 Next, we have Iris Yuningyi, a master's student in the Department of Information Science and in the School of Information. Her talk titled, What Makes You Curious About That Exchange Student shares the stories of two exchange students, one whose new environment is a more homogenous culture versus another whose new environment is a more diverse culture. Iris suggests based on personal experience that curiosity is practiced less in a more diverse environment, while better preserved in a homogenous environment. With people different from us, Iris encourages us to just be curious, sincere, and understanding. Some fun facts about Iris are that she has perfect pitch and she's done the world's highest bungee jumping. Give it up for Iris. Good evening. Thanks everybody for being here first. I want to start this talk by showing this is a picture of my high school. And I grew up in the northern part of China in a city called Tianjin. As you can tell from the picture, we all look Asian and we are actually all Asian. My best friend in high school's name was Ray. She is the calmest person I've ever seen my entire life. I've never seen her screaming, hurt her screaming, except for one time. When she pushed through the whole classroom, ran to me and scream and shake was like, Iris did you know, did you know downstairs, he's so cute, his hair is curly and brown and he's always smiling. I was happy, surprised at the same time. My high school was never animal friendly. Without thinking too much, I was already dragged down two floors by Ray. When we arrived there, Ray was still screaming, did you know that a German exchange student will be with us for the whole year? Oh, it's German exchange student. My dog padding dream suddenly faded. But another German culture learning dream rose up from the moment. A week later, Alex was introduced by my school principal in front of 2,000 students in my high school in the school auditorium on the podium and he was awarded a commemorative coin. Students were so eager and excited. I could tell they invited Alex to their home for dinner. They showed Alex around campus, they took him for the local community, they translate and share gossip with him. Everyone tried their best to make Alex feel at home. Alex, on the other hand, also hosted weekly German learning lessons. I still remember Deutschland is another name for Germany and I still remember that Germany, its country name, originated from the Latin language. Fast forward to college. I got an opportunity to study abroad in UC Berkeley during my junior year. Now I was the Alex in the classroom. First day of my class, I thought I was going to be introduced by my professor to 200 students in my UC Berkeley class and I practiced my self-introduction 50 plus times. But the only thing that professor said in the class was, okay, this is highly likely the last accounting class you're going to take, but grades will not be curved and attendance is required. Wait, they don't care about exchange duty here? I thought to myself. Now, that self-introduction that I rehearsed 50 plus times never got the chance to be presented. From these two stories, I have shared with you how Alex experienced as an exchange student in a more homogenous culture like China and how I experienced as an exchange student here in the melting pot we call the United States. I felt Alex belonged to my Chinese high school where he was the self-allier than I did in the United States, but why was that the case? I think it boils down to curiosity. When we were young, when we were kids, we asked our parents questions every single day. Yet when we grow up, as we learn more, we ask last questions. We'll store in his book, The Science of Storytelling proposes a letter N to describe curiosity. It is at its weakest when people have no idea about the answer to a question and when people are entirely convinced that I think I know it all. The students in my Chinese high school who had never been exposed to a German culture was so curious about it. American students who have diversity all around them recognize assimilation as the norm and are less sensitive about a new culture. OK, I want to kind of switch gears here and play a game. Are we ready for a game? Oh, OK, let's do a game. When I switch to the next slide, shout out the first color you see. OK. Oh, wow, OK. A lot of yellows. Blue, cool. Maze and blue, all fair. OK, another round. Next slide, shout out the first color you see this time. Oh, OK, I didn't even get the chance to cash. I saw a gray. I heard yellow eyes, heard green. So a lot of different colors. I felt Alex was just like the first yellow dot in the first picture, while I was just a random color dot in the second picture. It's undeniable that the dots in the first picture is much less diverse than the second one. Sure, the second society, multi-colored dots society, is much more diverse. But individuals are no longer someone you can pick out of the crowd. We are just random dots. I am, you are, and we are. Diversity dilutes its effect, and inclusion is not unsightable. What I mean by that is on each one of us to remain curious about people's differences. It's on each one of us to remain curious about people's cultures. It's only when we learn more without assumptions so people can retain their individuality without feeling excluded from the diversity. It is on us. How would Alex's experience have been different if my high school and my Chinese classmate Shannon, just because he isn't looked like us? How would Alex feel if we treated him like that? We had nothing to learn from him, but he was actually so unique in this environment. I can't stop but think, when did we stop asking questions like when we were little? When did we stop being curious towards the dot, sitting next to us, standing in front of us, and walking past us? I can't stop but think and seeing in myself. When did I stop caring about another Alex from when I don't care about another Alex anymore? From when I take diversity for granted? From when I see we are just different colored dots? And I stop asking questions. Okay, curiosity is the catalyst of inclusion and difference is never the destination. Now I have the stage and I have your attention. I want to wrap up my talk with that self-introduction. I never got the chance to present in my UC Berkeley class. Hello, I'm Iris. I grew up in the northern part of China in the city of Tianjin. This is my first time ever to live abroad and I'm really excited to explore the Bay Area. As you can tell, Chinese is my first language and I also want to share with you my Chinese name, which I'm really proud of, Yi Yuning. I tend to be really nervous when pronouncing my name because I only heard my full name when I did something wrong and my parents called that. Even for those people who has the same spelling of Y-U-N-I-N-G-Y-E, it can look something different. My grandpa and my dad worked together towards my name. It means to give me peace in my life. For other people with the same spelling, it can look like something like this or this, both. So the first one means universe is blessed with peace. The second one means raindrops freeze. They are all unique. English spelling of Chinese name dilutes the meaning of all of the Chinese names. Just like I remember Alexander as the German pronunciation of Alex, I hope you remember Yi Yuning as Iris's Chinese name. Just like I remember Deutschland from German culture, I hope you remember the arts of characters and the arts of Chinese names from Chinese culture. Even if you don't remember anything, you remember being a panic when we heard four names from our parents. Stay curious and thank you.