Link to Audio Podcast: https://www.bravevoices.fieldscenter.princeton.edu/native-indigenous-voices

Interview with Nicole Velasco ‘08

Hosted by Rachel Jack ‘27

Rachel Jack '27 (00:05)

So the first thing to start off with is a brief introduction. Also feel free to share your tribal affiliation, nation, clan, or tribal community that you come from. And also if you wish to share this in your Native or Indigenous language, please do so.

Nicole Velasco '08 (00:20)

Aloha, my name is Nicole Velasco. I'm the class of 2008 and I graduated with a degree in English. I'm multi-ethnic, but I do identify as Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, English, and Filipino. And most specifically wanted to share that for Native Hawaiians, we also call ourselves Kanaka Maoli. So I'll be using those terms interchangeably.

Rachel Jack '27 (00:46)

Alright, thank you so much. So we're going to go into some questions regarding community and environment. How did Princeton's environment compare to the environment you were raised or grew up in? What was your experience like your first year at Princeton and how did you adjust to the transition?

Nicole Velasco '08 (01:02)

So I would say in my freshman year in the fall of 2004, it was brand new. You know, I had been on campus before, but being there knowing I'd be there for the next four years was a brand new experience. And for anyone who has traveled to Hawai'i, you know, these are vastly different environments. I'm coming from a tropical archipelago. I'm going to the East Coast. So there were some environmental differences that I do think had an impact in just my understanding

of a shift in my life. But I would say the community aspect, both were very diverse in different ways. Here in Hawai'i, we've got all kinds of cultures, all kinds of foods and language and experiences, even at a socioeconomic level. And I would say that was replicated to a certain degree at Princeton. Of course, it's a unique environment where we're bringing together young people from various parts of the globe to share in this experience together. And I would say probably the biggest difference that I noticed was just maybe the familiarity that people had with folks like myself who are probably considered ethnically ambiguous. So it was probably the first time in my young adult life that I had to kind of explain, you know, who am I? What am I? You know, really plainly answering that question. Well, what are you?

And realizing that although my experience here in Hawai'i had been very diverse and in fact, in a way, people were not so concerned about your actual racial or ethnic identity, that it would be something that I'd have to explore more deeply now that I was on campus. And that would be something that I don't think I was consciously aware of while I was on campus. But as I look back on that experience,

It was a really formative four years in helping me better understand who I am, to better understand my culture, and also to understand what's my role in perpetuating my culture here now that I'm back home in Hawai'i.

Rachel Jack '27 (03:03)

Thank you so much for sharing that. So the second part of that question is, what was your relationship like with your family and your tribal or Indigenous community while you were at Princeton? Did being at Princeton change that at all?

Nicole Velasco '08 (03:17)

I would say even in that first year at Princeton, my relationship with my family didn't change per se. Of course, my family was very proud that I was accepted, that I was going to have this incredible experience. And so they also were really excited that I was going to be able to kind of open and expand the aperture of my worldview. When I look back on that time, I do think it was the beginning of me creating a deeper understanding around what we might not always talk about in terms of the variance in culture. So here in Hawai'i, it's a very matriarchal community, matriarchal culture, Hawaiian culture is very matriarchal at its core. And then finding myself in an environment that really kind of has a more masculine, patriarchal tone. And so navigating between the two of how do I hold my own authenticity in a brand new environment that I'm very excited about, but what are the things that I'm going to keep with me from my home?

You know, from my experience as a child. And then how do I infuse that into Princeton, you know, for the next four years? I don't know if I really figured that out, but I look back and I realized that was something that I was navigating throughout the four years. If anything, one of the things that I've realized now that it's been over 15 years, time has passed, is being at Princeton gave me the tools to be able to walk between worlds is probably the best way to say it, or more plainly to figure out how to code switch. If I was going to be given entry into environments where really most Native Hawaiians are not present, then I believe it's my kuleana, my responsibility, as well as my kūlana, my role to figure out how do I navigate in these new spaces and bring my community, my culture, my people into these spaces and if I'm really doing a good job, open up those spaces to others. So, it was nothing I was really conscious of then and there, but I realized just in this trajectory of deepening my own personal identity, that those four years really helped me to figure out, well, who am I and who do I want to be, especially within the context of being Hawaiian.

Rachel Jack '27 (05:32)

That's really interesting because a few of the interviews we've done, especially with alumni, they kind of express the same sentiments because they feel like they are representing their tribe, their Indigenous community, especially within Princeton where there aren't many Indigenous and Native students in general. And a lot of them talk about like going back to their communities and helping out and also, yeah, giving back what they've learned, which is really honestly very inspiring. So thank you for that.

Did you find a community at Princeton? If so, can you recall the first time you felt this way?

Nicole Velasco '08 (06:07)

Finding community at Princeton, it is a credit to the school. They feature so many different opportunities to find your tribe or to find your people. And I say that in a colloquial sense. Realistically, there, I believe when I was there, there were only two Hawaiians on campus. One of them was myself. And at one point, the other student had actually taken a sabbatical. And so then I was the only Hawaiian on campus. But I looked at it as, it's my opportunity as a representative of my home and my culture and my community to actually get out there. And so I was very intentional and focused about seeking community, not specifically a Hawaiian community, because that was something I knew I wasn't going to find quite in that way, even though there were other students from Hawai'i. But how do I find camaraderie? How do I find folks with shared value?

How might I find myself in places where I can also learn about other cultures and when the opportunity should present itself, share about my own. And this happened in really deliberate ways. You know, I joined BAC, I think BAC is still around. I'm not a great dancer, but they let me join. And I was able to learn a lot about the Black community and the students on campus, as well as bring in parts of me that was really values aligned with things that they had shared. We did briefly, very briefly, reinstate the Hawai'i club, which had been inactive for quite some time. Just, you know, there's just not a lot of students from Hawai'i necessarily. And in doing so, we were able to put on a lūʻau through Rocky College Council. And it was kind of the first time where I thought about it in terms of, what is my responsibility to bring my culture to campus? And so fortunately, with the help of the administrators, we were able to put on a lūʻau, we flew in poi, so kalo or taro, that's kind of pounded into a staple food, which is we consider it our kupuna food. We consider it a relative, in fact. So we flew in poi, we flew in pineapple, which is not a Hawaiian food, but it's a part, you know, typical of a lūʻau. And we were able to work with one of the chefs on campus who had spent some time here in Hawai'i. And we put on a lūʻau and it really was probably the first time in many years that that had happened. And so it was a great opportunity fostered by the care of the school to bring a piece of home, right? So it wasn't so much, well, I can't find Hawaiians on campus. I looked at it as, well, here's an opportunity if I should take on that responsibility to be able to share that with my friends, with my colleagues, and really also with the faculty and administration. So we had to seek it out.

That was the call to action was if you don't find it already, go create it. And I think Princeton was great in supporting that.

Rachel Jack '27 (09:02)

Yes, I agree. And also too, I'm in BAC right now. I'm the publicity chair actually. So, It's been well, yes. Yeah, it's really fun. I love it so much.

Nicole Velasco '08 (09:08)

Wonderful!

That's great. It's been, mean, well, that's wonderful. I'm happy to hear we had such a good time. So I'm glad that you're in BAC. That's awesome.

Rachel Jack '27 (09:23)

Were there any moments when your identity as Native or Indigenous made you feel marginalized from the greater Princeton community? If so, could you describe this moment?

Nicole Velasco '08 (09:33)

Well, I would say probably to the credit of my parents and really my upbringing here in Hawai'i, I had a great confidence and quite a pride in being from here. And so when I got to campus, I think there was only one specific moment I can think of where I was confronted with the reality that maybe there's just not a lot of people who look like me here. And it happened to be quite quickly right off the bat. I think it was move-in week and an individual who was living in the same dorm just asked me like, what are you? And I love a good brand of humor. And so I said, I'm a human, what are you? And it was the beginning of kind of this opportunity to educate both of ourselves about what does it mean to be different? What does it mean to look different? What does it mean to sound different? And so, of course, you know, after we had a good ⁓ semi-awkward chuckle, I said, well, I'm from Hawai'i. And what was really fascinating about that as I look back on that moment was we have, just as humans, we have an opportunity to think intentionally about what are the internal biases that we come forward with? Also, what are the mental frameworks that we're operating from that may or may not be helping us navigate the world? And I understood from a place of empathy that for her, she needed some of that information in order to understand where I fell in the continuum of people around her, as well as her own understanding of her place in conjunction to myself. And I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but it was a powerful moment in understanding that not only was I going to have to ground and root into my own sense of self and identity, but that I was going to potentially have these opportunities to share with other people so that they may better understand themselves. But I didn't feel marginalized per se, but it became clear to me that I was different in some way that for some people required follow-up information.

Rachel Jack '27 (11:44)

And for the second part of this question, I know you kind of touched upon this before, but were there any moments when you felt a sense of community or connection because of your Native or Indigenous identity?

Nicole Velasco '08 (11:56)

As far as feeling a sense of connection to my Native Hawaiian identity, it wasn't so much something that I found already in place on campus, but I did take it on as a role and responsibility to be as good of a representation of me home in my community and culture as I could possibly be. And so a small example would be, even though I had an amazing meal plan and I was very much familiar with late meal, my mother would send me care packages with all kinds of snacks and foods and things from Hawai'i. And part of our culture, like many cultures, is to share, to share in the richness of your resource. And so I recall at one point, I almost felt like I was like the Wawa. You know, people would be hungry or they would be taking a study break of their own and they would come, they knew where to go to one, have a fun little chat while we kind of peruse the snacks that, that I had been sent. And I felt like that was part of my core being founded on aloha, which is, well, how might I share these values that I know have been so important to me growing up as a child in Hawai'i? How do I share that aloha? How do I put that forward to really invite others to have that experience? Whether they ever go to Hawai'i or not, I felt like I was sort of the walking representation of what they could experience if they were to experience my culture. So it was a situation where I had to create it for myself, but I didn't begrudge that. I wasn't upset that there wasn't an already pre-baked community for me to walk into. I really did appreciate that there was an openness for me to be able to shape it for myself.

Rachel Jack '27 (13:37)

That's amazing, thank you. So the next section is on identity. Did being a Princeton change the way you perceived yourself as Native or Indigenous?

Nicole Velasco '08 (13:48)

At the time, in those four years, I don't think I was consciously aware of how this experience would shape my sense of self and my identity, particularly as a Hawaiian. I will say now that I look back on that moment in time, as well as the full evolution of my own identity in my entire life up until today, I realized that much of my understanding, particularly as a Hawaiian, really was shaped in terms of understanding soft power, hard power, matriarchal environment versus patriarchal environment, non-Western versus Western. Inherently, by virtue of being Hawaiian, we have an experience like many do around being a colonized people. And so it's an interesting internal or rather inter-narrative identity situation to have kind of this almost epigenetic history of

what power has been and to find oneself in a situation in an environment like Princeton, which is very much and I'll just say it plainly a patriarchal construct, right? We're working from Western pedagogy. We're deciding that there are certain rubrics of excellence and success that are based in a Western context and to get even more granular in a capitalistic, post-industrial capitalistic context, right? And those systems are inherently not Native, particularly for Native Hawaiians and probably other Indigenous cultures. So what I realized is my time at Princeton was an opportunity to experiment with different social mores, with different social rubrics, with different understandings of success and thriving, and to try them on and in some ways to realize very quickly that doesn't really work for me. You know, I'll give a good example. So I thought I was going to go work in banking. And I had walked the steps to basically do the internship and the rotation in New York City and all those kinds of things. And serendipitously in the end, due to primarily travel abroad schedules, I wasn't able to do that internship. And initially I was really sad because of course in that particular time of the year, it's an echo chamber, right, of everyone's being recruited by the banks.

And I was disheartened because I thought, you know what, I'm not going to be able to be in that environment or to be in that space. And I realized that sometimes there's some luck and divine intervention because in the end, that's actually not a space for someone like me. Not to say I couldn't make it work, but my rubric for thriving looks a little different. And so it's not that I really understood all of this in those four years, but having the experience to try new things and explore and test out different constructs helped me to identify how I want to live today and what are the ways in which I'll evaluate my own success.

Rachel Jack '27 (16:56)

Thank you for that. Since I'm an anthro major, a lot of what you're saying is like familiar to me and something I've like learned recently, especially Indigenous ways of knowing and being existing and how different it is from like Western civilization. And it's something I've never really thought about, honestly. It's really interesting hearing it from you specifically. So thank you for sharing that. How, if any way, did your cultural identity and upbringing either nurture or clash with your academic pursuit?

Nicole Velasco '08 (17:25)

Very good questions. I would say there wasn't necessarily a clash in being on campus in conjunction with my personal identity, but rather I realized that it was just an opportunity to explore. So I thought I would be pre-med. That didn't quite work out. So then I went and I studied in the Italian department and I actually found, you know, although that's a European culture, I actually found a lot of synergy in terms of the lifestyle and the values, propositions that Italians have that I also could see in Hawaiian culture as well. And I think that was really how I explored my own sense of identity was in going and understanding that of others. And then naturally, like most things compare and contrast of, what do you know to be true based on your experiences? And how might you actually see synergy, right? Because for me at the end of the day, we're not necessarily trying to create homogeneity, but harmony is nice. And so I do also feel like there is a part of us that really has a responsibility to extend ourselves to learn about others. And in doing so, we just naturally learn more about ourselves. So it wasn't so much a clash as it was just being presented with different opportunities to really look critically at other cultures, whether it was through the sciences or whether it was through art and art history and being able to think, oh, well, how does that relate or how do I relate to that? And how does that relate to me? And what are the pieces of it that I find value in? But again, I would say I was never consciously thinking about my Hawaiian identity within this Princeton context. And I think part of it is just as a freshman, as a young person, you're trying to belong.

And I think what we're really getting at the heart at is this idea of belonging. What is belonging? And how do we know when we belong? And what happens when we realize we don't belong? And are there spaces in which we should not belong? So I think we're all navigating different ways of understanding ourselves within this broader context. A microcosm called Princeton, but using that as sort of this experimental place or really what could be the rest of your life in the world. So I'm really grateful that it was always a compassionate environment. It was also a place where you were invited to explore and to do so mindfully and thoughtfully. And that really has made quite a difference in my adult life as I think about how I want to live and then how my children want to live.

Rachel Jack '27 (20:09)

Thank you so much. We're going to go to the questions regarding administration. If there was one change that Princeton leadership could make to improve experiences for Native and Indigenous students on campus, what would that be?

Nicole Velasco '08 (20:23)

So as far as changes that could be made administratively on campus, I can't think of a specific policy that would be a turnkey solution, but I will say, and I do want to give credit to the admissions department and specifically Alex Buston, who is also class of 2008, for a really concerted effort. Here in Hawai'i, they have made tremendous efforts to get to as many different islands, mostly county specific.

But to get to as many islands, to be able to share the stories about Princeton and to really be a part of the kind of college recruitment process. We are isolated, the most isolated archipelago in the world. So you have to be committed to get here and to do that kind of recruitment. And I do want to give Princeton a lot of credit for doing so because to be honest, for a lot of students, if you're not going to a private school, the chances of you hearing about Princeton could be very slim to none.

So I'm very grateful for that. I do think it really comes down to bringing in more Native students, more Indigenous students. Perhaps it's also about creating opportunities within the faculty and staff to have greater conversations around Indigenous ways of thinking and knowing. Because without the people, it's hard to have a community of practice to be able to think about or even have conversations about these types of topics. And I think once we build a larger, perhaps even stronger base of Native and Indigenous thinkers, then we can begin to start playing with, as I mentioned earlier, these rubrics of success, right? How do we evaluate from a Native lens, what is success? What is thriving? And doing so through that particular lens requires the people. So I do think that's probably the biggest thing the school can do is to recruit more Native students appropriately, and then to also create, you know, once these students get on campus is to create the container in the space that has been done for many other groups of students and demographics, but to then really shape that so that students have a place to go in the event that they're still exploring what it means to belong on campus.

Rachel Jack '27 (22:41)

The second part of that is, do you believe that any efforts made by the university to acknowledge Native and Indigenous presence were genuine?

Nicole Velasco '08 (22:49)

The initial reaction I had is I can't actually think of a specific moment where I've recognized very plainly that the university was making some sort of Native or Indigenous acknowledgement. That's not to say it hasn't happened. It's just that I can't think of that moment. And I would trust that knowing the ethos of the school that it would be authentic and genuine. I think it would need to...Let's take land acknowledgement, for example. I do think a lot of institutions, public and private, they invoke land acknowledgement, which is an important step in just being place-based and having a deeper awareness. But even in doing so, that requires, I think, the wisdom and also the active engagement of that community from whichever land is being acknowledged.

Those would be some of the things is should the university be interested in doing more or exemplifying what it means to honor Native and Indigenous wisdom, that will require also deepening in understanding of Native and Indigenous protocol because there is protocol for certain things. And if we mean it, then we should learn it properly and execute the protocol appropriately.

Rachel Jack '27 (24:11)

The last section is on campus life. What was the campus climate like for you during your time at Princeton? And what we mean by campus climate, could be anything related politically or socially that was kind of circulating within the student body.

Nicole Velasco '08 (24:26)

You know, gosh, 2004 to 2008. Looking back, it really seems like a hayday of sorts. Not to say that the political climate wasn't charged in its own way, but certainly not quite in the way that we have currently today. We had a couple of protests, I suppose, you know, on the steps of Whig-Clio things like that. But there was still a general sense of kind of a shared collective. That even if we had differences, that by being Princetonians, we were really gonna rise to a different place in terms of our shared collective. It's not to say it was perfect, and I don't think we should ever expect perfection, but it was really an amicable environment. We had the luxury of

being even kind of almost predating social media. And so I think that's the other piece is understanding the technological environment that we were in. We were really one of the first classes for Facebook, right? This old platform called Facebook, when you could only join by having a college email. A lot of people forget, like, you could only join if you had a college email from certain colleges. And so our world was probably a little bit more confined in terms of how much data and information would be flying around. And in some ways, I think that insulated us from, not to say we were ill-informed, but we were in some cases insulated from sort of the larger impacts happening politically. But it was a great time. And I think, I mean, I had a wonderful time.

We were able to explore, have sustained dialogue, have those hard conversations, which I think is part of the training of going to school like Princeton is, well, how do we think critically? How do we...have a respectful debate. And then how do we emerge, hopefully, on the other end, with a better understanding, at least of where the other person stands. So it was a great time. Pre social media, pre some of the things that we're seeing today, pre-recession, that first one, which really kind of in about 2008 and then 2009. Because that certainly will shape the tenor of a campus as people are kind of realizing there's financial collapse.

Rachel Jack '27 (26:50)

Thank you for sharing that. That's really interesting to hear your experience. You had a good time, which is good. We kind of touched upon this, but do you believe that your Native or Indigenous identity and culture were represented at Princeton, and if so, in what ways?

Nicole Velasco '08 (27:04)

The most basic answer I would have for that is no, simply because, like I mentioned, there's only two of us, only two Hawaiians on campus. And so again, we have to make our space, right? And I think sometimes that is the unfortunate responsibility placed on Native and Indigenous communities, minority communities, is they have to create their space. Again, I didn't begrudge the university for that as a circumstance. You know, I didn't have an expectation that I was going to show up and I would have Hawai'i all around me. I understood that I was coming into a pre-existing ecosystem and that I would be able to create my space. And so fortunately, the university was supportive of those things that I wanted to do, whether it was having a lūʻau or it was being able to share values. We did a few other events once we revived the Hawai'i Club that were not specifically Hawaiian per se, but very much representative of the culture, the lifestyle and the values that we hold here as a broader community, you know, Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike. So no, I didn't find the Hawaiian community on campus, but I was supported in creating it for myself.

Rachel Jack '27 (28:25)

How did you feel when you first got accepted into Princeton? How does this feeling compare to how you feel now?

Nicole Velasco '08 (28:31)

So I'm a proud Princetonian. I helped during admissions because I do want, for students that are interested here from Hawai'i, I do want them to have that experience if they're able to. So I believe my class was the first class that did not have what was traditionally known as like the big yes envelope. I don't know if, I don't think we do that anymore. And I think we were the first class where they stopped, but nobody knew that. Nobody knew they weren't going to be sending the big yes envelopes.

So when we actually received the mail, it was a small standard business envelope and I actually didn't even open it because I thought, I didn't get the big yes envelope, so it must be a no. And I left it and fortunately, you know, at my mother's behest, she said, actually, you know, you have to open it anyway. And I'm like, yeah, but you know, it's not the big yes envelope. Thankfully, realizing...

It was just a small yes envelope. And I would say I was, I was surprised to be honest, because I had always held it as a reach, you know, some, a milestone that may never happen. And to be honest, at that time, I had mentally committed to a school that I did early action for on the West Coast, which, which would have been, you know, it felt like an extension of my high school and I felt very comfortable there. But when I got that letter, acceptance letter from Princeton, it really was a game changer and probably the first opportunity in my young adult life to really think about choices and being presented with a choice of I can choose something that is very familiar to me, even though it would be still brand new, you know, and go to school on the West Coast. Or I can choose something that feels aligned, but I also don't, I know I don't know enough about it, whether it's life on the East Coast or specifically being in an Ivy League institution. And so when it came down to it, I thought I should choose to not be in comfort. And that's kind of how I operate in life is I sort of seek out the thing that forces me to grow. Not to say I was uncomfortable at all on campus. I had a wonderful time, but it was the choice that invited me to be courageous. And so I was really grateful for that opportunity to experience that and then to actually get that little envelope that said yes.

Rachel Jack '27 (30:57)

What role did mentors play in your time at Princeton? Did you feel supported by specific professors, administrators, and the like? Did anyone in particular prove to be an influential mentor?

Nicole Velasco '08 (31:08)

I don't recall anyone I would necessarily deem as a mentor. And I would say part of that is possibly due to the fact that that wasn't really a concept that I grew up with in terms of mentor, finding a mentor or finding an advisor or anything like that. So it wasn't something that I sought out. And I wish that I had, I think if I had a better understanding of what is mentorship?

What are its benefits, how do you find a mentor, what is a mentoring relationship? I would have definitely pursued it while I was on campus. It's something that I am now a mentor and I also am mentored by others now in my adult professional life. That being said, even though I did not have a formal mentor, there are certain professors that we shared really pivotal moments that shaped me. So good example.

Rob L'Esperance I don't know if he's still teaching chemistry, wonderful individual. I was taking chem. I was not doing great in chem. In fact, I bombed the quarterfinal. And he really kind of opened up a conversation and said, with a lot of compassion and a little bit of humor, he said, you know, Nicole, I don't think medicine is going to be your contribution to the world. And he was right. I mean, to be honest, thank goodness, because what he was really saying to me was,

are you pursuing this because it's something that you think you have to do, right? Especially when you come from kind of a middle-class Asian mixed background, right? Everyone's like, you gotta be a doctor. It was like, do you wanna be a doctor? Should you be a doctor? Is this gonna be the way in which you create your impact for the world? And it stuck with me. And I said, yeah, you know what? I called him Prof Rob I said, you know what, Prof Rob I think you're right. I do not think medicine is going to be my contribution to the world. For others, absolutely. But for me, there's a different skill set I bring to the table. And so that was a helpful moment because it completely changed the trajectory of my academic career on campus, as you can imagine. But if he had not had the compassion, the willingness, as well as the levity to share a cold hard fact, maybe my life would look very different and I would not have discovered some of the skills that I have now that just needed to be expressed not in a medical capacity.

Rachel Jack '27 (33:36)

Yeah, I definitely sympathize with that because coming in, I was neuroscience and likewise, I had a professor who like really talked to me and saw like my writing capabilities and she was saying like, have you thought about anthropology? And I've heard about it before, but I really didn't think about it. And honestly, it's the best decision I've made. Like, I'm happy. I enjoy what I do. So, yeah, honestly, these professors that talk to us and take the time, like I really appreciate it.

Nicole Velasco '08 (34:05)

That's wonderful. Because what year are you?

Rachel Jack '27 (34:07)

I'm a sophomore.

Nicole Velasco ‘08 (34:09)

Beautiful, right? Can you imagine if you got to junior year and you realized this isn't it?

Rachel Jack ‘27 (34:12)

Exactly.

Nicole Velasco '08 (34:14)

I'm so happy for you.

Rachel Jack ‘27 (34:16)

Thank you. So now we're on the final question. What is your advice for current students? What is your hope for future Native and Indigenous students on Princeton's campus?

Nicole Velasco '08 (34:30)

I'm not sure why that makes me emotional. I'm also pregnant, so there is an element of that. But when you read that, I think about the future. And I think about the future. I think about the time that we're in. I think about the future that we perhaps want to seek for ourselves as a collective. And my advice to Native and Indigenous students who are on campus now is to stand up. Is to stand up and step out. Because part of what I feel on a very macro global level is we are in a time of rewriting our collective social contract of what it means to be in community. And for a very long time, the voices of Indigenous and Native communities have not been incorporated. But now is a time where we are finding ourselves in spaces like Princeton University where we can be present, where we can step up, where we can speak out, where we can really bring to the collective attention the ways of knowing that have been the ways of knowing for so long. And so while it may not be easy, it is our responsibility, or as we say, it is our kuleana. It is also our kulana, our role to be the beacons of that wisdom in this modern present day. So that would be my invitation to students on campus now and students who are to come. Stand up, step out, and share the wisdom that has shaped your life.