Transcript: Part 1: Keynote Presentation - Daryl Rock - Make The Cut 2021 Webinar [Upbeat Rock Music Playing] Hi my name is Daryl Rock and I graduated from Carleton in 1988 with a Master's in Public Administration. What I plan to share with you in my presentation are some of the strategies and lessons I learned as a student with a high-level disability attending Carleton University, but also as an adult with a disability living and working in Ottawa and traveling around the world. You already know that there are barriers out there and what I plan to do is to share with you some of the strategies I developed over the years to overcome these barriers and have a great and satisfying life. [Upbeat Rock Music Playing] [Superhero Music Playing] Hi everyone! My name is Quayce. I’m the founder and developer of timsle.com which is a buddy system for improving your health with the support of family and friends. I went to Carleton to study architecture, but then in my second year, I had some really bad problems with my mental health and everything changed. About four years later, I’m now running a software company and working on affordable housing. I’ve contributed to the legislation on accessibility here in Canada, audited the parliament buildings of Jamaica, presented my research at conferences and worked for IBM. So, at Make The Cut this year, I want to encourage you to focus on turning the challenges that you face into opportunities, to pick courses and side projects that are exciting to you, and just to go where your interests take you, wherever that may be. So, I will see you soon you! [Superhero Music Playing] [Upbeat Rock Music Playing] Hello Students! My name is Jenna Lambert. I am an athlete ... (Jenna's Swim Team Member shouting to fans on boats nearby) "I can't hear you!" (Fans shouting from boats) "Go, Jenna, Go!" [Fans on shore applauding and cheering] (Crowd on shore chanting) "Jen-na! Jen-na! Jen-na!" [Fans on shore applauding and cheering] (Cheers and applause from the crowd gets much louder as she steps on shore) I am a lifetime student and I work full-time at Carleton University. I am so excited to be joining you this year at our Virtual Make The Cut event! I look forward to seeing you there and sharing a little bit about my career and academic journey. [Upbeat Rock Music Playing] PADDY STEWART: So, good evening and welcome to our Paul Menton Centre Make The Cut webinar, “Course Choices Impact Career Options.” I’m your host for the evening, Paddy Stewart. It's wonderful to have you all here with us each of you students, your parents, guidance and each of your teachers as well. We've got a terrific program with excellent speakers and I’ll introduce- I’ll get started with that and the agenda about that after two items first. First, we have to look at some housekeeping items. Number one, for live captions, we'll post the link in the live Q&A chat box so you can follow along in a separate window. An accessible version of the PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded from the www.MakeTheCutOttawa.ca for your reference during and after the event. There is a live Q&A to post your questions throughout the event. These will be anonymous. If we experience technical difficulties while hosting the event, it will be announced in the event chat. And finally, if you're experiencing technical difficulties, it may be your internet connection or hardware. But if you require further assistance, feel free to email PMC@Carleton.ca. Now the next thing I like to do - we want to hear from you before we get started and we have a participation poll that uh - get out your cell phones and I’ll tell you how you can get hooked up to take part in this poll. You can also use your PC. The first way to join in this poll - just to open a web browser and go to pollev.com/MakeTheCut2021 … MTC2021 or scan the QR code on the screen. Second way is to open your text message app and text MTC2021 to 37607 just once to join now. So, our poll question is … we want to know where you're at and where you're thinking about careers at this point. There's no right or wrong answer. We'd like to know what your thoughts are. Do you have any career goals in mind for your future? There are four possible answers: Definitely, Somewhat, Not Really or Haven't Thought About It Yet. So, there are the four possible answers. Now here's your, here's the poll and give us your answer. It’ll be very interesting to see. You pick your choice and if you're uh one of the parents or teachers watching, think back to when you were in high school. And uh try and imagine, trying to remember … so far back … try and remember what you would have been thinking about in high school about a career path. So let's see what the results are now. These results will change as you give us your answers. So, we'll wait just a minute and see. Wow! Some incredible shifts in the numbers. Very interesting! So, it looks like we can eliminate the last answer - you've all thought about it. About about a third of you, “Not Really.” Oh, now it's shifting around. Very interesting! Mm-hmmm So, it appears now about half of you have thought about your career future “Somewhat.” And the other quarters are “Definitely” and “Not Really.” Let's give this about another 10 or 15 seconds and then we'll put a wrap on that and move on. Very interesting! Wow! So a majority of you, about two-thirds have thought about it somewhat and the rest are definitely, are split between definitely and not really. Very interesting! Good to know that a lot of you have some thoughts about uh what your career path will be and hopefully after we have our session with its terrific speakers uh you'll have a little better idea about what your craft, career path may be. So let's move on from that now. And I’m going to go over an agenda - I’ll call on Larry McCloskey shortly. Our keynote speaker this evening will be Daryl Rock. After he speaks, Amanda Blais will lead a Q&A session. Then we have our speaker uh panel with Jenna Lambert, Quayce Thomas, led again by Amanda Blais and the Q&A after that. So Amanda, you've got a big part to play in what's going to happen in the rest of the evening Amanda Blais is a uh works at PMC and she is a Disabilities Coordinator as well as a Learning Strategy, Strategist at Carleton's PMC. Amanda, are you there and you're ready to go? You've got a big part to play. AMANDA BLAIS: Hi Paddy! Yeah, I’m excited to be here. um You'll probably be hearing my voice a lot in the background this evening, but this is what I look like in case you needed to know who that voice was. PADDY STEWART: Well, it's good to know because you have a lovely voice also, Amanda. Now here to officially welcome you and introduce our keynote speaker is Larry McCloskey, the director of the Paul Menton Centre and the creative genius behind Make The Cut. Larry, it's over to you. LARRY MCCLOSKEY: Thanks, Paddy … um there isn't a lot to celebrate during Covid and during lockdown. So, many of us are filling up too much time, and I’m very guilty of this, with distractions and entertainment. The problem is the passive entertainment doesn't help us realize goals and it literally distracts from realizing goals. And the truth is you only get where you want to go in life if you know where you want to go in life. So, for you to take the time and to attend the Make The Cut this evening is going to be the best hour and a half you'll spend in your life (or close to it). Making choices in life is very difficult and I can't think of a better person to give you inspiration and information than Daryl Rock, our guest speaker for tonight. Now believe it or not, Daryl and I go back over 35 years and that makes him really old. Still, we're friends. In his life, Daryl made determined choices and then he followed choices with hard work. First, he did an undergraduate degree at Carleton University and then he followed that with a Master's in Public Administration at Carleton and that actually prepared him very well for his 20-year career in the federal public service in senior, ever-increasing senior positions. He then became a successful entrepreneur and a philanthropist and he continues to do that to this day. Most of all I think that Daryl decided to follow uh um and then practice the philosophy in life which was really basically this - it's simple and kind of profound at the same time to carry off - the more you give of yourself and the more you work, the more you get out of it and the more you are successful in your career, in your relationships, and in life. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Daryl Rock. DARYL ROCK: Thank you, Larry. Thank you for that kind introduction and for stealing half of my introduction. Hello everybody, and good evening! Before I begin, I would like to congratulate all of you who have made the decision to pursue post-secondary education after high school. For a person with a disability, I believe a post-secondary education is critical to achieving a career and a happy and fulfilling life. The reality is as a person with a disability the labor pool is significantly smaller than it is for those without a disability. So, the more assets you bring to the table, the more likely you are to secure the job or the career opportunity that you want. Today, I’m going to share with you my story as a graduate of Carleton University in 1986 with a BA in Political Science and then in 1988 with a Master's in Public Admin. And I can honestly say that without my degree, I would not have gotten the job, nor the experience, the fabulous career that I did for the more than 20 years I spent in the federal public service. So, who am I? I’m a 57-year-old quadriplegic. As Larry said, we've known each other for more than 35 years. I had my injury in 1983, long before any of you were born, except maybe some of the parents on the line. And uh I’m currently semi-retired. I’m active in two private companies and I sit on the boards of three charities, and I’m involved with one political party. I’m the founder and CEO of a private equity firm based here in Ottawa called Rockwood Developments, and I’m a director of West Wing Association which is a consulting company that looks to help governments and businesses improve their accessibility inclusion for people with disabilities. I live in Ottawa, but from 2006 until 2017, I lived in Vancouver. I’m happily married to my wife Melanie and I can honestly say that one of my great passions, and I’ll see this, you'll see a lot of this as I go through the slides, is my passion for travel. I grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia, just outside of Halifax. My dad was in the Canadian Navy and so I spent the first 10 years of my childhood living on a military base in Nova Scotia. My parents divorced when I was 11 and I was raised by my, with my brother and sister, by my mother. Growing up in small town Nova Scotia with very little money, I knew the likelihood of my going to university was extreme to non-existent. Fortunately, I had a good way with academics, and so, in high school when they were streaming students into academic- or non-academic-oriented courses, I made sure to get into the university stream. I studied and got good marks. I also played sports and was really fit. Fitness is more detail I will discuss later, but I think it plays a critical role to your future and your success. I spent two years in military college. After I graduated high school, I was successful with high marks and I applied to and got a scholarship to attend military college. I spent in military college before I had an accident while I was on holidays back in Halifax and I broke my neck at the c56 level. This resulted in my not only having to use a wheelchair for the rest of my life, but it also ended my military career and it put me in a precarious position of not only not having any money, but not having an idea at all of what I would do with my life. Even worse, given my level of disability as a quadriplegic and my limited hand function, the available, available jobs that were open to me was extremely limited. Add to this the lack of physical access in 1984 and my likelihood of finding a good job, let alone a fulfilling career was extremely limited. Education, even more than ever before, was a critical tool for my achieving success. I did go to Carleton. I actually became very active, not just in my academic world, but also with student movements. I got involved with a political organization that allowed me to work in one of the political, federal political campaigns in 1988. And in 1986, I got involved in this couple of social activities. I got involved in the chess club and I started hanging out with people completely new to me. But, I have to be honest - it was a scary experience in some ways because, as a person with a disability, I had no idea how people would react to my presence, or whether or not they'd be interested at all in hanging out with someone with a disability. I did succeed in my undergraduate career, but it was an interesting time because I actually planned when I first started my undergrad to go to law school and and and engage in a career in law. But, during the social activities and during my extracurricular activities where I got more involved in community organizations in Ottawa - I actually got involved with an organization called the Canadian Paraplegic Association and another one called the Disabled Person Community Resources, neither of which exist anymore, but at the time, they were thriving organizations - and I became aware of just how difficult it was for someone with a physical disability to live and work and go to school in Ottawa. And so, we became quite passionate about social change. This led me, believe it or not, to actually change my career and I ended up switching from a stream towards law and I took my Master's degree in Public Administration, thinking that if I wanted to change society that I would do it through working in government. One of the key elements of success in my transition from Carleton University to working in the federal government was a co-op program that was offered by Carleton, and I’ll talk a little bit about it later, but I highly encourage you as you're going to school, whether it's full-time or part-time, that you begin to look for jobs and look for summer employment in the area of your your choosing. So, if you're planning on working in government, try and find a summer job that'll allow you to get in government. If you're planning on being a writer or you plan on taking communications and want to work in the area of journalism, then I encourage you to get involved with a social media company or get involved with a newspaper, or whatever. And it was that transition period from 1987 to 1988 when I worked for the first time in the federal public service as a summer student that I really saw the opportunity for me, but it wasn't easy. What you're seeing now are a series of slides that that reflect some of the passions that I’ve had and I continue to have. You'll notice that this is an example of what you can do when you have a passion for following your dreams. So I travel constantly. Now that I’m semi-retired, I travel even more. So, you'll notice I’m in places around the world and to this day I encourage you, if you haven't already done so, to begin thinking about traveling. There's nothing more satisfying than meeting people in their own towns, in their own cities, in their own communities, regardless of where it is around the world. It's truly a way of bringing us all closer together. I’ll let these slides run through, but what I’d like to do at the end of this is talk to you about what it takes to succeed and what it took me to succeed as a person with a high-level disability living in Ottawa. I have to be honest - 1988 to 1999 was a really challenging time from a physical accessibility perspective and when I moved away in 2005 or 2006 to Vancouver, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of accessibility that I found there and when I moved back to Ottawa three years ago, I was quite dismayed at the lack of improvement that we've made in this city in that intervening time. I look forward to a day where you and I and all of us will able to be able to fully participate in Ottawa and not have to worry about calling a restaurant before we go to see whether or not it's accessible, or whether or not their bathroom is up or down a flight of stairs. I look forward to the day when you can go out and rent an apartment or buy a home and not have to worry about whether or not it's going to be accessible or whether or not you'll be able to get the attendant care supports you need. It'll be nice when we get to the point where if you have a certain accommodation need, be that you're deaf and need sign language interpretation, or you have certain other accommodations that that you need, that employers don't see it as a burden or as a problem, but rather they see it as an opportunity to bring in unique, qualified talent into their labor pool. I’m going to allow you to ask questions at the end of this presentation. So, if you have anything that you want to ask, whether it's about my career, about my time at Carleton University, or whether it's about simple things like traveling, how do you travel, where do you go, where's my favorite place, just note those down now and then we can talk about them during the Q&A. But now I’d like to talk about “Setting the Stage for Success”, and what I believe are key strategies that you can use to actually develop your own career path and develop your own fulfilling life. The world today is more accessible and more accommodating of people with disabilities than it's ever been before. That said, there remain huge barriers to the full social and economic participation of people with the disabilities. I don't want to have to say that to you, but I just want to emphasize that things, and these are physical barriers - getting in and out of restaurants, getting in and out of commercial buildings, finding an accessible apartment or an accessible condominium, getting on and off public transportation, or getting in and out of airplanes, being able to stay at a hotel when you travel from one destination to another. There are also systemic barriers that you'll face in this world - things like access to attendant care, things like access to sign language interpretation, things like classroom accommodation, and work - in the, in the school environment and and workplace accommodation in the workplace. And finally, and probably more challenging, there continue to be attitudinal barriers towards people with disability, Society's attitudes are such that there are generally speaking low or no expectations placed on people with disabilities and therefore employers don't really see the need or make it a priority to accommodate people with disabilities in the workplace. This can only change if more people with disabilities participate in the labor force, and right now statistics are not very good. Approximately 50 percent of people with disabilities who can work do work and this is unsettling because more than 90 percent of students with disabilities who attend Carleton University actually graduate from Carleton University and yet barely half of those end up in the labor market. That is a higher unemployment rate than any other marginalized group in society in Canada today. Only by getting more people into the workplace do I believe we can dispel the misconceptions and the attitudes that people with disabilities are liabilities and not assets. To truly achieve full inclusion in society and in the workplace, we need to increase the employment rates and one way to achieve this is to increase the success rates of transition from university into the workforce. Over the next 15 minutes, I’m going to share with you some of the strategies and some of the tactics that I think will help you succeed in post-secondary education and allow you to take your place in the workforce as an equal member of the workplace. I always start with I think what is the most important lesson that you need to learn. If you haven't already, I encourage you to read this slide closely. But I’m going to read this quote – “If it is to be, it is up to me.” Now that sounds cute, but think about it - if it is to be, it is up to me. A friend of mine, a paraplegic, who was a role model and a mentor for me 34 years ago when I had my injury and since then, was asked to give a commencement a speech at his high school in the late 1990s and this was the title of his speech and it resonated with me and I hope it resonates with you. There's only one person in the world that has your full interest at heart and that's you. There are a lot of well-intentioned people out there who claim to have your interests at heart, but actually don't, and it's important for you to recognize this now and not when it's too late. When I first entered - I’ll give you an example in my my life - when I had my injury and I was at the rehab center, the social worker who I was working with - super nice woman and I liked her a lot - but her, her expectations of where I would go and what I would do and mine were totally different, and I almost didn't find out about this until it was too late. When I was just getting ready to leave rehab, she came to me and said, “I found a group home that you can move into.” Now, I’d been discussing with her and the others in the team at the medical facility my desire to go back to school, to get a job, to get in to live in the community, to to buy a house, and to live a full and inclusive life. And so when she said to me that I was transiting out of rehab into a group home, I absolutely refused. I said, “That's not acceptable. I’m not leaving here until we find an alternate arrangement.” And she was, she was surprised and she was angry and that's where I learned that the system was interested in accommodating its needs and not necessarily mine. It was easy for her to find a group home for me to go to. It was difficult to find a way to find attendant care supports in the community. But eventually after a few weeks, we were able to find something and work it out and I did move into the community, and to be honest, if I hadn't, I would not have been able to go to Carleton, I would not have been able to take a full course load, and I would not have had the career or the life that I had after that. So, my advice to you - take control of your own destiny. Second part of this - take charge of your future. You have to recognize you may be young now, but this is a critical transition phase for you. Decisions you make, the courses that you take, the direction that you go, the extra correct extracurricular activities you get involved with - all of these are going to impact your success down the road. And most importantly, the attitude that you approach life with is going to determine your success. When I was going first offered to go to Carleton, I was suggested that I take part-time courses. I was a high-level quadriplegic and it was new to Carleton to actually accommodate people with that level of disability. But I knew that if I wanted to work full-time anywhere, I was going to have to learn to put enough energy to be able to do it and so I said, “No, I’m going to take a full-time course load” and that's exactly what I did. So … if it is to be, it is up to me. You heard Larry mention the importance of setting goals and I can't emphasize that enough. Others will assume less of you and expect less of you because of your disability. Don't let others choose the academics they want you to take - choose the academics you want to take. Similarly, people will try to discourage you from taking a full course load, but it's up to you, given your context, whether or not you can, and don't let them decide for you. Set goals in other areas of your life too, not just academic. Set health and fitness goals. To this day, I continue to exercise constantly six days a week and I do that because as a person with a disability, my ability to live and function is a lot more dependent on my physical health than it is for the average able-bodied person. Simple things like getting out, in and out of my chair become harder if I’m not fit. Set goals for yourself in social activities - dating, getting involved in political activism, getting involved in social activism, sports, whatever you want to try. Set goals and then do it. So, these are what I call the “Five P's to Success: Passion, Participation, Perseverance, Partnership, and Purpose. Think about these. You'll be able to get these slides later, so you don't need to write this down. Let's first start with Passion. Life is short - be passionate about what you choose to do. Whatever you engage in, whether it's course work or whether it's extra, extracurricular activities, jump in with both feet. Far better to be passionate about what you're doing than not. Your passion should involve taking risks. Don't be afraid to take risks. Explore boundaries and direct your energies to things you care passionately about - the things that you care deeply about. And speaking of passion … [strumming guitar music – “When the Night Comes Falling” – Jeff Healey Band] This kid's unique playing style was born of necessity but who knew it would lead him to play like this - [Guitar solo from “See The Light” by Jeff Healey Band] Jeff Healey, a Canadian music icon and Juno Award Winner, lost his sight to cancer when he was only eight months old. At just three years old, he was given a guitar and, setting in on his knees, developed a distinct sound and unique playing style. And just a few years out of high school, his album “See The Light” sold two million copies worldwide, garnering Jeff two Juno nominations and the Juno Award for Canadian Entertainer of the Year. He was respected by and shared the stage with such music titans as Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Harrison, Eric Clapton and B.B. King. [# Can you see the light? Can you see the light of need shining in my eyes? #] [Music: “Roadhouse Blues” by Jeff Healey Band] He went on to star in the film, “Roadhouse” with Patrick Swayze, and his band was featured as the house band in the film. [Music continuing: “Roadhouse Blues” by Jeff Healey Band] [# Let it roll … all night long #] The next point I want to make is Participation. When you go to university you're going to be leaving home for the first time, many of you, and you're going to have an opportunity to explore your freedom like you haven't in the past. And it's going to be easy to coast, it's going to be easy to, easier to skip classes, or maybe not put as much energy into it. My advice to you is don't do that. And I’m not speaking as a parent. I’m speaking who as someone who 38 years later can honestly say, you get out of what you put into things, and the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. Actively participate in whatever it is you decide to do - whether it's going out on a date, or whether that's joining a political party, or whether that's joining a social movement, or whether that's your academics. Graduating high school and starting university is the time to spread your wings, but it's important to foc-, while it's important to focus on academics, you should also take the time to broaden your horizons and get involved in other non-aca, non-academic activities. We live in a world where there is much talk about individual rights. However, I’ve come to believe you cannot have rights without responsibilities. The two go hand in hand and I believe it is important for you to decide early how you will give back to the community to make it a better place. When I attended Carleton, I had spent more than a year in the hospital and I was exploring the world from this new-to-me, unique perspective of being in a wheelchair, and quite honestly, I was a little scared. How would I fit in? Would I be able to make new friends? Could I actually succeed? I didn't know what to expect going to university in a chair, and that made me just a little scared. But, literally and figuratively, I took a deep breath and jumped in. I took a full course load. I studied hard. I was involved in group projects outside of class and I made a point of meeting fellow students after class - at the pub, of course - to discuss various things we'd learned. I got involved in my local church group outside of school to help broaden my horizons spiritually, and I got active in sports. I started dating, something that was quite different now that I was in a chair. And I got involved in politics, volunteering for a federal election when I was 21 years old. That sounds like a lot, and it was a lot. So, make no mistake, school and work at times can be extremely challenging. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. New skills and talents do not come quickly or naturally. They require steady and constant effort. In steady and constant effort in new activities, you're bound to fail. Don't be afraid to take risks and don't be afraid to make mistakes. It's not the mistakes that matter so much as learning from them and moving forward. Most things in life do not come easy and you’re bound to require extra energy to succeed. For me, being physically healthy has been a big key element for being able to work the job I did. When I was in government, part of my job involved traveling from coast to coast to coast across Canada, almost non-stop for two years. I was on the road for a minimum of three months a year, and one week, it would be in Halifax. The next week, it could be in Saskatoon. Three days in Winnipeg, to Toronto, and back to Ottawa. And that went on for over two years and had I not been healthy and fit at that time, there's no way as a person with a disability I could have physically actually done those that type of work, but I wanted to. I was passionate about it and I put the energy into it. So, it takes a lot of hard work. It's, it's, it's challenging, but it's satisfying at the same time. I encourage you to stay fit and healthy throughout your life. I’m a 57-year-old quadriplegic right now and I still use a manual wheelchair. I still exercise either in the gym in my basement or by wheeling through the neighborhood for at least five or six times a week. And I can honestly say that being fit and being healthy in times of stress has proven very, very helpful. And speaking of perseverance … [upbeat music and hand-clapping and shouting “Hey!” under video of Daryl Rock scuba-diving] So what you see here is me scuba diving and the reason it's in this tab under “Perseverance” is, while it looks nice and it looks fun, and it is nice and it is fun, it's a lot of work for someone with my disability to go scuba diving. Just getting in and out of a wet suit takes two people, and getting in and out of the water takes four. So, you need to set - if you're going to do stuff, if you're going to do your extracurricular activities, or even your studies, you're going to have to realize that it's not going to come easy. It's going to come less easy for you than it will be for the able population, able-bodied population. But I love scuba diving. I love warm water scuba diving. I’ve scuba dived in the great barrier reef in Australia, in the Caribbean and the South Pacific, and in the, in the, in the waters of the St. Lawrence actually which, although less exciting, is quite interesting. Partnership! Remember there are Five P's - we're on four. We're almost through. Partnership. I want to read this quote to you. It was a letter written by Sir Isaac Newton to a colleague of his, Robert Hook. “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Now, this has been interpreted by many people to mean “Science grows by working with others.” But what it really is about is about working with other people to achieve common goals that individually you wouldn't be able to achieve on your own. None of us live alone but rather we all live in a village. We have neighbors. We go to restaurants. We engage in social and sport activities, and we work with other people. Much more can be accomplished when you work with others than doing it on your own. You are not in this alone. Don't be afraid to ask for support. As a person with a disability working in the federal government, I often felt awkward explaining to my boss that I had to have a PSW (personal support worker) travel with me to certain places where I wasn't sure I’d be able to get the quality of support I needed. So, I was working in Dubai, which is a is a modern metropolis in the Middle East, but at the time when I was there I had no idea what to expect, so I brought my own person with me. It cost the government an additional amount of, a significant amount, about 20 thousand dollars just to have that person travel with me. But fortunately, the Dubai government was paying for it and we didn't have to. But don't be afraid to ask for supports if you need it. I believe that they valued the work that I was doing enough that they would absorb the rest of the additional cost and they did. Remember - a good team leader, and in your environment, as I said, you need to take charge. So, you need to be a good team leader. But a good team leader is a good team player. So, learn to be both. When you go to school – At Carleton, I took a point of getting to know some of my professors in the courses I was particularly interested in it - I encourage you to get to know your professors. Some of you will develop close relationships with them that last throughout your life. I have a close friend of mine who was my professor of Economics when I was doing my Master's in Public Policy in 1986, 1987, 1988. He's still a friend of mine, we stay in touch, and yesterday we were on a cocktail call to share stories and and talk about the good old days. I also encourage you to develop mentors and role models and reach out to other like-minded students at school. These will develop networks that you'll call on and that you'll benefit from throughout your life. And last but not least is Purpose. And purpose ties it all together. Why are we here? If you haven't already, I think it's critical to adopt a life purpose. What is your world view? Do you want to make a difference in the world? Do you want to be a researcher and discover new things? Do you want to become a political leader and change society? Do you want to become a musician? Do you want to become a business leader? Identify a purpose. It'll help shape all the rest of the things that you do in life. Whatever your purpose, this will drive all your strategies, all the strategies that I’ve outlined earlier. Don't worry about what it is - it can change over time. Your purpose is much more like a broad destination for your life. While it may change, having one is always worthwhile. As they say, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. So, it's much better to have a general idea where you want to go. While I attended Carleton, I got involved in two local community groups, both of them committed to removing barriers faced by people with disabilities. I also developed close relationships with members of my church and these two circumstances, plus my studies at Carleton, instilled in me a desire to give back to the community. In fact, it actually changed the course of my studies. As I said earlier, I started my undergraduate degree in political science with the intention of going to law school. But after working in the community and experiencing some of these broader challenges and broader opportunities, I decided to change my career trajectory and I went to work for the federal government, and that's when I decided to take an M.A. in Public Policy. My very first job was working with a team of pretty amazing individual, individuals to design a recruitment program to bring talented people into the workplace. Summary – so, takeaways. A high quality of life is achievable. I have an amazing life. I’m very happy with it. Today, 33 years after Carleton, I look back on a life filled with adventure and with love. There were lots of struggles along the way. My health went through its ups and downs. I had some great bosses - I had some bad bosses. But from where I sit, life has nevertheless been truly successful. I consider myself very fortunate and extremely blessed for the life I’ve lived these past 38 years. I’ve traveled the world visiting more than 68 countries and I’ve met many incredible people, seen some pretty amazing things, and I’ve had amazing wife and an amazing life. Now, I’m going to hand this over to the gang who are organizing the questions. But I just want to close with what I started with - I would like to close with the same words I started with by quoting my friend Sean McCormack who passed away many years ago – “If it is to be, it is up to me.” If you want a happy, fulfilling, satisfying life, it's going to be up to you. Thank you. AMANDA BLAIS: So, thank you so much, Daryl! it was really great to hear your five P's um Passion, Participation, Perseverance, Partnership, and Purpose. um And I really caught on to what you were saying there of um “if it is to be, it's up to me” which I think is a really important saying for people to hone in and understand that, you know, they really need to um take their future into their own hands and take charge of what they want to do in school or in their future career. So um unfortunately we're going to um we're going to skip out on the Q&A period at the moment because we want to have enough time to get in a little bit of a break before we speak to our panelists. um So, I just really wanted to thank Daryl for imparting his wisdom, his knowledge, and his experience um through his navigation of uh what his career looked like, what his education journey looked like, um as well as all of his great travels. um I know I’m curious about where Daryl chooses to travel after the pandemic is over. um So, Paddy, I’m going to turn it over to you um to give us some instruction for the break. PADDY STEWART: Excellent, Amanda! Thanks so much and thank you, Daryl! I too and really enjoy hearing about the Five P’s uh very important lessons for folks. So, everyone - we're going to take a five-minute break now and when we come back we'll hear about the other remarkable career stories of Quayce Thomas and Jenna Lambert, and of course with directions and comments from Amanda. [Upbeat Rock Music Playing]