More from Sanjay Gupta

Hopes, dreams, and aspirations are evenly distributed throughout the entire world. But what is not is justice, opportunity, and working systems.

SG

Sanjay Gupta

University of Michigan Commencement 2012, 2012

14:32

Video starts at 14:32 — the moment this quote was spoken

The Story Behind This Quote

Drawing on his extensive travels to over a hundred countries on every continent, Gupta shared two stories that crystallized what he'd learned about human resilience. He described Rishma, a young girl he met in a Pakistani refugee camp after catastrophic floods — sitting in a small tent doing her schoolwork while 20% of her homeland was underwater. Then he told of Dean in Haiti, a man who had both legs amputated after the earthquake but grabbed a transistor radio and danced in the sunlight on his prosthetic legs. These stories led Gupta to his central insight: ambition and hope are universal, but the systems and opportunities needed to realize them are not — and he challenged graduates to spend their lives 'tipping the scales' in favor of those with less.

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