I deeply want to thank Mr. and Mrs.

Hintz, Dean Brady, Melissa and Lisa for making this trip absolutely wonderful. This trip has given a lot of exposure to a different culture, a different light of living life and different viewpoints of dealing with extreme situations. I believe such exposure is extremely vital for an all-round understanding and helps shape an individuals ideals and way of thinking and responding to circumstances. Some of my favorite speakers which I want to talk about were Karen Swensen, Congressman Cao and Scott Cowen. I was really looking forward to listen to Karen Swensen talk about her experience because I was extremely moved by her documentary. I can barely imagine what it would feel like to be in a situation when ones house is destroyed; one is separated from ones family, feeling like you are so close to the end and just trying to survive every hour by itself. Yet still, not escaping that dire situation and reporting the news just to spread it to get help. Her story is undoubtedly very inspiring and exemplifies a great deal of courage and commitment for her city and her job. I was very impressed by the heights reached by Congressman Cao. Having an unstable childhood can really disturb an individual and have extreme impacts on ones life. It is very inspirational when you hear a first person story of someone who had a challenging childhood, fled away from his country and parents and now is the mayor of New Orleans! After Katrina it definitely isnt one of the easiest jobs, but it takes a whole lot of determinism to balance out between your morals, the betterment of the city and the discriminations he might have faced being from another country. I really enjoyed Scott Cowen, the President of Tulane University talk about all the challenges he faced being the President and how he prioritized each of them. One of the things he mentioned were- Think beyond survival and recovery, people expect survival and recovery- no one is inspired by it. This was very important because he did not face challenges just during Katrina but even before and after it- first to relocate the new students and then reopen the university, make students come back; and give the university a stronger foundation for progress. There were so many wise decisions involved which could affect the universitys current standing and growth- like continuing the salary of the staff, involving other universities so that students do not miss out on a semester yet still being a student of Tulane, accommodations made for students to come back despite of low financial standing etc. it would have required a whole lot of resilience and faith to be able to stand still with a firm leg through all that he had to face.

All of the above individuals have portrayed roles of leadership in different fields. Each of them had different aspects, approaches and driving forces and have been successful.
Another thing that I wanted to mention was the World War II museum. I was very impressed by the exhibits of the museum and the short movies of the incidents that occurred. It is remarkable how well maintained it is even today. However, I was a little disappointed that there was not enough time to read about every event in detail. Once again, Thank you PLA for this fantastic and inspirational experience.