Ambassador Sherman came to Hopkins on April 28, 2011 to discuss current global, political issues and approaches to handling them. She addressed uncertainty in the future especially regarding the economy. However, before mentioning what she talked about I want to critique Ms. Sherman as a speaker. She stood behind a podium and most read off a prepared speech. In the introduction, she did respond back to the introductory speaker who read off her accomplishments. Even though she read off most of her speech, it almost always seemed that she was looking up. Her eye contact with the audience was extraordinary and showed that she was connected with the audience.
Her tone was very assertive and strong. She held a stern and confident demeanor when she spoke even though she did not appear that way. It was important to note that she did incorporate some elements of humor in her speech to lighten up her talk.
She did have a couple of sticky ideas. The first one was stating a motto that Hopkins was built around, which was "excellence and knowledge to the world." She believed this quote served as the engine for social and political progress. The second was the familiar phrase, "with power comes responsibility." She used the first one when describes ways to address the uncertainty in the future. Ms. Sherman approached this by stating five topics that deserved a better look.
Her first idea was that education is key and that teachers needed to be supported. Instead of blaming and vilifying the teachers for failures, she believed that they should be commended for what they're doing. I remember her calling out the politicians who chastise teachers by mentioning how difficult it must be for a teacher to deal with non-attentive children. Moreover, the second topic revolved around job training. Her third was about prioritizing budgets. The fourth topic centered on energy policy, particularly reducing consumption of oil and fossil fuels. She mentioned how dependent we have become as a nation on fossil fuels and wondered when we would break out of this comfort zone before it was too late. Her fifth topic was about immigration policy.
Ambassador Sherman then went to discuss how important it was for the United States to strengthen their relationship with China. There were lots of shared interests between the two nations. To quote her: "China and the United States are neighbors - not enemies, not competitors. It was here she mentioned her second sticky idea of "great power comes responsibility." It was up to the United States to maintain a strong bond with China since China was a growing nation and most of their exports came to the United States.
The closing remarks of the talk was about giving back to the community or country. She emphasized once more the importance of delivering "excellence and knowledge to the world." It was important for us Hopkins students to take advantage of the many opportunities here and to ultimately serve our community in the end.
I also want to mention how Ambassador Sherman handled the brief Q&A session afterwards. Unlike most people who tended to diverge away from the actual question being asked, she gave comprehensive answers by supporting them with personal example. She also gave a few humorous anecdotes about her experiences in the field.
Overall, I'm going to say that she knows how to effectively connect with the audience despite reading off a prepared speech. Her talk was well-organized and constructed around the two sticky ideas. I liked how she closed the speech by assigning responsibility on us, the audience to go out there and do our best to make a difference in giving back to the community.
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