I’ve always loved jigsaw puzzles. The larger and more complex, the better. I love finding the right piece. Because when you find just the right piece, it clicks into place. You can feel the click at the tips of your fingers. You hear the sound of cardboard snapping into cardboard, and you get a little rush. Puzzles, of course, are a metaphor. They’re used to describe conundrums, life’s difficult questions. They’re used to describe life itself. Because this frank conference is all about stories and lived experiences. And because today is about imagining the future, I am going to tell you the story of a student piecing together his own puzzle and his vision for a better world. And I do have to say that I got permission from the student to tell his story. I worked closely with him to ensure that he is comfortable with everything that I’m saying and that his story is accurately represented. Last year was my first year here at the University of Florida, and I had in my public interest communications class a student named Nicholas. And Nicholas was really engaged. He always participated in discussions. He seemed really excited about the material. The project that we had that semester, the class project, was to help a Los Angeles climate activist solve a particular communications problem. Now, I told the students, if you can find a solution to this problem, you will help make a dent in one of the world’s biggest, thorniest issues. Now the climate activist, his problem was that he was trying to get the city of Los Angeles to enforce its ban on gas powered leaf blowers. Now, when I presented this project to the class, the disappointment was palpable, even though all I could see were eyes above masks. We have to work on leaf blowers. I could tell that’s what they were thinking. I said, no, no, this is about much more than just leaf blowers. This is about climate crisis and finding a solution. Gas powered leaf blowers emit tons of smog forming pollutants that heat the planet. While some students started getting interested, Nicholas, he dived into the project with gusto. And I believe that his enthusiasm inspired his team, and they came up with a really creative campaign. And Nicholas designed this graphic, which I thought was so clever and captures the LA vibe. He really poured himself into the project. Sometimes you have to hunt for the right puzzle piece. Other times you just grab a piece and snap it in, and it fits. And you get that satisfying click. Nicholas is from Tampa. He identifies as Hispanic, black, and LGBTQ. His grandparents were from the Dominican Republic. His parents grew up in New York. They went to college. They have great jobs and earn a good living. Nicholas told me he feels privileged because he never went without. He wasn’t housing insecure or food insecure. And he said he feels an obligation to give back. Ever since he came to the University of Florida, he has been searching for a career path where he can do good in the world. Now, at first, he thought that he would do that by going into government. And in 2019, when he went to register for classes as a freshman, he was hovering over political science major, and he hesitated. He thought about what the government was doing with immigration policy. And he decided, government, that’s not for me. As he looked and he saw the majors, he saw nearby public relations. So he opened that link. And he saw that in the public relations major, you can learn all about communication strategy, social media, planning, all kinds of exciting things. And he decided to major in public relations. He grabbed the puzzle piece and it fit. So he started taking public relations classes. But he felt something still was missing. The puzzle was not complete. He asked around, he said, is there a class where you can learn how to use communications to do good in the world, to help social justice causes? Well, our department chair steered him towards my public interest communications class. And he signed up. He said, the first day of class was like a puzzle piece, clicking into place. He said, I felt like I was in the right place. I knew this is what I wanted to do in the future. And when the course ended, his quest continued. He decided to go for a master’s degree with a concentration in public interest communications. So now he is finishing up his bachelor’s while simultaneously working on his master’s. He is one of about 100 students in our online program, getting a master’s with a concentration in public interest communications. And Nicholas’s goal is to work in education reform. He wants everybody to be able to go to college the way he has gone. He is not waited for graduation, though, to do good in the world. He has been in leadership in several student organizations. And he tutors children and math, pre algebra and geometry. In fact, right now, even with all that he has going on, he is tutoring for students. Nicholas is exactly who we need in the public interest communications field. Now, like many, he has not been immune to hurtful experiences, experiences based on who he is. He’s been followed by salespeople in stores and had his bags checked. He got the talk from his father about how you need to dress up when you go out. So you’re not profiled. As he said, when you have that lived experience, it gives you the ability to connect. And because you had to deal with your own pain and traumas, you can relate to what people are going through. When Nicholas is here today, Nicholas, would you like to say hello to everyone? Hey there, Frank community. Awesome. Thank you. When you start a puzzle, you have a lot of blank space. As you work the puzzle, you focus very intently on certain sections. But every so often you pull back and you look at how the puzzle pieces have fallen into place. My first career was as a newspaper reporter. I did that for 10 years. And then I went into advocacy communications. And when I made the switch, I realized I could have much more of an impact doing the advocacy communications than I had as a reporter. Rather than being one person writing one story that showed up in one newspaper, I was writing words that went to hundreds of reporters and showed up sometimes in hundreds of publications. I was having an impact on the conversation at many levels. The puzzle of my life grew. The pieces fell into place. Now here I am at the University of Florida. And I continue to feel that satisfying click. Here I realize I can have an even bigger impact rather than being one person working in communications in one organization. Hopefully I can inspire many students to go into the field. Just imagine many students talented like Nicholas going into public interest communications and all the good they could do. My task here is to further build on the curriculum that Anne Cristiano helped create and to help spread public interest communications to colleges and universities around the country. Imagine public interest communications being offered as a major, much like journalism or public relations. Imagine wave after wave of students throughout the country graduating year after year going to work in the fields working on our hardest problems. Imagine those students coming from an array of backgrounds and cultures and having an array of experiences. We need that. We need them so that we can build the movements to address our thorneous problems. To that end, I am working with faculty from more than half a dozen institutions around the country who have interest in public interest communications. They’ve started public interest communications. They want to build programs. Those include the University of Washington, Howard University, Sonoma State, Auburn University, Appalachian State University, University of Houston, University of Texas, and University of Massachusetts at Boston. We are planning a summer event in June where faculty from around the country can come and bring their curriculum. We can help workshop it, provide resources on public interest communications. We also want to identify research needs in the field and talk about how to build a pipeline so we have many more researchers and academics going into the field. We also want to talk to practitioners and figure out how we can connect with you so that we can ensure the good work being done at universities can help you in the fields. And we are focused on ensuring from the start that our field is diverse and includes people with many experiences as we grow. Now, we are building this field, but we are just beginning and this will take a lot of help and good ides and energy. We need your help. So if you would like to join us, please, please do let me know. And if you’re interested in inspiring students, I would encourage you to be an adjunct professor. It is a tremendously rewarding experience to work with students. I want to thank Nicholas again for allowing me to share his story. We as public interest communicators are working on a large and complex puzzle whose shape and size change daily as the world is shifting. This puzzle has no borders. There are edges. It is as limitless as the challenge of getting progress on these difficult issues. Since world we wish existed. Thank you.