 Connie Chung is a household name in this country. Her work as a newscaster and television anchor became a fixture in our living rooms almost as soon as she began her career in the early 1970s. She's reported for all of the major news networks and during the 1970s, alongside the legendary Walter Cronkite, she covered the events that defined the era, including Watergate and the pivotal Salt Tree of Talks between Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev. In 1993, she became the first woman to co-anchor the network's national flagship news, the CBS Evening News. Ladies and gentlemen, Connie Chung. It is such an honor to be here. I can't tell you how thrilling it is to be among these distinguished, distinguished women. I actually started in 1969 in Washington, D.C. and I was a copy person two days a week before I graduated from high school. And when I, I mean from college, and when I graduated, the only job they had open was for newsroom secretary. And as much as I didn't want to take it, I knew I had my foot in the door and I'd have to take it. So I did that, but then a job opened up for a writer for the local anchor man at that station. He would sit in his office and go, good evening, good evening, good evening. And I thought I really want that job. So I went to the news director and I said, I said I want to be the writer for him. And he said, but I still need a newsroom secretary. Right at that time, there was a heavy push to hire women thanks to Gloria Steinem. Oh, Gloria, where did she go? And so I went across the street to the bank where I cashed my check. And there was this very, very smart teller that I always went to. Her name was Toni Taylor and she was very swift and just a lot of fun too. Smart, I could tell she was smart. She also happened to be African-American. I knew that would help. I went to her and I said, Toni, you know that big TV station across the street? I can make you a star. And she said, really? I said, yeah, come on over, I'll get you a job. So she came with me, she got the job. I became a writer. Several years later, she got all the other African-American employees together and filed a class action lawsuit against the station. I was glad I was gone by then. After about a few months of writing, I finagled a way to let them put me on the air and be a reporter. So I was a reporter for about a year. Then I heard that CBS News was trying to hire because there really was quite a lot of pressure from the feminist groups. And I was just, and thanks to Gloria Steinem really, there was such a push. It was very vocal. And the three networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, probably had one woman each who was rarely on or maybe a smattering. So CBS hired me and three other women in one fell swoop. This was 1971. It was me, Michelle Clark, an African-American woman, Leslie Stahl, a nice Jewish girl with blonde hair, and Sylvia Chase, a shixa with blonde hair. We were hired, they took care of their business, and that was it. And nothing happened again at CBS until the 80s. Now 40 years later, I'm 65, it still hasn't reached any level of parody. Certainly you see a lot more women in television news, but it has not reached the executive suite. It's all still male dominated. There are many other parts of the industry in television news that are still male dominated. So we have so much more work to do. And to me, the only way to do it is for those of us who came before to reach down and help those who are coming up the ladder. I don't think the sister herd works unless we help our sisters. So I encourage anyone in any field you're in reach out to the young women, protect them from everything that we knew happened to us, help them, and bring them up. We're there to help and we're there to be colleagues, not to be fighting, there's only, I call it, you can only have one Chinese cheerleader on the squad syndrome. You know, you don't just want one of these and one of those and they're done. You have to be able to bring more up so that we represent the population that exists in this country. And that is more than you can ever imagine because you don't see it on the hill, you don't see it in the house, you don't see it in the Senate, you don't see it at the White House, and you don't see it on the Supreme Court even though we've made great progress there. So I thank you so much. This award means so much to me. I thank our daughter, Susan Povich, who introduced me to this incredible museum, this incredible Sackler Center. I mean, it is marvelously impressive and I am beyond, beyond thankful for this wonderful, wonderful award. Thank you.