College of Notre Dame of Maryland

"The final thing I want to say is you should never give up. Follow whatever passion you choose to follow, follow it relentlessly. Just don’t take no for an answer. As I like to say, become graciously aggressive about it or, maybe actually, you should be fierce about it. I like to remind people that I was placed on the waiting list of my college — but I kept after them and eventually I was the last person accepted to my class — and now I am on my college’s alumni board. When I moved to New York, I was rejected as a volunteer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and eventually I persevered and I worked there for 15 years. You just have to keep on trying because effort counts!"