8. Sal Khan

Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, teaches us that our passion projects and hobbies can become fulfilling and impactful careers that can influence millions across the globe. We can carve a path for ourselves that not only fosters our own curiosity, sense of play and deep values, but can help others achieve that same dream.

SHOW NOTES:

Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/

Khan’s Book: The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined.

EPISODE SOURCES:

https://www.ted.com/speakers/salman_khan

https://www.khanacademy.org/about/the-team

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Khan

https://hbr.org/2014/01/salman-khan

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-07-16-sal-khan-test-prep-is-the-last-thing-we-want-to-be

https://www.eecs.mit.edu/people/alumni/alumni-eecs-connector-2013/sal-khan-sb-meng-98

7. Valerie Thomas

Today’s episode features Valerie Thomas, an American inventor who worked with NASA. Thomas’s story shows us that even though our parents, our teachers, and societal standards may try to dictate what we create and give to the world, we can overcome those barriers, work hard in the direction of our dreams, and become who we are meant to be.

SHOW NOTES:

iMPositive App (FREE!): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/impositive/id1561676473

Website: https://citizenhopepodcast.com/     

Instagram: @CitizenHopePodcast

Twitter: @CitizenHopePod1

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/citizen-hope-podcast/

EPISODE SOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Thomas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusion_transmitter

http://www.myblackhistory.net/Valerie_Thomas.htm

https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/article/face-behind-landsat-images-meet-dr-valerie-l-thomas

https://www.revolt.tv/2021/2/17/22287474/nasa-valerie-thomas-interview

https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/valerie-thomas

https://www.beyondcurie.com/valerie-thomas

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nssdc_news/sept95/04_j_green_0995.html

https://www.biography.com/scientist/valerie-thomas

https://scoop.upworthy.com/meet-valerie-thomas-the-nasa-scientist-who-invented-3-d-movies

https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws

https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

6. Everyday Heroes – Students

Today is the second installment of everyday heroes! I’ll be sharing stories about students giving back to their educators. If you listened to the first edition of everyday heroes, episode 3, I talked about teachers doing the most loving things for their students. Today, we’ll learn that kids are incredible givers, too. Maybe even the best givers! A quick note that some of the stories I’ll share today have videos that accompany them. You can find those videos here!

Top Left: Gabrielyn Watson and Peter Frank embrace

Top Right: Ice cream money for Mr. Lawrence

Middle Left: Jose Villaruel and Steve Nava

Middle Right, Top: Nathan Neidigk

Middle Right, Bottom: Kay Wistrand and students

Bottom Left: Danny Beatty

Bottom Right: 1955 Petition from Beatty’s students

Show Notes:

Go Fund Me for Mikey Neidigk: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mikey-neidigks-medical-bills

Go Fund Me for Jose Villaruel: https://www.gofundme.com/f/2b320zi4dc?qid=b7b01ce0faf38555a9be9fd792392b8a

EPISODE SOURCES:

Student Gives Her Ice Cream Money to Help Pay For Funeral of Teacher’s Father-in-Law
Teacher Has Kept Petition for 61 Years as Memento of Student Kindness
Former Students Surprise Their Music Teacher Who Drops to Her Knees in Tears

https://www.11alive.com/article/life/heartwarming/substitute-teacher-living-car-27k-check-former-student/85-fcea014c-2fb5-4d7a-abe4-4d08e01f5577

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-do-students-give-teachers-apples-and-more-from-the-fruits-juicy-past-26381703/

Teacher Moved to Tears By Students Pooling Money to Replace His Stolen Shoes (WATCH)
When Teacher Can’t Afford Holiday Gifts for Sick Son, Students Leave Surprise on His Desk
Students Ensure Teacher Will See Redwoods and Beaches Before it’s Too Late
Students Serenade Choir Teacher for the Last Minutes of Her Life
400 Students Sing Breathtaking Tribute at Window of Teacher With Cancer (WATCH)

https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/why-a-retired-anacortes-teacher-kept-a-piece-of-paper-for-more-than-60-years/

5. Aron Ralston

Today’s episode explores the lengths that humans will go to survive. Aron Ralston was a 27 year old outdoor enthusiast out for a day hike and climb in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park, when a bolder fell on his hand and trapped him in a slot canyon. What followed shows the unshakeable nature of the human spirit, and how far we’ll go when our life is on the line.

SHOW NOTES:

EPISODE SOURCES:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/dec/15/story-danny-boyles-127-hours

https://www.5280.com/2018/10/its-been-15-years-since-aron-ralston-amputated-his-arm-in-blue-john-canyon/

https://www.outsideonline.com/1821786/aron-ralston-between-rock-and-hardest-place

https://www.cmu.edu/magazine/03fall/aralston.html

https://aliciapatterson.org/stories/when-sea-calls

https://www.backcountrysurvival.co.uk/2016/05/20/minimum-amount-of-water-needed-to-survive/

https://listverse.com/2018/12/20/10-unbelievable-cases-of-self-amputation-for-survival/

4. Nasir Ahmed

Today’s episode covers two tales of human ingenuity from different points in time – The Loretto Chapel staircase, and the Discrete Cosine Transform developed by Nasir Ahmed. We learn that there is evidence all around us, and from all points in human history, that our incredible brains can create real-life miracles.

SHOW NOTES:

Nasir Ahmed’s Books:

  • Orthogonal Transforms for Digital Signal Processing
  • Discrete Time Signals and Systems

EPISODE SOURCES:

https://www.lorettochapel.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a35539211/who-is-nasir-ahmed-esther-true-story/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasir_Ahmed_(engineer)

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fJ9_Og0AAAAJ&hl=en

https://dblp.org/pid/60/3286-1.html

https://meaww.com/nasir-ahmed-esther-love-story-real-life-this-is-us-genius-indian-engineer-dct-jpg-file

https://users.cs.cf.ac.uk/Dave.Marshall/Multimedia/node231.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_cosine_transform

https://squidarth.com/rc/math/2018/06/24/fourier.html

https://news.yahoo.com/incredible-true-story-behind-nasir-000000344.html

https://people.com/tv/this-is-us-nasir-ahmed-pearsons-births-covid/

3. Everyday Heroes – Teachers

A collection of short stories about teachers going above and beyond the call of duty!

Photos:

Top Left – Erin Durga & Pat Mertens

Top Right – Dom Moore

Middle Left – Zane Powles

Bottom Left – Julia Koch

Bottom Right – Jonte Lee

Good News Resources:

EPISODE SOURCES:

Science Teacher Transforms His Kitchen into a Chemistry Lab Making Online Lessons Fun, Zoom-Bombed by Kevin Hart

https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/teachers-going-above-and-beyond-for-their-students-during-covid-19/97-325fa1e5-c4dd-47b1-b0dc-17f055010f7c

‘She’s Our Miracle’: This Minnesota Teacher Donated a Kidney to the School’s Custodian
Teacher Giving Zoom Class Notices Grandparent Slurring Her Words, and Ends Up Saving Her From Stroke
Hero Teacher Spent Every Day in Lockdown Preparing Food for His Pupils and Delivered 7,500 Packed Lunches
No One Came to Student’s Graduation—So His Teacher Took Him Out to Dinner and Bought Him a Car

2: Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai stood up to the Taliban and was nearly killed for her courage and activism. The attempt on her life did not silence her. In fact, it only served to ground her more solidly in her cause – championing the right to quality education for all children around the world. Her story demonstrates that all of us have the strength to stand up, raise our voices, and win, even against the most violent of oppressors.  

Learn More about Malala Yousafzai:

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban is Malala’s autobiography, released in October 2013. It became an international bestseller. The book was abridged in 2018 for young chapter book readers as Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls’ Rights.

HE NAMED ME MALALA, is a documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman), giving viewers an intimate look into the life of Yousafzai, her family, and her commitment to supporting education for girls around the world.

Malala’s Magic Pencil is a children’s book, published in 2017, thatintroduces her childhood in Pakistan through a well-known TV show where a young boy uses his magic pencil to help people. In the book, the magic pencil instructs readers how to make the world a better place.

Published in 2018, We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World explores Yousafzai’s story as well as the stories of girls she met in her travels to refugee camps in Colombia, Guatemala, Syria and Yemen.

EPISODE SOURCES:

https://malala.org/malalas-story

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai

https://www.biography.com/activist/malala-yousafzai

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/yousafzai/biographical/

https://theirworld.org/explainers/malala-yousafzais-speech-at-the-youth-takeover-of-the-united-nations

https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/10/567872-interview-fighting-girls-education-un-advocate-malala-yousafzai-finds-her

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29177946

1: Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797. Although she began her life as an enslaved person, and she never learned how to read or write, she became one of the most powerful human rights advocates in the nineteenth century.

Truth’s story teaches us that despite our circumstances, we can rise up and make an impact, and maybe even influence the course of history.  

Petition to Rename Donald J. Trump Park to Sojourner Truth Park: https://www.change.org/p/new-york-state-house-rename-of-donald-j-trump-park-to-sojourner-truth-park

EPISODE SOURCES:

https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches/

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1851-06-21/ed-1/seq-4/

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

https://www.biography.com/activist/sojourner-truth

Truth, Sojourner