D’Juan Wilcher, EMBA 22 – Strengthening Support and Service for Veterans

(Transcripts may contain a few typographical errors due to audio quality during the podcast recording.)

[00:00:00] Sean: Welcome to the OneHaas Alumni Podcast. I’m your host, Sean Li. And today, we’re joined by D’Juan Wilcher. D’Juan is from the class of 2022 of the Executive MBA program. Feels like just yesterday, right? But it was two years ago. That’s pretty crazy. And you are the Deputy Director at the George W. Bush Presidential Center and also the Board Secretary for Veterans for All Voters. Welcome to the podcast, D’Juan.

[00:00:41] D’Juan: Hey, Sean. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:00:43] Sean: We like to start these conversations hearing your background, your origin story — where you grew up, how you grew up, whole nine yards.

[00:00:53] D’Juan: So, I am from Gary, Indiana, born and bred. My mother and father, they are also from Gary, Indiana. My grandparents are also from Gary, Indiana. And so, my family goes back a long time, Northwest Indiana.

I say that because I think that that informs how I show up in the world. Whereas, even my first love is basketball. Like, I don’t know. For those who don’t know, Indiana is the home of basketball.

[00:01:20] Sean: Really?

[00:01:20] D’Juan: You know, it’s up for debate. but the reality is Indiana University, which is the flagship school of the state of Indiana, is the home of basketball, man. Five national championships. The only team to go undefeated all season and still win a champion. There’s history there. Okay. So, there’s a lot of pride in who I am.

I also grew up in a home that was full of love, not full of very much money, not full of very much access. But my mother, she was definitely one who was big on education. She showed it when she was in school and she told us to lean into it the same way.

I’m an advocate of public education for that reason. Every school that I’ve attended from the beginning to all the way through Haas has been a public institution. Most of the time, that has been by deliberate choice.

My father served in the military, Air force, 13 years. My baby brother served in the Air Force for several years. My younger brother served in the Army for several years. And so, it was, kind of, like, “Hey, D’Juan, you’re up. Which branch? Choose your branch.” And I was like, “I don’t want that.” So, I chose college. I am a first-generation college student who chose to go to Indiana University, sight unseen, because that school gave me the most money to attend.

I knew that I didn’t have financial resources any other way. And so, the idea was, shoot the school, the most reputable schools to give you the most money, because that was important for me. So, I chose to go to Indiana University. I thought I was going to be a doctor. I chose that… I decided that I didn’t like blood, whatever. I had an internship, didn’t like blood, and I was like, “That’s it.”

[00:02:55] Sean: Yeah.

[00:02:56] D’Juan: And so, I pivoted to language, Spanish, minor in business. And then I went off to be a Navy officer. So, I was set to graduate right around the time that our economy was going through its recession, ‘08, ‘09, and ‘10. All the job offers I had were rescinded right around the time that I was set to graduate until a buddy of mine said, “Hey, I went to the Navy before college. I think that you would be a great Navy officer.” And if you recall, I didn’t know, I wouldn’t know what a Navy officer is or what they did because I’m a first-generation college student.

For those who don’t know about the military structure, to become an officer in the military, you must have a college degree. There is another way, but that’s through service. So, if you’re going to come be a civilian and transition to the military service as an officer, you must have a college degree.

[00:03:45] Sean: Oh, wow. I did not know that.

[00:03:46] D’Juan: Therefore, I was eligible to be an officer. It was an incredible experience. I went to Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. Shortly after that, I was assigned to a ship, USS Cowpens in Yokosuka, Japan. So, I got to live in Japan for three years. When I tell you, like, a living abroad experience is an enrichment experience unlike any other.

[00:04:12] Sean: Right.

[00:04:12] D’Juan: And another couple of deployments, the Navy ultimately brought me to Chicago. And in Chicago, I decided that I wanted to transition from active duty and go into the reserves. What that means is, for those who may not be familiar with the language is: full time – active duty, part time – reserves. You guys may remember the commercials, two weekends, a week in a month, two weeks a year type of thing. That’s the typical basic cadence.

After several years of doing that, I also had the privilege of leading a nonprofit, the Travis Manion Foundation in Chicago. They were expanding their footprint, and they looked to me to be their director of programs. And I got to build a brand from the ground up, essentially, in a place that knew nothing about them.

And they are now thriving. And I’m so proud of the work that they’re doing to support military veterans and youth. My job was to essentially prepare U.S. military veterans to be mentors to youth organizations that need mentors, specifically rooted in character and positive psychology.

During that time, I was selected to be a presidential scholar at the George Bush Institute in 2019. And that’s how I got brought into the Bush orbit. Again, a kid from Gary, Indiana is not going to be in a presidential orbit any other way but by being invited. And so, I jumped in two feet and COVID hit the next year. George Floyd that same year. You were there. You know the civil unrest that was with all of us. And many companies were looking for unifiers. They were looking for motivators. They were looking for leaders in the space for DEI, of which all of those things I am. And I got the opportunity to be a chief diversity officer during the COVID period, social unrest.

Then the Bush Center gave me a call, saying, “Hey, come to Texas.” Okay, let’s see. You know, maybe there’s something there. So, that’s my whole story. That’s my whole background and journey. We could pick any piece that you want amongst family. I’m an open book. So, wherever you want to take it, we’ll go.

[00:06:12] Sean: So, I’ve got a lot of questions. As a civilian, I never knew you could get a college degree and then join the naval ranks to then become an officer. I’m curious what that experience is like, because, again, as, kind of, a layperson, the way I think of the armed forces, right, there is a lot of training that naval cadets, right, the West Point cadets, right, Air Force cadets, like, they go through all this training and there’s this process that they go through to, kind of, rise up in the ranks and contribute to the organization. What was it like to come in from the outside, of sorts?

[00:06:51] D’Juan: That is a really insightful question, Sean, and I’ll tell you why. So, just imagine with me for a second that, instead of going to Indiana University, I went to the Naval Academy. Okay, first-generation college student. So, blank slate. If I went to Indiana University, I have zero knowledge of military culture, military expectations. Yes, I know tangentially what things could look like because of my father and my brothers, right? But for myself, I don’t know what that means, what that looks like.

If I go into the Naval Academy, by contrast, every single day is part of the indoctrination process to get you to understand this culture that you’re going to step into. That doesn’t mean that it’s easier to make the transition, but the point that I’m making is, the moment that I did go to Japan, I’m a 22-year-old, wet behind the ear ensign, is the most junior commissioned officer rank in the Navy is, in the Coast Guard. It’s ensign. I show up to a ship, and that was the first time I had been on a ship.

[00:07:50] Sean: Right.

[00:07:51] D’Juan: This is what I’m going to be responsible for. I’m going to be responsible for learning how to drive it, fight it, keep it safe, dewater it, put fires out, do all these things. I’ve never been on a ship before, really. I was at a disadvantage, to answer your question in a long winded way. I was at a disadvantage because I didn’t have as much enculturation associated with my obsession process.

[00:08:14] Sean: Right.

[00:08:15] D’Juan: But at the same time, I was also presented with the opportunity to, like, build my own social capital as I grew and learned and showed up the way that we’re supposed to show up. I wasn’t at a disadvantage from my performance, but I was at a disadvantage from a cultural perspective. And that was tough, especially in Japan, man. Like, it hit me over the head, you know, I landed in Narita and I can’t read anything because I can’t read kanji, right?

[00:08:40] Sean: Most people can’t.

[00:08:41] D’Juan: Like, I can’t read kanji, so I get off the plane in Narita. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know who to look for. This was a very discombobulating period. And as I’m riding on the bus, I finally found my group. I’m riding on the bus from the airport to the base on the other side of the road. Mind you, this is my first time actually out of the country. So, this is, I’m on the other side of the road, and like, “This is weird.” I’m ready for lunch, and there’s not the lunch that I’m used to having. And I’m, “This is hard.” It was a culture shock. There was a professional career shock. There was the fact that I’m 13 hours ahead of my family and so I don’t get to talk to my family regularly shock. There was a social isolation shock because I don’t… I know no one. I’m not exactly sure why I’m telling you this story, other than to say how difficult it was for me, at least for the first four to six months. It was very, very, very hard.

But I distinctly remember there was a moment where I just said, “Screw it. I’m going to lean into it and make this the best thing possible.” The next 22 months of my time in Japan were absolutely fantastic. I love that country second. You know what I mean? Like, I loved it so much, Sean, that I sent my wife to go alone because it’s expensive. I sent her to go to visit her friend who lived in Tokyo at the time, just to be there for New Year’s. I said, “You just have to go.”

[00:10:02] Sean: Yeah.

[00:10:03] D’Juan: I love it. If I had the opportunity to take my family to Japan to take a professional sabbatical, it would be an enrichment experience that my children would never ever forget. I love it.

[00:10:14] Sean: D’Juan, that’s exactly why I was asking that question, because it just… as I was hearing you tell the story, it just blew my mind. Again, you know, I never knew you could join active service through that route. I thought you had to go through the traditional ranks. And I can’t imagine, you know, how difficult it was. But what I’m really curious about, too, you know, it’s a culture shock, right? I imagine most of the people there on that ship, they have friends, right? A lot of camaraderie. How did you insert yourself into that existing culture? Like, how do you earn the respect while knowing, you know, that, “I haven’t been serving as long as these people have been serving.”

[00:10:59] D’Juan: Okay, so there’s some layers to this question. I’m going to jump into each of them. So, you said, how do I insert myself? Well, interestingly, I don’t. They tell me where to go, where to sleep. And so, the room that they actually put me in, and if any of my shipmates hear this, they know we called it the jungle. And that’s pretty typical of all the ships. Like, the last state ring that has the most junior officers, kind of, in there, sleeping, living, cohabitating, they call it the jungle because it’s a bunch of dudes in a small space. So, it’s not the best place to be. So, I didn’t insert myself. I was inserted.

When you asked about earning the respect, in reflection, I can say that there are two paths that had to be taken. And now, in leadership, as I am now, I’m thinking about leadership development for people junior to me, it’s like I had to earn the respect of my peers in a different way that I had to earn the respect of my subordinates. But what made this a very unique situation — in the military, that is — is that I am an ensign, remember, the most junior officer, right? And I immediately have authority over folks who’ve served 20 years, the chief petty officer ranks.

So, the most junior officer is senior to the most senior enlisted personnel. Those senior personnel are responsible, in fact, for training me. So, even their job is hard. They have to train their boss knowing I’m their boss. And they have to do so in a way that is receptive to me. They’re responsible most of my faults because, again, I’m wet behind my ears. So, the senior officer of the ship is going to look to them to say, “You do better, chief. You knew better.” So, they bear so much responsibility for my development. The way that I earn respect from them is with showing up every day.

[00:12:51] Sean: Yeah.

[00:12:53] D’Juan: This was the most instructive period of my professional career, was that you show up. That’s half the battle, right? Like, cause some people don’t. They just mail it in and they show up. That was the first way to earn their respect. Still, you know my damn job. Take it seriously. I am new. So, when they came to me, they expected to see my nose in a book. They expected to see me asking questions, being curious, figuring it out so that I can get better to be a better leader for them, right?

The way that one of my senior officers put it, it’s like electricity. You have a load and you have a source. You come onto this ship, you are right now a load. But the harder you work and the faster you work, you will become a source. And that source is your source of credibility and respect and social capital, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, that’s how I earned respect through my subordinates and also my seniors.

But my peers were different. Because we’re a mixed bag. Culturally, some of us who’ve come from OCS, we have a different worldview, in that we’ve attended public education, as I mentioned at beginning. So, for those who might have been in public education, our worldview is different on some of our approaches, leadership approaches, development approaches, scheduling, whatever, communication approaches, all that can be different.

So, you have the publics, you have the privates and the Ivys, and you’ve even got, you know, the academy grads. Culturally, all those groups of officers are different. And so, for me, I earned respect from them just by being myself. Some of them I did not get along with. That’s no surprise, right? Like, you do not get along with everybody that you engage with. But I also wasn’t two-faced and tried to fake it. Like, I was getting along with them, either. Like, when we had to work together, we were respectful and professional. And when we didn’t have to work together, it’s like, “Hey, man, good to see you, carry on.”

[00:14:37] Sean: Right.

[00:14:37] D’Juan: And the ones that, I’ve always been myself, so the ones who did like me, took to me very well. In fact, one of them is my best friend, Matt Franstad. Like, that’s my man. Like, I love him very dearly. He allowed me to be a godfather to one of his children. And I will tell you, if you put his face next to my face, you would never pair us as being close friends. You just wouldn’t. But yet, we’re an example of what can be.

[00:15:01] Sean: Yeah. No, thank you so much for sharing that. I just really want to dig into that story, because it’s amazing that, you know, you can join in, lead teams of 30 engineers and 20 gunnery and earn their respect, right? And then environments. It’s not an easy environment. You know, we’re talking a lot of safety and life and death and drawing a boat. It’s how, like, you get to go home to your house, you know, like.

[00:15:27] D’Juan: And think about that, right, like, because if I need to trust you in austere conditions or under a great deal of pressure or time constraint, I am far less likely to trust you if I can’t trust you when things are good, right? And so, it’s incumbent upon us. And in the military, we are voluntold to do a lot of things together. We spend a lot of time together off the ship, right?

[00:15:52] Sean: Yeah.

[00:15:53] D’Juan: And we do that because we still have to build inroads to work with one another. I like talking about this, actually, Sean. This is a really fond… I’m feeling really warm, thinking about it.

[00:16:04] Sean: No, I imagine. I mean, you were in active service, active duty for about, what was it, seven years?

[00:16:11] D’Juan: 14 years.

[00:16:12] Sean: A total of 14 years.

[00:16:13] D’Juan: Total of 14.

[00:16:14] Sean: Seven active, seven reserve, is that correct?

[00:16:17] D’Juan: Yep. It was like nine and six, but, you know, call it seven and seven. Either way, honorable service. And I’m pleased to have done it.

[00:16:26] Sean: Thank you so much for your service. We definitely appreciate you. Man, it’s hard to transition from that because there’s just so much more to it. I’m sure there’s just so much more to it. Actually, I do have one last question because I’m just so curious about this.

[00:16:38] D’Juan: Go.

[00:16:38] Sean: Like, how much training did you have to do before you got to be on a U.S. warship?

[00:16:43] D’Juan: 12 weeks.

[00:16:44] Sean: 12 weeks? Wow.

[00:16:45] D’Juan: 12 weeks.

[00:16:46] Sean: That must have been intense.

[00:16:47] D’Juan: OCS is 12. It was. Oh, yes, it was. It was. OCS is 12 weeks long. OCS is Officer Candidate School. Officer Candidate School is the officer’s version of boot camp. It’s your training, your basic training, as an office in the Navy. It is very, very intense. Physically, obviously, you know, all the things you see, the you don’t get much sleep. You’ve got tons of tasks. You’ve got to do collaboration, teamwork. There’s also an edge. There’s also a classroom component where we have to learn, you know, navigation. We have to learn, you know, naval history. We have to learn engineering, basic engineering. So, the classroom, there’s a cultural piece to it. There’s a lot.

And they do a darn good job, man. Like, they do a really, really good job. And in fact, I had the privilege of being, what we call a group commander, at Recruit Training Command, which is the enlisted version of boot camp. We put through almost 50,000 civilians a year.

[00:17:46] Sean: Wow.

[00:17:47] D’Juan: I’ve had 1,100 a month. So, like, the pace by which you have to be on point and everything you do, from what you say, how you say it, how you walk, how you engage, you have to think about that being all those 1,100 sponges paying attention to everything you do. What you’re doing is giving culture to someone who’s going to carry forward for however long. It could be 40 years. They could serve for 40 years. It’s the impact of leadership. That’s for sure. So, they do a really good job, Officer Candidate School.

[00:18:16] Sean: That’s amazing. So, personal family question for you. So, Air Force, Navy games.

[00:18:23] D’Juan: They always lose. It’s not even a thing. They might as well say, “Go, Navy.” Like, that’s how it should be.

[00:18:29] Sean: No, what I meant was, you know, how does your dad feel about it?

[00:18:32] D’Juan: You know, my brother who was in the Army for 13 years, he and I have a good back-and-forth, because this year, for example, we both are one lost team. It’s, like, the fact that the Army is still undefeated. So, it’s always “Go, Navy.”

[00:18:44] Sean: That’s amazing. Thank you all. Thank you to your entire family for your service.

[00:18:48] D’Juan: Yes, sir.

[00:18:49] Sean: So, I know you walked through your time a little bit moving from Chicago to Texas. I think I remember you telling me that was around the time that you were contemplating coming to Haas or deferring Haas. Tell us a little bit about that.

[00:19:03] D’Juan: I already know that I wanted to go to business school. Chicago has two really good options. Got Booth, got Kellogg right there. And full transparency, I was trying to get into one of those. Haas was not even on my radar at all. Because it didn’t make sense to me to even think about any other schools because I had these two really good ones right here. At the graduation ceremony for the Presidential Leader Fellowship program that I talked to you about at the Bush Institute, I met a gentleman who was in the 2019 class, and he’s pitching me Berkeley hard, okay? He’s pitching Berkeley. And I’m like, “Dude, I live in Chicago. Like, what sense does it make for me to fly to Berkeley?” And he’s pitching, man.

I said, “Well, screw it. Let me just check it out. Let me just see, you know, what’s going on. All right. This seems pretty good. This is a top 10 school.” It is actually a public… as I told you earlier, I’m a public ed advocate. So, I’m like, that even hits a box that I would like to hit. It’s like, “Okay, I’m gonna go check it out.” I leave Chicago in October 2019, and it’s cold. I stole up Berkeley in 2019, and it’s sunny. And I’m looking down the road, and I can see the water, and I’m like, “This is a done deal. This is a beautiful school, beautiful campus.” Then, I go to the classes. Yeah, I like this approach. I went with the classmates. We had drinks and dinner afterwards. It’s like this is a done deal. I started my application, and that’s the end of that story. I never looked back at any other school. I didn’t apply. This was my target school, and I got in.

[00:20:42] Sean: You know, what was it like making that decision going into COVID, right? Because school hadn’t started yet. You were accepted into Haas and things were shutting down. What was that decision like?

[00:20:54] D’Juan: Frustrating. I wrestled with a lot of ambivalence in that period. Like, I felt like it was a hard decision. I felt frustrated. I felt understanding of the staff and the decisions that they had to make, or at least I felt empathy for, like, that position that they were in. I have to think about my family. What makes sense for us? I have to think about the ROI on the program. So, I’m thinking, like, you know when a society has ever run something completely virtually. Like, this, at least, to my knowledge at that time, like, can this even be done effectively? Am I going to learn, for real?

And then, the reality is, man, is that, like, I had two young kids at the time. My wife and I had two young kids at the time. We now have three boys. She was in a position right now to support me in doing this. There is no guarantee that she would be in a position next year to do that, right? Like, it’s a seize the day kind of thing. And that’s really what the ultimate decision came down to, is that, whatever relationships I will have or won’t have will be based on the work that I put in to cultivate them. That is true before Haas. That’s going to be true after Haas. That’s true in any organization I’m in. And so, the reality is, like, all right, it’s gonna be hard to work.

[00:22:03] Sean: Yeah.

[00:22:04] D’Juan: Let’s find a silver lining. And then we had the leadership communications class, I think, is the earlier one of the first modules. And I remember, I did not like that we were on Zoom, having to do, like, all these stretching exercises and things like that. And I’m like, “This is dumb. This is not the decision for me.”

I was wrong. Not only do I think I got a leg up on how to engage in a virtual world in a meaningful and serious way, I think that I have a shared experience with people that is going to endure time. I think that it’s going to be fun to look back on, having gone to class on Zoom. Some of us are sitting outside with masks on because it’s cold and heaters and blankets, you know. Like, the commitment that some of us show to one another to our community, looking back on it, it’s encouraging.

[00:22:54] Sean: So, starting in 2021, you guys were, I guess, after vaccination, things like that.

[00:22:59] D’Juan: Yeah, that’s exactly when… so, we started to ease up once the vaccination started to roll through. We all met for the first time at, like, some place where they brought us together for an immersion experience. Can you imagine meeting a bunch of people for the first time, never having seen them in person, but you guys are hugging and talking and laughing like you guys have been family and friends for a long time?

[00:23:18] Sean: Yeah.

[00:23:19] D’Juan: That’s Berkeley to me. That’s my first experience with my Berkeley colleagues, was that. So, every time I think about Berkeley, like, that’s the fun. I met you. I say, “Are you family?”

[00:23:30] Sean: Yeah, that’s awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever had a guest on that went through the COVID experience out of Berkeley Haas. That’s amazing how enduring our Berkeley Haas culture is, that such an event can happen, and still, our family, or the students, you know, we can have still such an amazing experience.

[00:23:53] D’Juan: For sure.

[00:23:53] Sean: So, D’Juan, tell us what happened after Haas. You clearly moved to Dallas. You’re still at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. What do you do there?

[00:24:02] D’Juan: So, at the same time, I graduated June 4th and I started work at The Bush Institute in May, the month before. My work as Deputy Director of Veteran and Military Families is I’m responsible for essentially thinking about solutions, policy-centered solutions, to ease the transition burdens for veterans coming back to the civilian world, along three lines — employment, education, and health and wellbeing.

So, of late, my focus, at least in 2024, my focus was underemployment. Veteran is actually pretty significant, as well as military spouse employment, which is abysmal at, like, 20%. But underemployment is a little bit more sneaky. It’s hard to identify. But the thing that got me thinking about it was the fact that there are so many service members — active duty, too — who are using public assistance. And so, to me, that’s a telltale that, if you need public assistance to make your ends meet, then you are likely being paid less than what you need to survive.

So, anyway, that’s some new work that’s bubbling up on the education front, doing a lot of stuff in the VA, and we have a couple of policy submissions to submit to the next Congress.

And then my last line of reference, health and wellbeing, they have a platform with service providers, veteran service organizations, and clinical providers. We brokered the relationship between all these folks to provide no cost mental and brain health care to military veterans and their families and caregivers and survivors to help them through whatever traumas they might have.

We recognize that part of the issue to getting… part of the reason why people don’t get mental health care is because it can be difficult to navigate. So, we’ve thought to create an easy button. Whereby, we have essentially a concierge service to do an intake. We have all these clinicians and veterans service organizations to help identify whatever supports you might need, and we connect you for free. The services that they get are for free. And this year, we’ve been able to reach 2,000 people. I should say it’s no cost. It’s not free. It’s no cost to the user, but there is generosity behind the characters who are making this all happen.

And so, I think about the fact that the donors don’t know the names of these 2,000 folks who might need the support, but we really might have changed the lives of 2,000-plus people because that’s just the person who came, not including their family or their work environment or whatever. Like, everything we do has a multiplicative effect. And I feel like that’s the value of philanthropy when it’s well-leveraged. That’s what I do with the Bush Institute.

[00:26:33] Sean: That’s amazing. That sounds like a lot. On top of being there for your family, how do you have time for other things like being a board member, you know?

[00:26:45] D’Juan: So, I have the privilege of serving on the board of Veteran for All Voters, which started as Veterans for Political Innovation. We’ve been at brand changes, things of that nature. But I find time because it’s necessary. My time is a non-renewable resource and I understand the constraints. I allocate appropriately with time for my wife and my children. That sometimes gets out of whack, and my wife will straighten that out, and then I reallocate and get it together. But then when I have the other things like boards and speaking engagements and talks with youth groups and whatever, those kinds of things, I make time for them because they’re important.

[00:27:24] Sean: No, I really appreciate you sharing some of your experiences and some of the work — good work — that you’re doing at the Bush Institute. And I think that’s an amazing service that you continue to provide. And I really think that’s an important message, especially for Haasies, for business school students, right? I mean, we go to business school, we come out of it expecting to just really, kind of, stay in our lane, right, of business. And, you know, Haas is a little bit different than that, where we really pride ourselves in philanthropy and public service and right beyond yourself. But it’s also easy to forget that once you leave the campus. And so, it’s a really good reminder for us all to continue to participate, to be active and give back to the community, as you say.

[00:28:12] D’Juan: You do this very well, Sean.

[00:28:16] Sean: You make it easy. So, I’m just the messenger, as they say. No, this has been fantastic. Was there anything that you wanted to talk about that I didn’t get a chance to ask?

[00:28:30] D’Juan: No. We had a great conversation. And I appreciate it. I would like to say this. I think it’s important. We, as a country, must pick up and carry on and go forward. I think it is really important for us as a community to understand the plurality in which we live, right? Like, this is where we are. This is all of ours. And we must tend to it. And I mean that in the most optimistic, encouraging, non-violent, and curious way. Go beyond yourself.

[00:29:04] Sean: Yeah.

[00:29:05] D’Juan: When you have the time, the energy, the emotional capacity, go beyond yourself and try to understand others that you don’t believe you align with. Because I know we can be better. I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. We’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in kids. I’ve seen it in adults. I’ve seen it in communities. I’ve seen it in seniors. We’ve all seen it. Let’s replicate what we know is possible. So, I just wanted to end on a happy, hopeful note.

[00:29:29] Sean: Yeah. Couldn’t agree more. And I think the message I have to add to that is what Kennedy said, right? Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. That’s, I think, the most empowering message. And that’s what this country is about, is, what can you do? And we all can do something.

[00:29:51] D’Juan: Even if it’s a simple care for your neighbor.

[00:29:55] Sean: Exactly.

[00:29:55] D’Juan: More of this. More of this in the world, please. Thank you.

[00:29:57] Sean: Yes. Well, D’Juan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It’s been such a pleasure having you. I honestly agree that we need to have a part two to this. So, looking forward to that.

[00:30:10] D’Juan: Yes, sir. It was a pleasure, man. Talk to you soon.

[00:30:16] Sean: Thanks again for tuning in to this episode of the OneHaas Podcast. If you enjoyed our show today, please hit that Subscribe or Follow button on your favorite podcast player. We’d also really appreciate you giving us a five-star rating and review. If you’re looking for more content, please check out our website at haas.fm. That’s spelled H-A-A-S.F-M. In there, you can subscribe to our monthly newsletter and check out some of our other Berkeley Haas podcasts.

OneHaas Podcast is a production of the Haas School of Business and produced by University FM.