I invite students to share a story with me and turn them into YouTube videos.

Without their stories told, these students will stay nameless data points, measured against sterile metrics, then conveniently classified as a success or failure. With their stories told, we see a spirit, unique to mankind, that takes us out of disasters and therefore frees us, from being imprisoned by heredity and environment. Such is the triumph of the human spirit, and such triumph cannot be captured by metrics but stories.

By learning each other’s stories, we become more than an ID number, saved in a database, categorized by labels, and evaluated by sterile metrics. We can now feel the heartbeats in one and another. After all, understanding comes from not only an analytical mind, but also a sentient heart.