after day she sat quietly among the animals, and eventually she observed the chimpanzees using tools, a discovery that changed the way we think about primates. After reading her findings, her mentor, paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, famously said, “We must now redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as human.” The more Goodall learned about the chimpanzees, the more concerned she became for their survival. In 1997, she established the Jane Goodall Institute and began educating people about other primates. Now in her 80s, she travels 300 days a year speaking on behalf of chimpanzees and working tirelessly to help preserve their populations. 

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s path to becoming Liberia’s first female president was not an easy one. In speaking up against the nation’s inequalities early in her career, she endured periods of exile, prison, and even near-executions. But her commitment to a better future for her country never wavered, and as president she championed education, development, and free elections. “My experience sends a strong message that failure is just as important as success,” said Sirleaf in her 2011 commencement speech at Harvard. She reminds us that the dreams that come with risks are worth pursuing, no matter how daunting they may seem in the beginning. In fact, often what limits us is not the obstacles in our path but the fears and doubts that stop us from dreaming big in the first place.

Katharine Hepburn made her Broadway debut in 1928, the same year she graduated from Bryn Mawr College. After a four-year rise to stardom on the stage, she was invited to Hollywood to work with the RKO Radio Pictures movie studio. Having been raised to value honesty, education, and physical fitness, Hepburn was considered outspoken and eccentric. While other starlets of the time strove to maintain the appearance of flawless glamour, she dressed casually in public and wore pantsuits long before it was fashionable for women to do so. Her career spanned over 60 years, during which she won four Academy Awards and countless other accolades. She died in 2003 at the age of 96, and will forever be remembered as one of the great stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

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Gloria Steinem has fought tooth and nail for feminist causes throughout her life. Her activism and thought-provoking journalism solidified her as a leader within the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s and ‘70s. In this quote, from her 1971 essay “A New Egalitarian Life Style,” Steinem acknowledges that there are deeply embedded societal preconceptions — often subconscious ones — that perpetuate the repression of certain groups. Our collective fear of straying from “popular wisdom” can limit forward progress for individuals and society at large. We can all benefit from looking inward and questioning whether our inherent ways of thinking are serving ourselves and others.

Isaac Asimov is considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers of the 20th century, alongside Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. Hugely prolific, he wrote or edited some 500 books, ranging from guides to the works of Shakespeare to collections of lewd limericks. But he is best known for his hard sci-fi novels, especially the “Foundation” and “Robot” series. Asimov was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, so he certainly knew his science. He knew people too; like his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut, he served as the president of the American Humanist Association. Indeed, societal evolution plays a key role in Asimov’s Hugo Award-winning “Foundation” series, whose central characters try to predict the outcomes of galaxy-spanning events — while also trying to understand one another on a personal level. 

Artist and illustrator Rockwell Kent believed in the divinity in the natural world, which he frequently adventured into and highlighted through his transcendentalist art; his works often emphasized the mystical qualities of nature through the use of ethereal landscapes. Kent wrote this quote in his journal during an expedition to the Alaskan wilderness, which he embarked upon to escape the tumults of life back home in New York. A dispirited Kent sought revitalization amid the elements, and found a sense of liberation in Alaska’s vast emptiness, suggesting his soul had been repressed beneath the weight of societal expectations. By physically and mentally distancing ourselves from the source of stress, we can achieve serenity through simplicity.