Hello there, my name is Aaron Zeiler and I just wanted to talk to you a bit about my experience as a Corel fellow. So the Corel Fellowship gave me an opportunity to really think about what inspires me, what I’m passionate about and why I am who I am. So today I wanted to introduce you to someone that had a big role in who I am today and that’s my grandfather, but I call him Papa. So growing up with a single mom was really hard, but my Papa was always like a dad to me. He was my hero and he was my best friend and we would do everything together. For example, sometimes before church we would go and get ICs even though my mom didn’t want us to. Now I’m still convinced that every good Lutheran deserves a blue raspberry IC before 8AM service, but that’s besides the point. What I’m trying to get at is that my Papa knew everything and he always told me not to smoke and he’d always tell me about all the terrible side effects of smoking because when he was around my age he started smoking and he kept smoking until my mom and my aunt came to him and said, Daddy, we don’t want you to die. So we stopped and I never saw him smoking when I was growing up. However, 10 years ago this month my Papa was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Starting with Valentine’s Day we spent every other holiday in the hospital as the cancer spread, stopped and then spread again. And on December 19th, 2006 I lost my best friend. This moment in my life makes me angry. I’m angry because Big Tobacco would want me to look at that picture and think what happened to my grandfather was just unfortunate. That I should start smoking because that’s what the celebrities do. That I should replace him. I fit their target audience perfectly. 95% of smokers start smoking before the age of 21 and I’m 20. Not to mention I come from a family with a history of tobacco use. But I want Big Tobacco to know that I am not a replacement. So ignore this embarrassing picture. So when I was interviewed by Max, Andy and Elizabeth, I never told them this story about Papa. So it was really a blessing that I got placed at the campaign for tobacco free kids. I finally had a chance to channel my passion and what I was feeling into something that was really meaningful. And so just to take a step back, the campaign for tobacco free kids has three goals that they go after. One is to promote smoke free laws. Two, they want to increase taxes on tobacco. And three, I’m sorry. Three they want to, sorry, I’m having a Rick Perry moment. They want to support tobacco cessation and prevention programs. And so when I first went to the campaign for tobacco free kids, I barely knew how to tweet. God forbid someone asked me how to spell tobacco. It’s one bee and two seas, right? Okay, good. So Vince, Mina, John and the entire team at the campaign for tobacco free kids taught me about strategy that I couldn’t learn in a classroom. I learned that some of life can be completely planned. However, some parts of life are just unexpected. So on the planned side, you have the youth advocacy symposium. Every year about 30 youth from around the United States come to DC to talk about programs that they’re doing in their communities and discuss ideas that they can take back to their communities. And I had the honor of writing their press releases. And I was surprised at how many of them had stories just like mine. With sick or dying family members. And I was inspired at how they had such a passion for tobacco control at such a young age. Now, on the more unexpected side, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was caught lobbying for tobacco companies around the world. Including helping Philip Morris International sue entire countries in international court. Now I saw the international communications team come to life. It seemed like a matter of seconds. They were sending stories and collecting reports. And it was just overwhelming at points. But one day I came in, sat down at my computer, started looking up reporters on Cision. And an hour later I was protesting outside the Chamber of Commerce with Jeff the disease lung. You might recognize him from John Oliver. However, what surprised me most is how big tobacco companies target youth with their advertisements. The campaign for tobacco free kids looks for advertisements like these to see how tobacco companies are selling their deadly products. Now this is one of the issues with big tobacco. They use friends and selfies to target kids. They’ll even use Star Wars and studying. I mean that’s ridiculous. If you go outside the United States, they can use commercials, events and parties to sell their products. This is an example from Philip Morris International who told kids, don’t be a maybe, be a Marlboro. I mean they know that most kids start smoking before 18. Why not tell them they’re nothing without cigarettes? Now fortunately commercials like these aren’t allowed in the United States. But the same regulations need to be put on vape pens and e-cigarettes which use flavors like gummy bear and Captain Crunch. So starting to wrap up, I want to thank the campaign for tobacco free kids for teaching me how to make this meaningful policy. I’ve learned that it’s my job to tell these stories and to make this policy change so that we can have our first tobacco free generation. And I also learned that without communications, social change wouldn’t happen. It would be a bunch of really passionate people sitting around a table talking about change. So I would like to thank John, Mina, Vince and the entire team at the campaign for tobacco free kids for teaching me how to control my passion into something that I can be proud of. I’d like to thank my mom and my nani for always supporting me. And I’d like to thank my papa for making me the man who I am today. Thank you.