Prepared remarks of Amelia Timbers, former Good Neighbor intern

“Hi, my name is Amelia Timbers. I recently graduated UCSC in environmental studies, and I was a Good Neighbor intern in the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Internship Program last year. The entire CUIP class is extremely mournful. We had unique opportunities to interact with the chancellor personally.

I would like to quote Maria Mitchell, who was a 19th-century female astronomer and the first female appointed to the National Academy of Sciences. Maria Mitchell lived on Nantucket, a small island off Massachusetts where have I spent a significant part of my life. Chancellor Denton recently won the prestigious honor named after her that goes to prolific women in science. Although their lives were a century apart, I see enormous commonalities in their commitments to advancing women in science. Mitchell once said ‘We learn to live in the universe as a part of it; we cannot separate ourselves from it—our every act connects us with it—our every act affects the whole.’

Chancellor Denton affected the whole. What I want to share is the special way talking with the Chancellor made a person feel valued. She gave all students the opportunity, through her frequent college visits and unusual accessibility, to communicate with the person who had the most influence over their lives at UCSC, and to then have that person listen. Further, no matter how critical the thoughts you expressed were, she, in all of my experiences, respected them and supported us voicing them. Even in situations where students or neighbors were assailing her with emotionally charged attacks, she never condescended. Instead, she answered critics calmly, respectfully and with brave honesty I have never witnessed before.

Despite her rank and intellect, she treated everyone as if she had something to learn from them. Her ability to make the people around her feel more empowered and valued by genuinely validating them is astronomically rare. And the sense that everyone has value, which she consistently emphasized in both policy and daily life, is the core of justice."

 

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