In a world permeated with individuals trying to get their voice out, one award-winning journalist said oftentimes, the most powerful tactic may be not to speak the loudest, but to amplify the voices of the unheard.
However, Soledad O’Brien, documentarian and the CEO of Soledad O’Brien Productions, said in order to provide a platform for these voices, one must ground themselves first.
“Do what you can where you are and make sure that you are growing and investing in yourself,” O’Brien said. “Do this and ten years down the road when you leverage your voice, more people are listening.”
O’Brien said she has long used her platform to elevate stories from the margins, a practice she believes is not singular to journalists, but a universal opportunity, no matter the scale.
“I do think there are going to sadly be these opportunities every day where you have to stand up for something,” O’Brien said. “That’s kind of the moment where you build who you are.”
For O’Brien, she said conversations following the funeral of Richard “Dick” Parsons, chairman of Time Warner, further sparked the significance of leaving a lasting legacy, built over years rather than moments.
“What people really said was, ‘We were so lucky to have him in our lives,’ and I just thought, what an amazing assessment of your life,” O’Brien said. “I think everybody can work on that from the get go.”
In terms of her journalistic career, O’Brien said in addition to advocating for overlooked stories, her legacy is also rooted in aiding in the fight for educating young women.
“I grew up solidly middle class, so I never once had to think about if my parents were going to pay the next semester of college,” O’Brien said. “But most of my scholars would go through school not knowing if they’d be able to come back.”
O’Brien said this luxury served as the catalyst for the work of her PowHERful Foundation, an organization that supports young women in their pursuits of higher education.
“The best thing you can provide for somebody is this stable environment of ‘I got you,’” O’Brien said. “My husband and I have tried to help these young women have that stability, so they can focus on the studying part, which is much harder.”
Meanwhile, O’Brien said at the very essence of understanding who we are and where we belong is storytelling.
O’Brien shared a few stories of her own in her commencement speech at Marshall University’s graduation on Saturday, May 10, referencing the advice from her parents that emphasized the power of following your own path, regardless of outside voices.
“I think for a lot of people, you are building your own story every day,” O’Brien said. “As you head off into the world, this is the moment of thinking about who do you want to be.”
Kaitlyn Fleming can be contacted at [email protected]
