00:00:07 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Hello, everybody!
00:00:10 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): So excited to meet you all. So many attendees are trickling in. We’ll allow a few of you to get into the session before we give our introductions, but we’re so excited that you’re joining us for the summit today.
00:00:27 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Oh my goodness, so many people from so many different countries, this is so exciting to see.
00:00:35 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Good morning!
00:00:48 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Hi, everybody!
00:00:53 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Good evening for some people, definitely.
00:00:56 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Time zones are confusing, but I’m excited to see you all. Thank you for logging on, no matter what time it is for all of you.
00:01:07 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Hello!
00:01:10 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): I do like the variations of hi, hello, good morning, good afternoon, I love it. Everyone’s super excited and engaged this morning.
00:01:24 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Good evening!
00:01:38 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Alrighty, as people continue to trickle in…
00:01:42 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): I’m gonna go ahead and introduce myself.
00:01:45 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Hi everybody, my name is Maya El-Sharif. I am actually a Pioneer alumni myself, and I was a recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, and currently a second year at Duke Law. Ryan, you want to go ahead and introduce yourself?
00:01:59 Ryan Dwyer (Pioneer Academics): Of course. Hello, everyone. My name is Ryan, I’ll also be one of the MCs today. I’m also an alum of the Research Institute. I completed my research in 2020, and I’m a recent graduate of Cornell University.
00:02:10 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Awesome!
00:02:11 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Pioneer Academics is so excited to join everyone today for the Co-Curricular Summit. I want to welcome all the students, educators, and parents from over 90-plus countries. Pioneer Academics is an innovative education institution dedicated to researching, developing, and delivering rigorous and cutting-edge academic initiatives.
00:02:31 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): We’re committed to breaking down geographical and financial barriers to ensure access for high-achieving students across the world, just like some of you.
00:02:39 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Our two flagship institutes, the Pioneer Research Institute, has been recognized globally as the most rigorous and prestigious research opportunity for high school students.
00:02:48 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): It’s the world’s first and only fully accredited online research institute, and since 2012, we’ve established top scholars to conduct original research with leading university professors from across the nation. The Global Problem Solving Institute is our second premier program, a virtual innovation lab empowering students to tackle complex global issues using interdisciplinary thinking and collaborative design.
00:03:14 Ryan Dwyer (Pioneer Academics): We know that there are many conferences where professionals can get timely insights within the educational sphere. However, there is not currently a single forum for educators, parents, and students to receive cutting-edge cutting-edge information and engage with distinguished academic programs.
00:03:30 Ryan Dwyer (Pioneer Academics): This is where the Co-Curricular Summit comes in, leveraging our reputation to invite the most rigorous, value-based programs, along with leading colleges and universities, to connect with parents, educators, and students.
00:03:41 Ryan Dwyer (Pioneer Academics): Today, we’ll feature our keynote address, program and college fairs, and panels led by education experts centered around our summit’s theme, To Lead Is To Learn.
00:03:50 Ryan Dwyer (Pioneer Academics): By attending the sessions today, you, the attendees, can accumulate points for the Summit Leaderboard. The top 10 highest scorers, whose names will be announced at the end of today’s summit, will receive a free copy of our keynote speaker, Daya Kander’s newest book, Get Curious and Grow, and a $30 electronic gift card.
00:04:05 Ryan Dwyer (Pioneer Academics): You can find the full list on how to receive points by clicking the leaderboard button at the top ribbon of the Summit page, but two things that I will specifically highlight. You can receive points simply by attending the panels after the college and program fairs, so make sure to stick around for those.
00:04:18 Ryan Dwyer (Pioneer Academics): Additionally, the representatives at the College of Programs Fairs can award attendees who ask particularly thoughtful questions with points, so I would encourage you to visit as many booths as possible and ask away.
00:04:30 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Thank you so much, Ryan. I’m now going to introduce Matthew Jaskal, who co-founded Pioneer Academics in 2012, to provide outstanding high school students worldwide with opportunities for deep intellectual exploration.
00:04:42 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Committed to Pioneer’s social mission, he has advanced need and cause-based scholarships and built partnerships with leading nonprofits to expand access. Believing that passionate young scholars can achieve remarkable heights with the right guidance, Matthew drives Pioneer to create transformative academic experiences that empower students to apply their intellect and imagination towards shaping the world they envision.
00:05:04 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Join me in welcoming Matthew.
00:05:09 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Good morning, everyone. I’m Matthew Jaskal, co-founder of Pioneer Academics.
00:05:15 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): And I’m honored to welcome you to the 4th Annual Pioneer Co-Curricular Summit.
00:05:21 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Today’s summit brings together students, educators, families, and academic institutions from around the world
00:05:29 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Across more than 90 countries, thousands of people are joining with a shared belief that education
00:05:36 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Should go beyond just information.
00:05:40 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): It should help students build purpose.
00:05:42 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Think critically, and face complexity.
00:05:46 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): With clarity and resilience.
00:05:48 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): That belief connects all of us here.
00:05:51 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): It drives the work we do at Pioneer, and it gives this summit meaning year after year.
00:05:57 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Our theme this year…
00:06:00 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): is one that sparks… speaks to the heart of this moment. To lead is to learn.
00:06:06 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Cultivating Resilient Leaders for an unpredictable World.
00:06:11 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): And I want to pause on that phrase, unpredictable world, because it’s more than just rhetoric, it’s reality.
00:06:18 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): This is a particularly unstable time for students and educators alike.
00:06:23 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): The pace of change is accelerating, and the systems that we rely on, how we learn, How we work.
00:06:31 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): How we connect are shifting faster than most of us can fully process.
00:06:37 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): The next decade will bring challenges we can’t yet define, and meeting them will require clarity.
00:06:43 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Integrity, and a strong sense of direction.
00:06:48 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Preparing students for this moment means looking beyond content mastery or technical skill.
00:06:54 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): They need space to reflect and adapt.
00:06:58 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): and build a sense of purpose that holds up under pressure. Resilience, integrity, and good judgment
00:07:04 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Are taught outside the classrooms.
00:07:07 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): And they develop over time through meaningful effort and require thoughtful decisions.
00:07:14 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Co-curricular learning can help create those conditions. It encourages independent thinking, cross-disciplinary exploration.
00:07:22 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): And personal reflection. Students build habits of attention, follow-through, and collaboration. These are skills that matter when the path ahead is uncertain.
00:07:33 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): In our recent white paper on extracurricular planning, we asked Pioneer alumni what
00:07:39 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): truly made a difference in their college applications, and the responses pointed to substance over performance. Academic leadership, named by 22% of students, reflected deep engagement in their school communities. Independent and faculty-guided research cited by 21%,
00:07:56 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): showed a willingness to explore complex questions with discipline and depth. Another 21% highlighted self-driven and community-based projects, initiatives that required vision, follow-through, and a strong internal compass. The students who pursued them were leading and building something real.
00:08:16 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): This kind of leadership.
00:08:18 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): is what the summit’s here to support. The kind that grows through steady commitment and alignment between values and action. Our data also reinforced something we’ve seen again and again at Pioneer. The strongest students are not the busiest, they’re the most intentional.
00:08:33 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): They plan with purpose. They grow into their interests, and over time.
00:08:38 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): They learn how to lead themselves before leading others.
00:08:42 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Pioneer exists to foster this kind of growth. Our programs emphasize mentorship, rigorous inquiry, and ethical responsibility. These are core building blocks of leadership, not extras.
00:08:54 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Especially in a moment like this, they belong at the center of a young person’s education.
00:09:00 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): We also know that this is not an easy time for education. In the United States, especially, the atmosphere around higher education is complex. There’s real concern among students, families, and educators about safety, inclusion, and the broader political climate.
00:09:18 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): We recently surveyed over 300 international high school students about their views on studying in the US, and the results were eye-opening.
00:09:25 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Nearly two-thirds, 62%, told us their excitement about studying in the U.S. has declined.
00:09:32 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Driven by concerns about instability and safety, it’s not just a statistic. It’s a signal that uncertainty is taking a toll, not on ambition, but on optimism.
00:09:42 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): And yet, the foundation is still strong. In that same survey, only 1% of students question the quality of U.S. education. The overwhelming majority remain drawn to its academic excellence, the depth of its research, and the chance to engage
00:09:58 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): With big ideas in meaningful ways.
00:10:01 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): But what gave me the most hope, and was the mindset of the youngest scholars we heard from, those still early in high school. They were the most energized, the most curious. It was the quality of thinking and the opportunity they associate with U.S. education.
00:10:19 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): That’s what Pioneer is here to nurture, intellectual spark and curiosity that lasts. And this summit reflects that vision. Today, you’ll engage with educators, admissions leaders, and innovators who believe, as we do, that leadership is about more than just leading. It’s about learning.
00:10:37 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): forward. Listening across differences, acting with purpose, even when that things feel uncertain.
00:10:44 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): To the students here, your leadership has already begun. It begins when you stay open, when you take risks, when you keep asking questions, even when the world feels complicated. You don’t have to wait for a title or a degree to begin shaping what comes next.
00:11:01 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): To our educators and partners, thank you for guiding with empathy and conviction.
00:11:07 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): You’re doing more than teaching, you’re cultivating resilience one student at a time.
00:11:17 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): It’s Pioneer’s philosophy to bridge the gap between today and a positive future. Last year, we launched the Global Problem Solving Institute, a curriculum that speaks… or that curriculum specifically preparing today’s teenagers with design thinking, systems thinking, problem analysis, and teamwork.
00:11:37 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): key skills for the AI era, and our flagship Pioneer Research Institute holds students accountable for producing and testing an original research thesis, the high watermark for advancing academic development.
00:11:51 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): You can see the pattern. We’re future-driven, preparing students… preparing today’s talent, not just to succeed, but to lead in the future. And today’s summit is no exception. We’re bringing tomorrow to today.
00:12:03 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Our keynote speaker is among the most inspiring voices helping professionals advance their careers through inquiry and innovation.
00:12:10 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Our panel sessions bring together cutting-edge entrepreneurship and leading skills development in colleges, alongside sessions on building interests today and navigating college admissions. We promise it’s going to be a thought-provoking day.
00:12:27 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): I want to thank those who donated to help us provide more free opportunities for underserved students in coming to… when you register today. As of today, over the past 11 years, Pioneer Academics has provided over $11 million in need-based scholarships to some of the world’s most deserving young scholars.
00:12:46 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): We will keep working hard to serve the global community, overcoming both geographic and financial barriers.
00:12:52 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): So I’m proud to introduce someone whose work speaks directly to what we’ve just explored. Diana Kander is a Georgetown-trained attorney, an entrepreneur, and a best-selling author whose mission is to help individuals and organizations embrace change through curiosity.
00:13:09 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): As a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, she has worked with leaders across sectors to uncover blind spots, to foster innovation.
00:13:20 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): and lead through continuous learning. Her book, The Curiosity Muscle.
00:13:25 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Reminds us that the most powerful innovations don’t begin with certainty, they begin with questions, with discomfort, and with a willingness to grow.
00:13:35 Matthew Jaskol (Pioneer Academics): Please join me in welcoming our 2025 Co-Curricular Summit speaker, Diana Kander.
00:13:42 Diana Kander: Hello, everybody!
00:13:44 Diana Kander: If you haven’t had a chance to say where you’re from in the chat, we’ll be chatting a lot. Just so you know, I am not with Pioneer Academics, so any questions about the logistics, about how everything works.
00:13:59 Diana Kander: This is not the time for those questions, because just like you, I am an outsider who actually lives in Kansas City, Missouri, which is the middle of the middle of United States. Hello, Lily, I see you in the chat. Now, my professional job…
00:14:16 Diana Kander: hub?
00:14:18 Diana Kander: Hey everybody, thank you so much for using the chat, we’re gonna be doing that a lot today. My professional job, this is what I do every day, and what I get paid to do, is to teach adults
00:14:31 Diana Kander: how to be more curious. So I’m gonna say it one more time, my full-time job is to teach adults, professionals, leaders inside large organizations
00:14:42 Diana Kander: how to be more curious. So, for those of you in the chat, first question, why do you think this is such an important skill set for today’s leaders to embrace and learn? Why do you think
00:14:58 Diana Kander: Curiosity is important. Can you type into the chat?
00:15:03 Diana Kander: It leads to new discoveries, yes, so they can have innovations.
00:15:09 Diana Kander: Of course.
00:15:10 Diana Kander: Okay, these are awesome answers. I’ll tell you…
00:15:15 Diana Kander: my top 3. Some of you have said, number one, the pace of change today is faster than ever before.
00:15:23 Diana Kander: things are changing in such short increments that organizations can no longer afford to do 5-year plans like they used to. It’s… everything is in…
00:15:32 Diana Kander: Quarterly basis. That’s number one. Number two.
00:15:36 Diana Kander: Curiosity has been deemed the number one skill set for the future of work. Every five years, the World Economic Forum does a global study where they ask organizations what’s the… what are the number one
00:15:53 Diana Kander: 2, 3, 4, 5, like, the top 20 skill sets that individuals need in order to be successful at work, and as you can see, analytical thinking and innovation is number one for this year, but the next four are also very curiosity-based.
00:16:12 Diana Kander: So, the second reason curiosity is important, yes, Jody, it is the most important thing in research, is it is the number one skill set that organizations are looking for in their employees, and the number three reason
00:16:27 Diana Kander: and this one is very important for everybody on the call who is a student, the job that you will make a career out of likely doesn’t exist today. So as you’re going through your educational process.
00:16:42 Diana Kander: You are gonna learn a lot of skills, but the jobs of tomorrow don’t yet exist, so what we need are the skill sets to help us adapt and be successful in the world of tomorrow.
00:16:55 Diana Kander: Now, follow-up question for you. We all understand that curiosity’s important. You’ve got it. Now.
00:17:02 Diana Kander: Why do you think that adults need help being curious? Why is this a job? Why is this something that people need? What do you think?
00:17:13 Diana Kander: Why do adults need help being curious?
00:17:17 Diana Kander: Oh, this is an excellent… the first answer, that we have a fear of trying and failing.
00:17:24 Diana Kander: Yes, we are taught not to ask questions. We are taught to conform. That’s exactly right. Everything about being successful in the education process is
00:17:37 Diana Kander: about thinking that there is one right answer to a problem, and then our job is just to figure it out. That’s right. So, number one, we have a huge fear of trying and failing, and curiosity is very scary.
00:17:51 Diana Kander: And number two.
00:17:52 Diana Kander: Our schooling teaches us that there is just one right answer, and it is our responsibility to get the correct answer that our teachers are looking for.
00:18:04 Diana Kander: And sometimes that puts us in a bad position in the real world. So, let me give you an example of what this looks like. Does anybody here like jigsaw puzzles? Yes? Does anybody do these?
00:18:17 Diana Kander: So, they’re very popular in the United States. About 50% of the United States does a jigsaw puzzle at least once a year. And it’s actually a great analogy of how we teach people to solve problems in the education system, which is, there’s a simple method for solving a jigsaw, even if you don’t
00:18:36 Diana Kander: Even if you don’t do them all the time. So you start with… what do you start with?
00:18:41 Diana Kander: Yes, you start with the edges, and then you chunk out the rest of the pieces into chunks of colors.
00:18:49 Diana Kander: And then you just sit there for 8 hours, and you’re like, is this the right piece?
00:18:53 Diana Kander: Is this the right piece?
00:18:55 Diana Kander: Is this the right piece?
00:18:56 Diana Kander: Now, this is called a linear approach to problem solving, and the way it works in the real world is you identify a problem, and then you spend almost all of your time trying to find the right puzzle piece, like the solution to the problem. We spend almost no time questioning the core issue of what it is that we’re trying to solve.
00:19:20 Diana Kander: And that oftentimes leads us astray.
00:19:22 Diana Kander: Because most of the problems we’re going to encounter in the real world are not linear problem-solving issues. They are logic puzzles and Rubik’s Cubes. They are complex, where there is not one right solution. There are multiple solutions that can be correct, and maybe the question is the wrong question to ask.
00:19:42 Diana Kander: And so I want to show you what this feels like when you are so ingrained, as most of the people on this call are, to solve problems in a linear way. What happens when we encounter something more complex. So, why don’t we, as a team, together, try to solve this puzzle?
00:19:59 Diana Kander: What is the number of the parking space covered by the car?
00:20:05 Diana Kander: what… is the number of the parking space covered by the car. Now, we have
00:20:11 Diana Kander: Hundreds of people on the call. Oh, you guys are clever. Yes.
00:20:16 Diana Kander: Yes!
00:20:18 Diana Kander: For those of us who it was tough for.
00:20:21 Diana Kander: Very good. Amazing. What an insightful group of people. Yes, if we just take a different perspective on a problem, if we zoom out, and we look at it from a different perspective, the answer becomes much more simple, much more elegant.
00:20:37 Diana Kander: And that is the role of curiosity. See, curiosity is the space between what we know today and what we don’t know.
00:20:44 Diana Kander: And most of us.
00:20:46 Diana Kander: When we show up to school, when we show up to work, we have no curiosity. What we have are checklists. We have things that need to be done, things that people have asked us to execute on. And we are experts at getting those things done.
00:21:01 Diana Kander: And I’m here to tell you that my job today is to teach people who are experts at what they do.
00:21:09 Diana Kander: To say, look, when you’re an expert, when you’re very good at what you’re doing, when you feel like you’ve got the problem, you’re done, you’re complete, you’re finished.
00:21:19 Diana Kander: And my job is to take experts and turn them into innovators.
00:21:25 Diana Kander: to say, you know what? Why don’t we be more open into a better way of working? Just when you feel like you’ve found a way that works, that you have a direction that works, why don’t we continue to look for better ways of working? And if we can approach…
00:21:40 Diana Kander: life in this way. We’re gonna find better problems to solve.
00:21:46 Diana Kander: we’re gonna find better solutions to those problems. And this program that you’re going through with Pioneer, it actually is more valuable to your success as an adult
00:21:59 Diana Kander: It had a business leader than any of your educational content, because it teaches you to think about life
00:22:07 Diana Kander: In this way.
00:22:09 Diana Kander: So, I want to share with you the number one tool that I share with
00:22:15 Diana Kander: leaders of how you can create more space in your life for this curiosity. And actually, it can be applied by everybody on the call, it can be applied by their parents, the educators that are on the line, the folks that are running Pioneer.
00:22:32 Diana Kander: I’m so passionate about this idea.
00:22:36 Diana Kander: And I’m so excited to share it with everybody on the line.
00:22:39 Diana Kander: And that is something that I call Curiosity Hour. Now, we are so busy already.
00:22:47 Diana Kander: executing on all the things that we have to do today. We are doing homework, we are applying for pioneer research, like, we’re busy, we have a hundred things to do.
00:23:00 Diana Kander: But this is the most free time you’re ever gonna have in your life.
00:23:06 Diana Kander: If…
00:23:06 Diana Kander: you don’t have responsibilities of a job or children. Literally, if we can’t figure out how to create space for curiosity while we’re still in school, then it’s gonna be next to impossible when we enter the workforce. So, this is the time.
00:23:23 Diana Kander: for us to develop the skill set, for adding more curiosity into our lives. And I want to explain to you what Curiosity Hour is. It is one hour a week.
00:23:33 Diana Kander: that you dedicate, you say, this is my curiosity Hour, and I’m gonna give you a menu of options of what you can do during this Curiosity Hour that’s gonna help you develop the skills that are actually gonna help you be incredibly successful in your work. And we have to make space for these in the… on purpose.
00:23:53 Diana Kander: Now, I can only read English language, so if you’re typing things into the chat that you want me to see and understand, you gotta do it in…
00:24:04 Diana Kander: In English, and I appreciate you, you doing that. Okay, here’s our menu of options. I’m gonna give you the whole menu, and then I’m gonna do deep dives into a couple of these, okay? Number one.
00:24:16 Diana Kander: what we do with our curiosity is hunting zombies, which are finding those things that we’ve already committed to that take more work to do than the value they’re producing. This is a very important, task for us to do, to constantly be refining our schedules,
00:24:33 Diana Kander: No, they did… of course they did something wrong.
00:24:38 Diana Kander: They are stealing our time from working on the work that matters most.
00:24:44 Diana Kander: Okay, number 2. Whoop.
00:24:46 Diana Kander: is iterating. Taking the things that we’re doing today and making them a little bit better all the time. We’re gonna do a deep dive into iterating in just a second.
00:24:59 Diana Kander: Playing with your data.
00:25:01 Diana Kander: Thinking about how we’re spending our time, the success that we’re getting from the outside world, and where we can invest more of our chips to double down on the things that are working.
00:25:15 Diana Kander: redesigning, reimagining what a process could look like, okay? Starting from scratch and saying, okay, well, this is what my curriculars look like. How could I design a better day to get more… even more things done?
00:25:29 Diana Kander: Tinkering. We’re gonna talk about this. This is unstructured time, where you learn things that you just find…
00:25:36 Diana Kander: super interesting, and they actually set you up to be super successful, in the future. And pitting.
00:25:45 Diana Kander: Pitting is a new word I just learned, and we’re gonna dive into this one as well, and it’s when a race car gets off the track and visits its pit crew in order to get back on the track. We’re gonna talk about that one in a second. Okay, you ready to dive in?
00:26:03 Diana Kander: Yes, let’s start with iterating.
00:26:06 Diana Kander: Okay? And why it’s so hard for us to learn from both successes and failures in our lives. Now, I am a refugee to the United States. I moved here when I was 8 years old in 1989, and my family came here with no money. We had…
00:26:24 Diana Kander: $267 when we arrived for the whole family. And so when I was in high school, and I wanted to go to college.
00:26:32 Diana Kander: I knew I’d have to figure out a way to pay for it myself.
00:26:36 Diana Kander: And one day, I was walking through the halls of my high school, it was sophomore year, and I saw this flyer for tryouts for girls basketball. And I thought, hey, I…
00:26:49 Diana Kander: have heard of people getting scholarships to go to college playing basketball, so that’s what I’ll do. The only problem was that I had never played basketball in my life. I actually had never played organized sports.
00:27:01 Diana Kander: I was, the kind of poor that I had never run a mile in my life, okay? Anytime we had to run a mile in school, I would just fake an asthma attack like my mother had taught me.
00:27:14 Diana Kander: And her mother before her. We had a proud tradition of people who did not run a mile in my family, okay? So that’s… that was my starting place.
00:27:22 Diana Kander: And not only did I not play any sports, the only thing I knew about fitness and nutrition in general, you’re gonna think this is silly, but there was a commercial that was on TV all the time, and it was a young boy standing in front of a mirror, drinking a carton of milk.
00:27:42 Diana Kander: I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this commercial, but the more milk the little boy drinks, the bigger and stronger his reflection gets in the mirror, and then there’s this big crescendo at the end of the commercial, and it goes, milk. It does a body good.
00:27:59 Diana Kander: I don’t know if anybody’s seen this commercial, but there was a bunch of them, yes, on TV at the time. So I was like, okay, I really want to go to college.
00:28:08 Diana Kander: So, Pioneer Academics didn’t exist at the time. I had to drink as much milk as was humanly possible for me. That was how I was gonna get into college. That was my plan, okay? So, it was a two-day tryout. The morning of the first day, I opened up the fridge, I got out the milk.
00:28:27 Diana Kander: And I drank as much milk as…
00:28:30 Diana Kander: my small frame could handle, and I went to lunch, I drank a carton of milk for lunch.
00:28:37 Diana Kander: And I showed up to practice after school, and I was feeling very confident, you know? And they started by having us just run in a big lap around the gym.
00:28:49 Diana Kander: And as I was running, for the first time in my life, I got this sharp pain in my side, and I was like, oh my god, I’m having an asthma attack. No, that’s not… that’s not what asthma looks like. It was a…
00:29:02 Diana Kander: It was a running stitch, but I thought my appendix was exploding, and I actually hobbled my way off the court to the nurse’s office to get a ride to the hospital.
00:29:12 Diana Kander: Because I thought something medically was going terribly wrong. And I spent the first day of tryouts.
00:29:17 Diana Kander: in the nurse’s office, learning that I was totally fine.
00:29:20 Diana Kander: So, I actually, on the first day of tryouts, 50% of it didn’t even see the coaches. They have no idea what I look like, what my name is, nothing. So, I’m sitting at breakfast the next morning, and I’m a smart person, I’m a hard worker, and I’m thinking, okay, what do I need to do to make a real impression on these coaches?
00:29:38 Diana Kander: And I don’t know if, it’s clear to you now, but it became very clear to me that the key was to drink much, much more milk.
00:29:50 Diana Kander: Okay? So, I opened up the fridge. Yes, this is a very misleading commercial. And I drank nearly a gallon of milk that morning. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen YouTube videos of people trying to drink a gallon of milk. It is very difficult to do.
00:30:04 Diana Kander: and then 2 more cartons of milk for lunch, and then I show up to the last day of practice, okay? This time, they start by having us run what are called suicide drills, where you just, you run back and forth, real fast, okay?
00:30:17 Diana Kander: As I’m running, real hard.
00:30:22 Diana Kander: Do you know what happens to a human being that has had no water, just…
00:30:27 Diana Kander: Milk for 2 days, and then runs Yes, real hard.
00:30:33 Diana Kander: The only way I could explain it is you turn into a human cappuccino machine, okay? And you begin frothing at the mouth, okay? It’s like, so much froth that’s coming out of my mouth, okay?
00:30:46 Diana Kander: And, it’s very noticeable to everyone around me, including the coaches. The coaches blow a whistle, and, they stop the drill, and they’re like, hey.
00:30:56 Diana Kander: I don’t know what’s going on, but can we move this situation to the nurse’s office?
00:31:02 Diana Kander: Okay? And that’s where I spent day two of tryouts. So, it was a very big school. My high school, had 160 girls that tried out for basketball that year, and there was an A team, a B team, a C team, and a D team, and I was the one girl that did not make any of those teams, and that was…
00:31:22 Diana Kander: the end of my college dreams playing basketball. Now, question for everybody on, the line.
00:31:30 Diana Kander: Should I have tried out for basketball? What do you think? Should I have tried out for basketball?
00:31:40 Diana Kander: Okay, a lot of people are saying yes. What are we even talking about? Why do you think I should have tried out for basketball?
00:31:50 Diana Kander: Yes, not the best use of my time, probably, at the time. But let me tell you… let me tell you something really important.
00:31:59 Diana Kander: Which is, when I didn’t make the team.
00:32:02 Diana Kander: I didn’t really learn any lessons from it. You would think, like, the right approach is to say, oh boy, I don’t really know how to play basketball, or run.
00:32:12 Diana Kander: And my entire approach is drinking as much milk as possible. Like, that wasn’t very smart. Let me try again the next year. Let me learn how to do this better. Let me create space.
00:32:22 Diana Kander: to say, okay, well, how could I have done this differently or better? But, actually, that’s not what I did. What I did was, I said, those people don’t know how to run a basketball tryout, because I didn’t even touch a basketball. They just had us run the whole time, which is…
00:32:40 Diana Kander: A terrible way to have people try out. And I said to myself, well, you know what? You’re just not a runner. You’re just the kind of person
00:32:49 Diana Kander: that’s not meant for running, and that’s not a skill set for you. So, in my head, I made up things about the coaches to make myself feel better, and I actually made up things about myself to make myself feel better. Like, that wasn’t even possible for me. I learned nothing until maybe…
00:33:08 Diana Kander: 10, 20 years later, where I was like.
00:33:11 Diana Kander: Maybe I could run. Maybe it is possible for me, okay? So, we’re actually not very good at learning from our failures, okay? But I will tell you one more thing, which is…
00:33:23 Diana Kander: We’re not very good at learning from our successes.
00:33:27 Diana Kander: Either. There’s this really interesting piece of research, also in basketball, where they, followed college basketball coaches who had close games. So, either people who won by a little bit, or lost by a little bit, okay? The coaches that
00:33:45 Diana Kander: win by a little bit. They’re like, we crushed it, we did everything right. They changed absolutely nothing about their approach. The coaches that lose by a little bit, by 2 or 4 points.
00:33:57 Diana Kander: They change everything. They change how they drill over practice, they change who’s in what positions, they change what plays they run, they change everything about their game.
00:34:08 Diana Kander: Now, think about that for a second.
00:34:11 Diana Kander: There is no difference between the performance of a team that won closely or lost closely. But when we win by even a little bit, we assume that we did every single thing correctly, and we don’t learn any lessons, we don’t improve.
00:34:27 Diana Kander: So, the… what we need to do is find space in our lives where we can learn lessons no matter what happened, if it was good or if it was bad. So…
00:34:37 Diana Kander: The question that we should be asking ourselves.
00:34:41 Diana Kander: is not, was I successful? When we finish a class, or we do a project, even when we
00:34:50 Diana Kander: do a pioneer project, or a research paper. The question to ask is not, was I successful at this part of the project, but how can I improve at what I did? So.
00:35:04 Diana Kander: My goal is to take… to make little improvements all the time, so that in the course of a year, my change is dramatic. For instance, I’m gonna review this presentation when I’m finished, and I’m gonna go slide by slide.
00:35:21 Diana Kander: And I’m gonna say, okay, well, which points worked, and which ones could be better? And where could I have said something even better? And I record every presentation.
00:35:31 Diana Kander: And I listen back to it, and I hear for what could have gone better. So me today is much different than me trying out for basketball, because I believe that every single thing that I do…
00:35:42 Diana Kander: can be improved and better. That’s iterating. So, question for you, all of you on the chat, What?
00:35:52 Diana Kander: could we iterate on in our lives? What is it
00:35:57 Diana Kander: That you can find in your life that you’re already doing on a regular basis.
00:36:01 Diana Kander: And that you could improve in little pieces, that you could improve.
00:36:08 Diana Kander: Yes, daily routines, amazing. Drawing, fitness, how we’re studying. Yes, if we just take some time, and that’s the whole goal of Curiosity Hour, we pick one thing to do, and we say, hey.
00:36:22 Diana Kander: I’m gonna pick this, and I’m just gonna sit here and reflect on how I can be doing better. Until we create that space.
00:36:28 Diana Kander: Those answers on how to do it better, are not gonna come to you. Debating diet? Oh my gosh, I love all of these. Screen time?
00:36:37 Diana Kander: Let me tell you, I reflect on that all the time.
00:36:41 Diana Kander: Okay, so that’s our first one, iterating. Every single thing that we do could be even better if we just create the space to figure out how we could do it better.
00:36:50 Diana Kander: Let me tell you about tinkering, one of my favorites. So, tinkering is playful experimentation without the pressure of getting things right, okay? So.
00:37:00 Diana Kander: Tinkering is trying out new software, okay, for the people on this call, learning how to use Canva, or AI, or it’s exploring a new idea. So.
00:37:13 Diana Kander: I’m interested in designing question cards to help people, have better conversations with another, or it could be, learning how to code, a simple tool, because there’s so much software that allows us, now we don’t need any coding skills, we can use AI to create actual products that help people.
00:37:33 Diana Kander: I’m actually…
00:37:35 Diana Kander: playing around with creating an AI tool that helps people achieve really big goals, okay? And it’s an accountability tool that texts you every Monday to keep you on track.
00:37:45 Diana Kander: Okay? So.
00:37:47 Diana Kander: Tinkering is us playing around with things in a safe place where it doesn’t matter. We’re not trying to reach a project, it’s just something that we’re curious about.
00:37:57 Diana Kander: So instead of saying to ourselves, this is the question we ask ourselves all the time.
00:38:02 Diana Kander: what is the most practical thing for me to do right now, right? Like, when you have time, you sit and you say, okay, what homework do I need to do? What job do I need to do? What is something that I need to do that is requiring… that is being asked of by adults or other people?
00:38:19 Diana Kander: And I’m telling you that one hour a week, sometimes when we choose tinkering as the thing that we’re gonna do.
00:38:27 Diana Kander: I want us to ask what sounds fun or interesting for us to do in this time. And let me tell you a little secret.
00:38:37 Diana Kander: It is those things that you do during tinkering time that is gonna differentiate you from everybody else who’s applying for jobs or trying to get leadership positions
00:38:49 Diana Kander: It’s the tinkering that makes you special and different, because you follow things that you were passionate enough, and then you will always find a way to incorporate them into your work. So, I want to give you some fun examples of what this looks like. Does anybody know who this is?
00:39:10 Diana Kander: Can you guess in the chat for me?
00:39:15 Diana Kander: Yes, Taim got it right, Steph Curry. And what, what is Steph Curry doing here?
00:39:22 Diana Kander: He’s not a tennis player.
00:39:26 Diana Kander: Yeah? He’s doing a tinkering drill that you’ve never seen anybody else in professional basketball do, where he’s learning how to dribble a basketball without thinking about it. So he’s occupying his mind with a tennis ball while continuing to dribble, and
00:39:47 Diana Kander: that’s him creating space in his life and saying, here’s a thing that I love, here’s a skill I want to develop. Now, what are some creative ways for me to improve on this skill set that aren’t traditional? This is tinkering time, yeah? And you tinker with enough things…
00:40:05 Diana Kander: And they make you a better individual. Let me, let me give you one more, one more tinkering, example. Who’s this?
00:40:19 Diana Kander: Yes, it’s Ed Sheeran. Now, fun story about Ed Sheeran. When he was 14 years old.
00:40:24 Diana Kander: He, saw a performer who…
00:40:28 Diana Kander: who did this thing that he became really obsessed with, okay? And it’s a… it’s somebody who was a one-person band who used what’s called looping to create what sounds like, an ensemble.
00:40:44 Diana Kander: And Ed Sheeran is, yes, a very successful musician, but something that he learned when he was
00:40:50 Diana Kander: 14 years old, has actually become a huge part of his performances, and it’s the reason that he’s interesting to other people. So, again, something that he learned at 14 became the differentiator for him.
00:41:08 Diana Kander: In his music.
00:41:09 Diana Kander: Man, now we can just all watch.
00:41:11 Audio shared by Diana Kander: And then you can add different channels on top, so this would be the drums.
00:41:20 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Oh, it’s already looped the microphone.
00:41:23 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Wow.
00:41:29 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Okay, and then can you sing Ohio?
00:41:34 Diana Kander: The final version of it.
00:41:35 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Maybe he discovered something random.
00:41:38 Audio shared by Diana Kander: I’m in love with your body.
00:41:44 Diana Kander: Alright, so it’s the tinkering today that’s gonna make you the standout of the future. When you combine the things that you learn outside your main work, what you’re doing every day, with the things that you’re doing, people’s brains are gonna explode.
00:41:58 Diana Kander: And everything about the future of work is about not just doing what everybody else is doing, it’s
00:42:06 Diana Kander: about finding out your unique perspective, and it is the tinkering, the things that you are really passionate about that are gonna make you
00:42:17 Diana Kander: special, unique, stand out, and actually give you a different perspective to solve problems. Now, I’m gonna tell you something fun that I do.
00:42:27 Diana Kander: Every single year on my birthday, I…
00:42:30 Diana Kander: take my age, yes, I am a little bit older than most of the people on this call, and I put a dot right in the middle of my age, and then I think.
00:42:42 Diana Kander: this is the new version of me, so I’m version 4.4, okay? And then I think about all of the features and benefits that version 4.4 has that previous versions didn’t have, okay? I create the space for me to say, what do I want to tinker with? What do I want to improve at? What skills
00:43:01 Diana Kander: and features do I want to develop?
00:43:04 Diana Kander: that I didn’t have in previous years. And just to give you a silly example, so my job is performing on big stages, okay? But I… I love that job. I want to get so much better at that job. So, one of the things that I…
00:43:22 Diana Kander: What I’m doing in version 4.4, is I hired this woman, who’s a beauty pageant consultant and a captain army.
00:43:30 Audio shared by Diana Kander: to teach me how to walk on stage. And I know that sounds really silly, but that’s what I’m talking about with tinkering time. It’s…
00:43:40 Audio shared by Diana Kander: How do you take those things that you love.
00:43:42 Diana Kander: and find fun, unique ways, kind of like Steph Curry did, to improve them even more. So…
00:43:51 Diana Kander: this is how I think about tinkering time. Think of something that you love. Just think of something you love so much that’s outside of studying or school. Can you, can you type it into the chat? Something that you love. Can you type it into the chat?
00:44:12 Diana Kander: Oh, you love acting and theater, and debating, and singing.
00:44:16 Diana Kander: Okay, let’s pick singing for a second, okay? Because every single one of the things that you’re picking, okay, we can tinker with it. Let’s say singing.
00:44:26 Diana Kander: How could you learn how to breathe better? How could you learn, how to hit new notes? How could you tinker with a thing that you love so much and take it to new levels? And I’m telling you.
00:44:40 Diana Kander: that whatever research project you’re working on is gonna be improved. Whatever you do in your career is gonna be better for the time that you invest in tinkering, because you can’t help but bring those skill sets into the thing that you do.
00:44:57 Diana Kander: Okay.
00:44:58 Diana Kander: Let’s talk about the last one.
00:45:00 Diana Kander: Which is pitting. Now, I heard a story in, 2018 that changed my life. The stories of the great Ormond Street Hospital for Kids, they treat…
00:45:11 Diana Kander: a bunch of kids each year, and in the 1990s, they were having a problem, because kids were having a successful surgery, and then something was going wrong in the transition to the ICU, so kids were losing their lives.
00:45:24 Diana Kander: Needlessly, okay? The transition was going poorly, and the hospital tried to fix this problem for nearly 10 years. For 10 years, they tried every single thing that they could, and they couldn’t figure it out.
00:45:36 Diana Kander: And to me, that is so indicative of how we get stuck in our own success and the way we believe things should be, okay? You’ve heard the phrase, think outside the box.
00:45:48 Diana Kander: But have you ever wondered, where does the box come from?
00:45:51 Diana Kander: It comes from everything that has worked for you, your entire life. We are…
00:45:56 Diana Kander: stuck in our own way of thinking, and it’s actually impossible to think outside the box by yourself, okay? So, one day, 10 years later.
00:46:06 Diana Kander: two surgeons in this hospital are watching TV, and this Formula 1 race comes on TV. Any Formula One fans in this…
00:46:15 Diana Kander: Yes?
00:46:16 Diana Kander: Okay, so even if you’re not a fan, you’ve seen the pit crews do their magical dance. It takes, like, a second, and the car races off.
00:46:24 Diana Kander: And the surgeons are watching this, and they’re like, man, I wonder if we could get a pit crew to come watch us do this transition, if they could help us figure out what we could be doing better. And people at the hospital were like, wow.
00:46:37 Diana Kander: that’s gotta be the worst idea anybody here has come up with. I mean, these people are mechanics, what do they know about a children’s hospital and what’s going on? And the surgeons were like, well, we’ve tried every single thing, so why don’t we try this mechanic thing?
00:46:52 Diana Kander: So they bring in the Ferrari Formula 1 pit crew, and they say, help us figure it out. The pit crew watches them over video, and then in person, and then they provide this report where they’re like, wow, your team is so terrible at this one thing.
00:47:09 Diana Kander: Because people are, like, plugging things in and unplugging them across each other, people are shouting directions across each other, there’s no order for how things are supposed to happen, there’s no person in charge of what’s supposed to happen. So, they outline all these things, give it back to the experts, the folks at the hospital address the issues.
00:47:27 Diana Kander: They reduce errors by 66%, And they save countless lives in the process.
00:47:35 Diana Kander: is amazing. It’s now used as a standard around the world of how this transition happens in children’s hospitals.
00:47:43 Diana Kander: Now, when I hear this story, I think about how when we’re faced with a difficult problem or a big goal, we say to ourselves, this what you’re saying at the beginning of this project.
00:47:56 Diana Kander: How can I do this? How can I put my head down? How can I work really hard? How can I accomplish this?
00:48:01 Diana Kander: And what I learned from this story is that the real question is, who can help me do this?
00:48:07 Diana Kander: How can I do this better with the help of others? Who can I talk to? And I became obsessed with this story.
00:48:15 Diana Kander: I started a mantra, that I called Never Goal Alone, and…
00:48:22 Diana Kander: I was like, okay, I’m gonna help companies put together pit crews, and I actually think everything we talk about, as I told you, is helpful professionally, but also personally. And so I said, I want to set an impossible goal for myself.
00:48:38 Diana Kander: And I want to see if a pit crew could help me. So, I set a goal of doing a pull-up. I was over 40 at the time, I’d never done a pull-up, and, I made a video, actually, of my…
00:48:52 Diana Kander: My first attempt at doing a pull-up
00:48:57 Diana Kander: I mean, it goes about as well as you can imagine. A first pull-up going, not very well.
00:49:03 Diana Kander: And a really helpful person on the internet, as helpful as Sana, said, that’s not even a pull-up.
00:49:11 Diana Kander: That’s a chin-up, and I didn’t even do that correctly.
00:49:15 Diana Kander: So, I was like, I need a really big pit crew to help me make that happen. So, I posted this on Instagram, I said, hey, I want to go from zero pull-ups to one pull-up, who can help me do this?
00:49:28 Diana Kander: And a bunch of people replied. Turns out this is, like, a secret goal of a lot of women out there who are like, we’ll do it with you. And, we started a chat on Instagram, it’s like, we’re gonna do it, and we posted inspirational things to each other.
00:49:46 Diana Kander: And, we posted, like, what exercises we were doing. It was awesome, very supportive, but you know what the problem was? None of us could do a pull-up. That’s the only problem.
00:49:57 Diana Kander: So, I found this woman on the internet, her name is Major Misty Posey, and she’s in the Marine Corps, and she wrote a master’s thesis on how every woman in the Marine Corps should be doing pull-ups, because women are
00:50:11 Diana Kander: fully capable of doing pull-ups, but we don’t teach them how to do them correctly. And I called her up, and I begged her, I was like, please, please, it’s me and 35 women on Instagram.
00:50:24 Diana Kander: No, we’re not in the military, we’re just like…
00:50:27 Diana Kander: people, yeah, civilians, and yeah, we wanted to do just one, just one pull-up, and she was like, yeah, this is not my job. And I was like, please, please help us, and she was like, okay.
00:50:37 Diana Kander: I’m gonna help you do this. So, I had my group of women to help support me, I had Misty Posey, and then, I was ready to do pull-ups, and I got cancer.
00:50:51 Diana Kander: Which is actually what happens in life. As soon as you set a big goal, some crazy thing happens in your life.
00:50:58 Diana Kander: That kind of knocks it, off-kilter. And all of a sudden, things became very complicated.
00:51:04 Diana Kander: This is my job, I do it on a stage, and these pictures were actually taken same day, so I go and I give energy and ideas to other people, and then I would go to the hospital and do depressing cancer things. And I decided I was gonna have one thing that I remained in
00:51:20 Diana Kander: control of, and I said, okay, before my cancer surgery, I’m gonna see how many pull-ups I can do. This is the one thing I’m gonna focus on, using my pit crew to help me, and
00:51:34 Diana Kander: Oop?
00:51:37 Diana Kander: This is the video I made. This is the day before I went in for cancer surgery.
00:51:43 Diana Kander: Actual pull-up this time, as you can see.
00:51:46 Diana Kander: Huh? Not bad, guys, right?
00:51:49 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Three.
00:51:50 Diana Kander: Pretty good.
00:51:51 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Thank you.
00:51:53 Diana Kander: Yes, I’m…
00:51:55 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Serious.
00:51:57 Diana Kander: You guys, the rest of the presentation is you just watching to see how many pull-ups I can now do.
00:52:02 Audio shared by Diana Kander: 8.
00:52:07 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Nice.
00:52:08 Diana Kander: Can I do it?
00:52:08 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Come on, can I do it? Come on, come on, get it! Give it!
00:52:12 Audio shared by Diana Kander: Get it? Get it! Get it! 10! 10!
00:52:16 Diana Kander: Can you believe that?
00:52:17 Diana Kander: I know. This is what I wore to my surgery the next day.
00:52:21 Diana Kander: Pretty great, yes. This is me in the waiting room. I don’t know if you can see me. There I am. Nobody else had a costume on. I look pretty strong.
00:52:29 Diana Kander: You know?
00:52:30 Diana Kander: But the truth is, the strongest thing that I’ve ever done was not the costume, and it wasn’t even the pull-ups. The strongest thing that I have ever done was choosing not to do it by myself. And as you’re working on this big project, or maybe you’re just trying to hold it together through something hard in your own life.
00:52:49 Diana Kander: Either way, what I want you to remember is that it works best if you don’t
00:52:54 Diana Kander: stay strong by yourself. Whatever goal you’re chasing, whatever weight you’re carrying, whatever version of pull-ups before surgery you’re living through right now.
00:53:04 Diana Kander: I just want you to choose your pit crew, Let them in.
00:53:09 Diana Kander: And never go alone.
00:53:14 Diana Kander: Alright, folks.
00:53:16 Diana Kander: Can you think of something in your life that you could use a pit crew to help you with?
00:53:25 Diana Kander: Can you think of something in your life Yes! That’s excellent.
00:53:32 Diana Kander: And as you do, can we do some Q&A? Can we get ready to do our Q&A? You can go to the questions
00:53:40 Diana Kander: part of the chat, if you have any questions, I’ll stop sharing.
00:53:49 Diana Kander: Alrighty. What’s up, Maya?
00:53:50 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): First question is, how can you reach out to friends who may have skill sets in new fields that you want to try?
00:53:57 Diana Kander: Yes, I think just don’t be scared. You would be… you’ll be so surprised. Like, maybe not the first person says yes, but if you ask enough people, you’ll be shocked at how many people want to talk and want to help.
00:54:10 Diana Kander: And I believe that when you’re a student, you have a golden ticket to call people and say, I’m a student, they’re so much more willing to talk to you than they will be when you’re an adult.
00:54:23 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Yeah, that’s awesome advice. Our next question is, how do you prioritize which activities you want to tinker in? And how do you think about new fields if you haven’t been exposed to them yet?
00:54:35 Diana Kander: Yes, I think you have to keep your main goal front and center, so whatever the big overarching goal is in your life, and then for tinkering, it’s like, what would be fun for me to play around with? I mentioned playing around with AI software or Canva in hopes of it supporting that one big goal.
00:54:55 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): That’s awesome. And then, I think we have time for about 2 more questions. One of the questions that came in is, when thinking about how to stay curious, how do you avoid that fear of failure from developing when the risks continue to get higher?
00:55:10 Diana Kander: Yeah, they’re gonna get higher and higher. The more successful you are, the harder it hurts when you fall. However, I just want you to remember from our time together, it is when you create that space and you give yourself permission to be curious that your biggest growth
00:55:23 Diana Kander: Happens, and most adults stop growing because that fear becomes too much, and they no longer create the space.
00:55:31 Diana Kander: Think about how often in your life you get nervous, where failure is an option. You’re playing sports, or you’re performing something on a stage. I’m telling you right now, most adults don’t have that feeling in their life, because they’ve engineered their life not to. And that’s where all of our growth comes from.
00:55:48 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): That’s awesome advice. And then what advice would you give students who are naturally curious, but afraid of asking the wrong question?
00:55:56 Diana Kander: oh, you just… you gotta be okay with sounding like a fool. In fact, you can say ahead of time, like, I don’t know if this is a dumb question, but I’m curious about it. And most of the time, your dumb questions will open up, like, connections and new pathways that you never thought possible.
00:56:16 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): Amazing
00:56:17 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): And then our last question is, when thinking about how to get out of the box, what are ways or strategies that you’ve created small tasks to meet that bigger goal?
00:56:27 Diana Kander: Yeah, remember that you can’t think outside the box by yourself. You need somebody to pull you out. So, when I’m at…
00:56:35 Diana Kander: when I’m trying to do something I’ve never done before, I know I have blind spots, and I know there are other people who can help me think through this. So, the very first thing that I do is think, never go alone. And who can I talk to? And they’re gonna send…
00:56:48 Diana Kander: me on a path, it’s like a scavenger hunt. They’re gonna give me ideas, I’m gonna go talk to other people, they’re gonna give me ideas. Never goal alone. If you’ve never done it, then you have no idea how to do it.
00:57:02 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): I absolutely love that advice. Diana, thank you so much for joining us. This has been truly tremendous. To all of our attendees, please join me in thanking Diana for her amazing presentation by using that clap hands feature, also commenting in the chat.
00:57:18 Maya El-Sharif (Pioneer Academics): We will have a program fair at 10.30am and a college fair at 11.30am that we hope you all join. Please continue to connect with Diana’s work, read her book, amazing advice in there for all of you. And Ryan will be our moderator for our next event, so he’ll join you in the next room. Bye, everybody!
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Thank you for your interest in Pioneer’s Global Problem-Solving Institute (GPSI). The application for the Fall 2025 terms is now available. Please select your country/region below:
