“ My approach was always , ‘ Take as many classes as you can .’ Because when else in life do you have such an opportunity to try things ?”
— DJ PATIL ’ 96
After all , we ’ re the United States of America . We are the most powerful institution , government , and population that has ever existed , and when we have a problem and we put our full power to solving that problem , astonishing things happen . So what happens if we really empowered the next generation to solve cancer ? Not just said it was important to solve cancer , but made it a paramount task of the United States of America . I think then we ’ ll see a radical difference , which starts fundamentally at the places you see pivots in life — and that ’ s a college campus . That ’ s what a campus is all about . It ’ s about unleashing the power of a population . That ’ s one of the most influential places it can happen .”
On what he ’ d like his fellow alumni to know : “ We ’ ve all been gifted and blessed with the unbelievable opportunity to be part of this community . And we all got here because someone took a chance on us . That could have been the admission officer who decided ‘ yes .’ It could have been a professor who gave you a nudge that helped you get something . It could have been a friend who helped pick you up when you had fallen down . It ’ s an amazing community we have as alumni , so what I would like them to know is , or more so , my ask of them is , ‘ Who are you committing to take a chance on ?’ Imagine if everyone took a little more effort like that . What type of force multiplier would that be for our society ?”
DJ Patil speaks on campus June 8 , and hear more of his thoughts on everything from presidential initiatives to Triton volleyball at tritonmag . com / patil
FROM THE DESK OF : Already a name in Silicon Valley , DJ Patil ’ 96 brought a startup mindset to his public service under the Obama administration , when he was appointed the country ’ s first chief data scientist .
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