Reshma Saujani
speaker
259 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Reshma Saujani’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I'm sitting there the next day. I've pissed off everybody. I'm broke. And no one's calling me.
And if that happens, we're going to lose a generation of social entrepreneurs that we desperately need to continue these fights. And so we got to show them a different way. We got to do it a different way.
It's been a long time. I saw you. Different circumstances. Long time.
Because you're an amazing human. It's true. And we were bringing Girls Who Code to England, and we were looking to expand, and you... generously met with me.
So, you know, for me, my parents came here as refugees. My mother was actually several months pregnant with my sister when they came. They had no money. And the Catholic Church took them in, fed them, sheltered them, clothed them. So I've always had this, like, deep love.
like love for this country and for that spirit, right, of empathy that we shelter and that we love and then we care for those who have been displaced. So that was always in my blood, that I wanted to give back to the country. I wanted to do public service and I wanted to, you know, fight for those who didn't have a voice.
You know, no one's ever asked me that before because you're right. I could have turned to anger and hate, given what I was going through. And I went the opposite way. You know, my parents came here in the 70s, grew up in like a working class town, you know, outside of Chicago, Illinois. There were no brown people.
And, you know, my mom was still wearing her sari and her bindi on her head, going to the Kmart, right? Still eating Indian food. And, you know, back then it was all about assimilation. You know, my father went to Toastmasters to get rid of his... accent. He literally changed his name from Mukun to Mike. He still signs my birthday cards like love Mike.
But that is like, if you wanted to fit in, you had to just change. And that's kind of how we felt too. I remember being so mad, Megan, that my mom named me Reshma. I'm like, why didn't you just name me Rita or Rachel? Because everyone would be like, how do I say it? Right.
And, you know, we didn't have a lot of money, so we were wearing the Kmart shoes and the wrong jeans and, like, the wrong shirt. And I remember it was all, like, you know, Forenza sweatshirts and, like, feathers and, like, you know, the 90s.
Yes. Totally. And we had none of the—we had, like, the knockoff version. Yeah. You know what I mean? Of all of that. But so I really tried to be white. Like, I tried to be those other girls and deny my culture and all of it. And, you know, every day I would get made fun of and bullied. And one day, I don't know, there was nothing special about that day, Megan.
I just, when challenged to go to the back of the school, you know, for a fight, I was like, okay, instead of just getting on the bus. And that day changed my life, right? I got beat up pretty bad. But I also realized I'm not white and I'm never going to be. And I have a responsibility to actually teach people about difference.
Like literally, I went to freshman year of high school and started a club called PRISM, like the Prejudice Reduction Interested Students Movement. Horrible name. I got better at that.
Yeah, I guess it does. So, yeah, I think I turned to hope.
Always wanting to affect change. Yeah. I realized early on what my gift was. So I started going to Model UN and debate, and I realized, ooh, I can give a speech. I can communicate, and I actually feel at home. on stage. And I'm thinking the way to make a difference is to run for office. I'm in love with Dr. King, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy.
Like back then, I thought politics, politics, and you can, you know how to communicate, like that's where you go. And so I, you know, volunteer on my first campaign, the 92 Clinton campaign, fell in love with politics and Washington and Hillary Clinton and the whole thing. And I'm looking at all these people like a Hillary, like
You know, and they all got a degree from Harvard and they're all lawyers. And so maybe that's my path, right? I'm going to Yale Law School. That's where I'm going. I apply three times. Don't get in. You know what I mean? Finally get in. But not just finally get in.
What did you say? Well, so I had this mentor, Leon Higginbotham Jr. He was like the first federal Black jurist on the Third Circuit Court. And he becomes my mentor. Every Sunday, I am at him and Evelyn's house listening to like the heroes of the civil rights movement. And it is just, I love Leon. And Leon's like, oh, girl, you're getting in.
Like when you go to your law school, when you walk in, there's my photo. Like, I got you. And he dies. And he doesn't write my recommendation letter. Oh, I didn't. Okay. Before he dies. Okay. So I'm devastated. And I don't have a recommendation letter. And it's like, it's his funeral. Everybody is there. And at the funeral, I meet the assistants of the dean of Yale Law School. Wow.
And kind of like, she feels sorry for me. And she was like, I'll get an appointment for you. And she kind of squeezes me and Dean Kraman's schedule. And I go to New Haven and make my pitch. And Dean Kraman's like, listen, I'll make you a deal. Like, you've gotten into all these other schools. Like, I got into Penn and Northwest. I mean, like, right? Like, really good schools.
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