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Everyone has the potential to change the world. Finding the spark to become a changemaker can start with connecting with those who are already leading the charge.
On Colorado State University’s newest podcast, President Amy Parsons connects with CSU community members who deeply care about our collective future. Our conversations draw parallels between our guests' exceptional work and CSU's 150+ years of world-shaping achievements. With no topic off-limit, every guest opens up about their life, shares how they are making the world a brighter place and provides helpful advice they’ve learned along the way.
So, whether you’re a long-time CSU Rams fan or just discovering Colorado State University, it’s time to hit play, get inspired, and find your energy to help shape our next 150 years. Go Rams!
(soft music)
- Hi, I'm Amy Parsons,
President of Colorado State University
and host of "The Next 150" podcast.
We have so many remarkable
people in our community,
and this is where we're
going to hear their stories.
We're going to get their perspectives
on CSU's next 150 years
and gather their very best
advice for today's CSU students.
Let's get started, Rams.
Hi again, everybody,
and welcome back to another
episode of "The Next 150."
I am thrilled to have our
guest here with us today,
none other than our own Eugene Daniels.
Welcome to the studio, Eugene.
Thanks for being here.
- Thanks for having me.
- Now, everybody knows Eugene,
but he is the President
of the White House
Correspondents' Association,
which is an amazing honor.
I mean, that's really a
testament to the respect
that your peer journalists have for you,
and congratulations on that.
And he's also the co-host
of MSNBC's "Weekend,"
which is an amazing show
on Saturday and Sunday.
And Eugene has really had
a groundbreaking career
with Politico.
He really helps us not
just understand the news,
but helps us to care about it,
make sense of what's going on.
And of course, Eugene is also a proud Ram,
which is what brings him
back to campus today.
He's here to be our commencement speaker
at our all-university
graduation in Canvas Stadium.
So we're super excited to
have him back on campus, so.
- Excited to be here.
- Thanks for being here.
- Thank you.
- You know, I saw a picture of you
yesterday-
- Oh God!
- Of your graduation at Moby Arena,
walking across the stage.
And I was thinking about
what a journey you have had
from your own graduation at CSU
all the way to being here now
about to address all of the students
in the football stadium
at that graduation.
How does that feel to you to be here?
- No pressure.
(Amy laughs)
It feels really good.
- Did we tell you it's like 35,000 people
in the stadium, yeah.
- Yeah, I heard, heard.
I think it is such a testament
to the great work that CSU does
when the students are here, right?
Because there's no world
in which I'm able to host a show
or be president of any association
or any of the things that
I've been able to do.
And since I've been here,
13 years ago is when
I graduated this week,
without all of the great professors,
some of them who are still here,
who I've been seeing around.
- I know.
13 years isn't that long,
by the way. (laughs)
- It feels so long.
- It's been a little longer for me.
I'm an alum too.
- So long.
- We did not overlap.
- No, no.
But it is being able to get on stage
and talk to the students, I
remember what that was like.
I remember sitting in that seat
and so, you know, coming back
and being able to try to honor them
and the work that they've done
and give a speech
that matches the kind of
work that they put into it
is exciting.
And I just love, I mean, I love FoCo.
Like, Fort Collins has been,
I come back quite a bit when
I come here to Colorado.
A lot has changed, a lot
hasn't, which is good,
because it still feels like home.
It still feels small town
with a big university,
all the things that brought me to CSU.
- Yeah, that's what we
love about it, right?
I mean, some of the things stay the same,
like the Oval and the vibe
and, you know, the
friendliness of the place,
but it also grows and expands
and changes with the times.
- Exactly.
- I know that our students are
gonna love hearing from you.
- I hope so.
- I've got a couple random
questions for you, so,
pick a little chip out of there
and then that'll tell us what to ask next.
- Let's do this one, okay.
Number two.
- Yes, I was hoping you
would pick that one.
So when you were here as a student,
you were in like student media
and you had your own little
TV show, "Daniels After Dark."
It sounds a little bit
like a dating show, right?
"Daniels After Dark."
So if you could come back
and do your show over again at CSU,
who would you wanna have as a guest?
- Okay, so "Daniels After Dark,"
we did like part, like jokey thing,
like a monologue from like a Jimmy Fallon-
- Like Late Night?
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
- But then we did kind
of like an interview
that we usually tried to talk
to someone in the community
who was doing big things.
So it would be that.
The first that comes to
mind would be like Oprah,
Beyonce, President Parsons.
- Hey man.
Oh yeah, thanks for putting
me in that category,
appreciate you.
- But, you know, the
focus was so in that CTV
was such a focus on the community.
And so I would do the exact same thing
that we did is grab a student
that was doing something
really interesting.
Someone who was
representing an organization
that was here on campus.
Someone who did something
fascinating in the community.
And we would do them
'cause that's what CTV
and all of that was all about.
"Daniels After Dark," man.
- "Daniels After Dark," I love it,
did you come up with that title yourself?
- No, no, the producers did.
They were very smart
and we could not figure
out what to call it.
At one point it was just like
"The Eugene Daniels Show"
and then it was like three
o'clock in the morning
and we were all there
maybe a little drunk,
and they go "Daniels After Dark."
And we were like, "That's it!"
- That's it!
- That's it!
- From "Daniels After Dark"
to MSNBC "Weekend," you know.
- Normally, that's exactly how it works.
- Very, very like straight line.
Let's talk about how you came
to CSU in the first place
'cause you came for football, right?
You came, you were a
defensive lineman, I think?
- Yeah, I was defensive end.
Number 61.
- Number 61.
So talk about that, your journey to CSU
and your journey through
football that brought you here.
- Yeah, so I played football
in high school in Texas,
so very serious high school football.
- Serious business, yeah.
- I had 10 Division I
offers to play football
and I came to CSU.
CSU was the second school
that I came to visit.
Sonny Lubick was still the coach.
I came here
and the community that
they had built on the team,
the community here that
supported not just the team
but the university
and kind of just the feeling of it was,
it was like, "Oh,"
I was like, "This is what
I'm looking for," right?
And at the time, they hadn't
been that good as a team.
So it wasn't even that, like,
"I wanna be on a team that's
gonna win everything."
It was like, "I wanna be at
a place that made me feel,"
like I said, "Small town vibes."
A little bit of a familial
situation happening.
And that's exactly what
I ended up getting.
And I'll never forget when me and my mom
were here on our visit, we realized,
I was like, "I don't
have, I feel like I don't,
I'm not gonna look good enough."
She took me to the mall,
which I think is somewhere,
went to the mall.
- There is a mall over there, yeah, yeah.
- And went shopping
so I could try to
impress the coaches, but-
- No kidding.
- But it was, you know,
the thing with football
is I still lean into
some of the teachings,
which is being on a team
and everyone rowing in the same boat.
Because now I'm in kind
of like this leadership
position on our team.
Me, my other two co-anchors
and our executive producer
are like the captains.
And then we have like 24
other people who are producers
and, you know, APs and doing all of like,
a lot of the yeoman's work.
And they're never seen.
And so, like, it always reminded me
to create an environment
of any team that I'm on
where we're rowing in the same direction,
everyone feels bought in.
And that's kind of what
I have always taken
from my football experience here.
- Well, and football and athletics
provide such a great path
for students into college.
Right?
And I mean, you're a
great example of that.
Football's what brought you in,
but the leadership lessons that you learn
and, you know, you and
I have that in common
'cause Sonny Lubick was the
coach when I was here as well.
And he was great at
creating that atmosphere
that brought in great players
because they want to be here.
And I think now with the transfer portal,
there's students moving around a lot more.
- Yeah, yep.
- So that's really important
what you said about go to the place
where you have that home
and where you can succeed academically.
- Yeah, the thing that Sonny told us
is that he would bring in
people who were good kids
and work to turn them into
great football players
and not the other way around.
And so, we had the entire freshman class
that came in with us, even
not just on the football team,
all of the athletes that came in,
all of us were close and we hung out.
And especially when
you're doing two-a-days
you're the only people on
campus for a little while,
it really did create this
place where you felt safe,
you felt like you had a
connection with people.
And then when it's time
to knock some heads,
like, that was also the exciting part.
- Let's do it, yeah, absolutely.
- I'll never forget, I did
not understand the CU/CSU
like rivalry when I first got here,
I wasn't from Colorado.
And so everyone was like
explaining it to us.
We had some former players come,
they like talked us up
in a meeting everywhere.
I was like, "This is not,"
I'm not gonna be like,
"I don't understand this.
They're just another school."
We were at Invesco, I don't
know what it's called anymore.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- At Invesco Field, playing-
- Empower at the Mile Stadium, yeah.
- And they walked by and I was like, "Ah!"
I was like, so like, it was
because we had spent weeks,
like, creating this world
in which we were a family.
And it was like, "Oh, you're
messing with my family.
We have an issue."
And so to this day-
- Those rivalries are important.
- They're very important.
- They are very important.
- They are, they are.
- And, you know,
if we can stick with
that theme for a minute,
I think that they're not
just important to the team,
they're important to the
fandom of college sports
and you know, we talk
here a lot about democracy
and how important it is that
we're producing students
who are ready to engage in democracy.
And I think that being
involved in college sports
actually really contributes to that
because you look up in the stands
of who's cheering on the
players in the field,
it doesn't matter your background,
it doesn't matter your
politics, your ideology,
in that moment, you are all united.
- Yeah, there's something-
- In the fandom.
- Exactly, there's something
that brings everyone together
and there's like this
foundation of support
for something, right?
- Yeah.
- Not just being against CU,
but also, you know, really
supporting the team.
And I think that that's
such a good connection there
to how you can extrapolate that
to being a good steward of democracy.
- Yeah, and you see it in the students
to carry forward when they graduate,
but you see it in the fans as well.
- Yeah.
- Every age,
everybody in there, it cuts
across all differences.
And people pulling for that.
We need that today.
- Yeah, yeah, 100%.
- Right, like more than ever.
And so I think sports,
sports in America and college sports,
it's unique to us and
it's uniquely important.
So I love that that's where you come from
and that's the perspective
that you carry through and what you do.
And you know, take us back to, you know,
you were sidelined with an
injury in your football career,
started really getting into journalism.
- Yeah, yeah.
- How did that happen
when you were a student?
- So I wanted, when I came here,
I was going to be a lawyer
and then a politician.
And that was like my focus.
And that was the focus that I had as a kid
even when I was a kid
and people were like,
"Don't you wanna be a jet pilot
or be in the Army like your dad?"
And I was like, "No, I wanna be a lawyer
so I can yell at people in court."
And I was taking a class
called the Politics of
Special Interest Groups,
which they still have.
And the great thing about taking courses
and being in college is
you realize what you want,
perhaps you realize
maybe the kinds of things
you don't want to do.
- Yeah.
- And we had this lobbyist talking to us
and he was talking about
the kinds of things
that he had sometimes
convinced politicians to do
that kind of went against the things
that they said they believed.
And I just could not imagine
myself living in that world.
So I had like a very mini
panic attack at 20 years old
or 19, or whatever I was.
Left the class and I'd
taken one journalism course
and it was like called Media in Society,
it was like JTC 100.
And it was taught by Pam Jackson,
who is still here, she's back.
- Still here.
- She came to the White House
Correspondents' Dinner
with me because of this.
- I heard about that.
- I was in her office and we hit it off.
She wasn't actually my advisor
'cause I wasn't a journalism student.
But we'd hit it off.
And I said, "I don't
know what I'm gonna do.
I had spent my entire life
going with this one goal."
And she said, and I was like,
"I was gonna be a politician.
I was gonna be the first Black president."
Well, that work didn't work out for sure.
But she looked at me very calmly
and said, "Maybe you don't
wanna be a powerful person,
maybe you wanna hold
powerful people accountable."
And it clicked, like,
that changed everything.
It made me, it put me on my
path to being a reporter,
it made me obsessed with
journalism and student media.
And I went to student media,
and along with "Daniels After Dark,"
I swear I did other
things at student media.
And I did CTV and I did the Collegian
and College Avenue and KCSU.
- Wow.
- And I was also reminded that I was on,
I also sold some ads at one point
'cause I was thinking about selling ads.
And so, CSU has created,
and you guys have continued this world
in which students are allowed
to put their hands on a
camera, get a notepad,
take a podcast mic, and
run out and go, right.
And like, had I not had that,
had Pam not said what she said,
and I didn't have student media,
I would not be a reporter today.
I would not be hosting a show today
because there was, you
know, you take the classes
and I loved the classes,
I will say some of the
professors reminded me
sometimes I missed a few
because I was at student media so much.
But you learned the
fundamentals in the class,
but you learned the practical aspect of it
when you were in the actual student media
and you had to just go and do it.
And it helps.
And I'm glad that CSU has continued,
I assume will always continue that.
- Yeah.
- Because students need that.
They need to be able to have
their hands on the thing
that they're gonna be
doing in a few years.
Otherwise, you won't know.
The people that I was
in student media with,
they are still, many of them
are still being reporters.
The folks that were in just the classes
and didn't do student media,
they didn't know what
they were getting into
when they got into it.
And so when they got there,
they were like, "Wait a second.
I didn't know it was like this."
But because we did student media,
we knew what we were expecting
and it just changed my life.
- Man.
You just beautifully encapsulated
so much about the value of being at CSU.
Faculty who are invested
in you, who, you know,
take the time to understand who you are
and give you advice to
put you on the right path,
that's so important.
And to have that mentor.
And I love that you took her
to the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
- I emailed her, and I was like,
"This is so weird,
but will you come to the White
House Correspondents' Dinner,
this is, I'm the president."
She's like, "I know you're the president."
And she came and my family
got to meet this woman
who I'd been talking to or
talking about since I graduated.
And so, it was very lovely,
it was really lovely.
- That is amazing.
And I'm sure just so gratifying for her
to see what you've become.
And you're right,
that practical application,
that's what we're all about.
And the exploration,
finding things you wanna do,
finding things you
definitely don't wanna do,
and so when you're ready
to hit the ground running,
you're ready.
- Exactly.
- Journalism is an area, though,
that keeps changing, different mediums,
you know, I mean, how you're
communicating with people,
how people consume the news
and understand the world.
So, you know, would you encourage students
to go into that area now?
- Oh my God, yes.
So I believe deeply,
and I learned this belief here,
that every person in this country
and around the world deserves
someone paying attention
to their elected leaders.
They deserve someone who is
telling stories for people
who can't tell those
stories for themselves.
And that's what journalism is about.
Those two things.
That's how I have always operated.
And it's hard, sometimes
it's scary, right?
Like, you see attacks on the
press, I've been attacked.
You get used to it
after a while, actually.
Shockingly.
But I still believe that a democracy
has to have a free press
and a strong free press
who is holding powerful people accountable
and asking them what they're doing
in the name of the voters
who put them there.
They're spending the money of the voters
who don't have a lot of money to spend.
And they're spending that money
and doing things in their
name and on their dime,
and it's important for
reporters to be there,
to hold them accountable.
And that's on the national
level where I'm at,
which is great and it's
hard work and it's a tussle.
It's fun, but also on the local level.
I was with some CTV students today
and we were talking about, you know,
what are they doing next?
And they're like, "I want to go national."
I said, "Go local.
Because one, you get to make
a lot of mistakes on local
that you cannot make
on the national level.
But the people on the local level
also deserve for the
mayor, the city council,
the county commissioners
to have eyes on them."
And the way that journalism is changing,
which is so concerning,
is there's less and less spaces
and less and less jobs
where folks are doing that,
where they're focusing
on the local stories,
where they're holding the
local leaders accountable.
So that means that in our democracy,
there's corruption going
unfettered and unpaid attention to,
because of the jobs that have been lost.
Now, I say that to say,
you should still go and do the job
because it's fulfilling.
And I feel, it doesn't
feel like just a job,
it feels like it's a calling.
It surrounds me all the time.
It is a belief system.
And everyone that I
know that's still in it,
in journalism for the right reasons,
they feel the exact same way.
And so I'd say, join us,
keep us accountable, make us tougher,
and then teach us also
because there's so many
new things happening
that the kids gotta teach us how to do it.
- Yeah.
Well, I mean, you're in
a fascinating position
to have a front row
seat to what's going on,
a front row seat to democracy.
And I personally worry
that a lot of our students
are gonna be turned off
from going into politics
and journalism right now
because it is so polarized.
So what would you say to
them who are, you know,
I worry about our best and
brightest not going into politics
and we need 'em to be
doing that more than ever.
- Yeah, the reason that
it's been so polarized
and that the incentive structure is off
in a lot of our politics
is because we're losing
good people, right?
There are a lot of good people
from both sides of the aisle
who have been in Washington D.C.,
whether for a long time or they popped in
because they wanted to
be a member of Congress
and they wanted to make a difference.
And the incentive structure is so off
that they were like, "I'm not doing this."
But what we need is people to
say, "No, I'm here to fix it.
I'm coming here to help make this better."
And so, for the students
that want to continue
to be a politician or that had that dream,
and now it seems a little off
because of what is going on
and what they see in the media
and what they hear from
the leaders themselves,
you can be better, you can be different.
And I think one of the things
that is like constantly on my mind
when I talk to young people is like,
"Be better than we were."
Be better
'cause our hope was that we were better
than the folks that came before us.
So my hope for them is go in,
actually make the change.
If you want it bad enough,
get the coalition together, fix the thing,
because this country deserves it.
And I think the voters
and the people that maybe
people don't even vote,
they're just here in this country,
need folks who will put
their neck on the line
and not see their families
to try to make this
country a better place.
And doing that is actually more,
you will feel better about yourself.
It'll be hard and it's tough.
But when I talk to politicians
who got in for the right reasons
and are staying for the right reasons,
they know that, they feel that.
And I think that's something
that folks should be able
to take from what I'm saying
and from what some of these
other politicians are saying.
Not everyone is going to be
a bomb thrower on my show
or come to fuss on CNN,
or something like that.
A lot of the members of
Congress are there to just work.
And like, there's still
opportunities to do that.
And there's also, just
like with journalism,
there's local politics which
is also just as important.
- Yeah, and those are the role models
that we want our students to see.
And what we're hoping that
they find those opportunities
when they're here at Colorado
State to work with people
who are very different from them,
who have very different perspectives,
different politics, come
from different places,
and they learn to open up their
ears and to listen to that,
it's okay to change
your mind about things,
it's okay to have different
opinions about things,
and work together to find solutions.
That's who we need to be
looking for right now,
so students know how to do that
when they get out of college.
- Well, like people,
when you're discussing something with,
pick a topic, any topic,
and you're having a
conversation with someone
who disagrees with you
or maybe grew up differently than you,
and so has a different
perspective, it makes you better.
If you think you really
believe that thing,
having someone try to poke holes in it
is actually a better training ground
than sitting around with a bunch of people
who believe it too, right?
Having someone say,
"Okay, but have you ever
thought about it like this?"
Or "Have you ever thought
about this community
who is actually impacted negatively
because of the thing that you believe?"
Or "What about the people
that we're not even thinking about
who never get a seat at the table,
never have a representative
that's backing them."
Those conversations are healthy.
- Yeah.
- And I, you know,
I'm very lucky that my
friends and my coworkers,
I'm just always surrounded by contrarians
and people who disagree with me
because it actually makes
when I go on television
and give my analysis,
I know that I've done,
I've been beat down by my friends
and my colleagues to actually say,
"Okay, is that actually what you believe?
Is that your read of
this situation, truly?"
- And people can't believe you in that
unless we know that you've done that.
- Exactly.
- And looked at all of
those different things.
So I'm curious, I mean,
it's a personal question,
but what you've learned about yourself
and your ability to
change and be open-minded
and learn about different
people's positions
from the time you started at
CSU to where you are today.
- Well, so much of it
happens in college, right?
Because when you're in high
school, you all either,
I was a military brat, so
we bounced around a lot
and everyone I went to school
with was a military brat.
But you basically have the
same background, right?
When you come to, especially
a place like Colorado State,
you will have people
from all over the place.
- All over the world, yeah.
- And so that forces you,
the second that you get here,
you meet somebody from a different country
that you've never, maybe
you've never even heard of.
Or someone from South Dakota,
which is where my husband's from.
But like, you know, I never met anyone
from South Dakota until I got to CSU.
And those kinds of things,
the eye-opening experiences you can have,
the conversations you can have,
the camaraderie, the fights, the tussling,
all of that is important in growing.
And so I think what I've
learned about myself
from just that whole time
is that to always be open
and to be curious and not judgemental.
And you know, I don't know
if you've seen "Ted Lasso,"
but there's an episode of
"Ted Lasso" where he says,
"There's just two types of people."
I think there are more types of people,
but the point is that there are,
you can be judgmental
or you can be curious.
- That's the dart-throwing up episode.
- Yes, the dart throwing!
Exactly, exactly.
- Yes, I know exactly the one.
- And so he says, you know,
"If you were curious about me,
you would know that I played
darts with my dad growing up."
And that's why he beat him.
And so it's the same concept, right?
Is that at the end of the day,
you can go through life judging people,
that's your prerogative, do you.
You can go through life saying,
thinking you're better than everyone,
or thinking that your ideas
are the only ones that are important,
or you can be curious.
And as a reporter, as a journalist,
I am always,
both implicitly and explicitly curious,
my mother likes to say I'm nosy,
but always wanting to know what's going on
in other people's heads,
why they do the things they do,
why they believe the
things that they believe.
And that was reinforced here,
especially in the journalism department,
which was going out and
talking to people, right?
And it wasn't even,
it wasn't about like go and force them
to prove what they believe,
it was ask them what they believe.
And nowadays, especially
when I go to a Trump rally,
or a Biden rally, or a Harris rally,
or, you know, I'm following
some random congressional candidate,
when I'm talking to their voters,
I've seen reporters
come and be judgemental.
And try to demand that
they defend the views
of the person that they support.
My job, I think, is to
come and be curious.
Ask them why they believe
the things they believe,
ask them if they've seen the things
that that person has been saying.
Because, and the interactions I've had
are always a little different
than the people who
come at it judgmentally
because all of us
basically just want someone
to say they see us.
Like, that's the whole,
that's, like, the one question
that we're all trying to
answer in life is like,
"Do you see me?
Does anybody see me?"
Because life can be very lonely.
And what I get to do in my job
is to see someone for 15, 20 minutes
that we're talking to them
and let them know that like
the thing that they believe,
it might be different than
what a lot of people believe,
but like, let's talk about it.
Let's see why you believe that.
What is the thing that is moving you?
And what you often find,
especially in our world
where there's like a lot of
hate, what's under that is fear.
When I'm talking to people
and they're talking about
folks that they hate
and they don't wanna see in this country,
or they don't wanna see in
their rooms or their bathrooms
or whatever, it is the
fear that is under that.
And so you can yell at them if you want,
if you're another voter and
not try to convince them.
But that's not gonna happen.
So if you can be curious and talk to them,
find some common ground,
and if you can't convince them,
then maybe you don't
know what you're doing.
Like, that is, I think,
like, it's so important
to be able to have conversation.
- Yeah, well, we can't
wait to see you do this
on your show on "The Weekend."
I mean, it's obvious why they
hired you to do this show.
- Thank you.
- And I am a little bit curious
about what your process is
when you're getting ready
for a big interview with
somebody who's really
important on that show
and how you prepare yourself
to bring that curiosity
and that openness to that
interview on national television.
- I'm very lucky, we have a great team.
And so we start on Wednesday,
well, we start earlier than that,
but, like, Wednesday when we
have like the first meeting
of, okay, what do we think
is gonna be on this show?
It's the senior producers,
the EP, and the anchors.
And a lot can change between
Wednesday and Saturday.
So it's very preliminary.
- Yeah, I bet.
- So it's more like,
what are the themes of this week?
Like, what are the things
that are on our mind?
Is there reporting that I have
that I wanna share on the show?
Is there a guest that I really want?
And we kind of just build it from there,
and it's my favorite
thing about journalism
is you like sit down in
front of a blank page
or like a rundown that's blank
and you just like fill it in.
And then people are allowed
to judge for themselves
and it's such a creative process
and terrifying at the same time
'cause now so many more
people are watching
than they were before.
And I think my own process
before I go on the show
is a lot of prep, like, I
spend a lot of time reading,
watching their interviews, right?
Because my goal is to get them
to say something they haven't said before,
which is very difficult with politicians.
- Yeah.
- And to ask it in a way
that gives an answer
that a person in their district deserves
to actually hear them
answer that question.
And I also like listen to music before
to kinda just like calm myself.
I sit down, I take a deep breath,
and then like we just get to do it.
And once you do all that prep,
and this is with every
job, you do all the prep,
and then when you actually
have to do the job,
it's actually just like fun.
There's three of us at a table,
we bring people in and out,
whether they're members of
Congress or advocates, activists,
and you get to have conversation.
And that is, I think my
favorite thing about our show
is it's three hours, which is a long time.
Three hours on Saturday,
three hours on Sunday,
(both laughing)
But you get to just talk.
And sometimes, and I
learned this here again,
is you have all the questions you want,
this is what I want to get to,
this is what I'm trying
to get this person to say,
so I'm demanding from
this member of Congress.
And then sometimes you
just have the conversation,
you're like, "Okay, well,
let's just allow the
conversation to happen."
I think that's been kind of most fun
is like watching the conversation
mold before your own eyes.
Because like, we had this plan,
this is where we wanted to go,
but oh my God,
they just said something so interesting,
so we're picking up on that.
And you go down that direction.
It's like a journey that you
get to kind of go on together.
- Wow, that's a really
amazing talent that you have
for doing that.
- Thank you.
- Obviously, one of
the best in the country
and best in the business.
And, you know, just know that
when you're on those shows,
Saturday, Sunday morning,
you got a lot of RAM fans
out here watching you
and cheering you on.
- Thank you.
- And we're so, so proud of you
and we're so happy that you're back here
to share your wisdom with our graduates.
They're gonna be so
inspired by your journey.
And I'm just personally
inspired by what you do
and it's just incredible. You continue
to invest in CSU students
and setting that example for them.
So just in closing,
and I don't wanna have a spoiler alert
with what you're gonna say
for your big speech tomorrow,
but, you know, students
are our priority here,
student success.
So what advice might you
share for the students,
either the graduates or the students
who are just starting
their journey at CSU?
- For every single one of them,
and for some of the older
folks who need to hear it too,
this is the kind of title of my speech.
The theme is,
you belong in every single
room you find yourself in.
And it's something that
my mother said to us
when we were kids,
which, when you're a kid,
you like have no idea what that means.
And then you start
finding yourself in rooms
and you're like,
"Oh wait, I know what
she was talking about.
She was talking about not
letting imposter syndrome stop me
from being in this room
and being my full self.
Whether that means nail
polish, high heels,
and a big afro like I
do, or just whatever."
And I think every student should know
that the rooms that you
think you want to be in
and that going to CSU is
going to allow you access to,
those rooms are not full
of these like Einsteins
all the time, right?
You are bringing something to that table,
that's why you're there.
And I think the more of
those rooms that I go in,
I'm like, "Oh, this is what
y'all were keeping us from?
This is why the door's closed?"
And so, like, to the
students, like be yourself.
Fully invest in who you are and
understand what your why is.
And when you have all of that,
you can go in any of these rooms,
you can go be a doctor,
you can be a lawyer,
you can go and, you know,
do something in agriculture.
There are all these jobs
out there in the world,
you can be a teacher, and
at the end of the day,
if you go in as your full self,
you can go to bed at night.
Right, like, that's how, like,
I came out at 27 well
after I left college.
And what I told myself
and how I've tried to live
is I will never be not me.
Like, I will never again try
to pretend to be someone else.
And the second that I did that,
my world opened, my head
had more space for work,
my head had more space for questions
that I wanted to ask members of Congress,
had more space for love for my family.
And once you do that,
that opens everything
and it kind of gives you like
a beautiful kind of path.
And, you know, I came out
and then I immediately
started interviewing
members of Congress and like,
just like things kind
of changed from there.
And it's not, and I see
those as very connected
and I was able to do that
because I was reminded all the time
that you belong in every single
room you find yourself in,
you belong,
you deserve to come to
the table as you are.
And if you don't,
if the table doesn't want
you, go somewhere else,
that's okay.
Not every table is for you,
not every room is for you.
Not everybody deserves the
pleasure of your company.
You know?
- That's true.
- Not everybody deserves you.
Not everyone's gonna get
you, and that's okay.
And I think the thing that I got from CSU
was the kind of wherewithal to say,
"Okay, not my room."
You know what I mean?
Not my room.
I'm not supposed to be in this room.
I'm gonna go, I'm gonna find a room,
I'm gonna go build a room.
Not very handy, but you know,
we will kick down a door,
I'll bring a table.
- Butt some heads.
- Exactly, I'll sit in the hallway.
And I think that that's
what I would tell students
is like, be fine with being yourself
because that's the only
way you're gonna make
a change in this world.
- Wow.
Well that's a perfect way to end
and that's a perfect
message to our students.
Thank you for sharing that
and for spending this time with us today.
- Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- Are you kidding me?
- We had breakfast.
- We did have breakfast.
- Some time ago
and you were like, "We're gonna
have to get you back here."
You didn't say it as
a commencement speaker
to everybody that graduated.
- But I was thinking
it, I was thinking it.
- Yes, vision, vision.
- I appreciate you making the time,
I know how busy you are.
This is really important.
You're such an inspiration.
- Thank you.
- So hopefully, Rams, you paid attention
to that great advice to invest in yourself
and you do belong in every
room that you find yourself in.
Thank you, Eugene Daniels, amazing Ram.
Thank you for listening.
I'm Amy Parsons, President
of Colorado State University,
and you're listening
to CSUs "The Next 150,"
where we explore what comes next for CSU
by chatting with change-makers
who are already leading the charge
and shaping our next 150 years.
I'm gathering their very best advice
for today's CSU students.
Stay tuned to wherever you get podcasts
for our next outstanding
conversation, go Rams.