Student Reporter: Oceanna Ackley, Class of 2018

On Wednesday afternoon, October 28th, Developing Virtue Girls School hosted a special guest, the renowned activist, Ms. Carol Ruth Silver, who shared her inspiring story with students. “Embrace what life has to give and take the paths that lead to opportunity” was the theme of her talk.

Five decades ago on June 2, 1961, during the Civil Rights Movement, Ms. Silver bravely rode a bus into the center of the chaos. She left New York, bound for Jackson, Mississippi. On the 7th of June, when the bus arrived in Jackson, she marched only three steps into the bus station waiting room marked ‘colored’ before she was arrested and was transported to the city jail. She ended up spending 40 days in jail, during which she documented her thoughts on scraps of paper and napkins, which later were published in the book Freedom Rider Diary.

Ms. Silver also spoke of how she helped found our school, Instilling Goodness School. One of the main reasons for starting such a unique school was her wish to give kids an opportunity to learn Mandarin Chinese and be educated in virtue, ethics, most importantly, non-violence. After the school moved from San Francisco to Talmage, Ms. Silver founded another school called the Chinese American International School. Its Mission Statement says: “Embrace Chinese. Become your best self. Create your place in the world.”

She advised us that to truly live you must follow these three guidelines:

1. Embrace what is around you and use it to achieve goodness in the world.
2. Become your best self and find what you are meant to do.
3. Create a place in this world and carve a path that you are meant to take. Some of the points she made are:

• Continuously search for opportunities; do not wait around for them to arrive.
• Use opportunity for good purpose, and then embrace it with open arms.
• It isn’t selfishness if what we desire to do is to benefit those around us.

Students left the room inspired with new intentions and goals.