Not Just a Drop in the Bucket

Elizabeth Zimmerman
ELON, N.C. Talent is universal, but opportunity is not, Nick Kristof
said in his speech on Oct. 2 at Elon University. Kristof and his wife,
fellow Pulitzer Prize winner, Sheryl WuDunn, spoke about human rights
abuse and advocacy to a crowd of students and faculty at Elons Fall
Convocation.

WuDunn, the first Asian-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize,

began the Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture by speaking about the many
inequalities in the world. She shared many of her and her husbands
stories about witnessing inequality through their travels as journalists.
Through these travels, she has come to the conclusion that the
greatest inequality is not in wealth, but in opportunity.

There is growing inequality in this country, and we dont want to

debate that. We take it for granted, said WuDunn as she addressed
equality issues in areas like wealth and education.

In education, early intervention from parents makes a noticeable

difference, according to WuDunn. She shared stories and experiments
that have shown the difference that growing up in a wealthier,
nurturing family can make in a childs life.

As Kristof took the stage, he reinforced WuDunns points about

educational inequality and referred to education as the best escalator
out of poverty. The pair agreed that without equal access to education
and other resources, the poor are often plagued with these inequities
for the rest of their lives.

Kristof also shared some of the differences that giving back can have
on ones health. In a brain scan study, scientists were able to prove
that the pleasure centers in the brain were equally as engaged when
giving gifts, as well as when receiving them. In addition to experiencing
the joy of giving, service can affect life span as well. Volunteering for
two or more organizations can reduce mortality rates by 44 percent,
Kristoff said.

Kristof said that society runs off of the idea that people typically spend
the first third of their lives studying, focus on earning in the middle
third and then give back in the last third. Kristof encouraged the
audience to stray away from this typical course and said, if you do
that, you are missing so many of the rewards of life until that final
third. Dont deprive yourself of that.

When we do give back, it is often easy to feel like volunteer work we do

is only a drop in the bucket of a much larger problem. However, Kristof
and WuDunn have seen the transformative power of drops in the
bucket for people all over the world. They told stories about seeing
how the smallest act of change can make the biggest difference in the
lives of those in need. Kristof believes that even if our work does not
directly eradicate the issue completely, our help can indeed ripple
through others lives in this long continuum.