Joined by Kathy Pugh, Senior VP of Partnerships at 2U, and Stephen Nelson, Senior Manager at MIT, Professor Sanjay Sarma of MIT recently spoke to NEIA students. Sarma inspired students to think differently about learning, risk, and discovery. Sarma challenged students to embrace their role as “ambassadors of everything you are learning,” and to have the courage to speak up, even when it goes against the crowd: “We need people who can say the thing that goes counter to the crowd.” He reflected on the power of failure, saying, “When you fail you are forced to recover. It’s like a ball bouncing off a wall, but you discover the wall.” Students were encouraged to take risks and embrace challenges, with Sarma noting, “Never give up any opportunity to prove the unknown. Little failures are how you will learn.” He also reminded them of the importance of curiosity and humility: “In life you think you can see everything but you are actually a little blind to things.” The visit left students motivated to explore, experiment, and learn with both courage and curiosity.
