Helping as Many People as Possible

Thank you, Harvard University, for this great honor. When I was six years old, I remembered watching TV. I would see these commercials and I was watching other children suffer in other parts of the world. And you know that the commercials were like, “You can give 25 cents and save a child’s life.” I would think to myself. I wondered how many 25 cents I could save up to save all the children in Africa. When I grew up and got rich, I was going to save children all over the world. I just didn’t know I would be in the position to do that by the time I was a teenager. At the age of 17, I started my career in America, and by the age of 18, I started my first charity organization. We’re all humans. And we all just want a chance: a chance at life, a chance in education and a chance in the future. And at my charity organization, our mission is to impact as many lives as possible, but it starts with just one. Just one. As I stare out into this beautiful room, I see optimism, I see hope, and I see the future. I know that each and every one of you has the opportunity to help someone else. All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return. To me, that is a humanitarian. You don’t have to be rich to be a humanitarian. You don’t have to be rich to help somebody. You don’t have to be famous. You don’t even have to be college-educated. It starts with your neighbor. You just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can. My grandmother used to say, “If you have got a dollar, there is plenty to share.”