2018 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Chris Cornelius

Mid-America Transportation Center Author

02/27/2019 Added

1 Plays

Description

Dr. Cornelius discusses his past as a Native American student and why the Scholars Program participants should choose to continue their education in a 4-year degree program.

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:05.197]We have something to talk about,
[00:00:06.499]how everything has been somewhat generational
[00:00:08.010]in terms of what someone has happen to them
[00:00:10.110]to arrive where they are.
[00:00:11.460]I don't know if you've ever talked
[00:00:12.293]to your grandparents about that.
[00:00:13.981]Have you?
[00:00:14.814]Where they've been?
[00:00:15.730]How they arrived where they were?
[00:00:17.033]What they had to go through?
[00:00:18.650]What do you think of that,
[00:00:20.461]when they tell you stories?
[00:00:21.594]"Grandpa, I don't wanna hear it?"
[00:00:24.656]Right, is that what you say?
[00:00:25.510]Come on, tell the truth.
[00:00:28.220]Yeah, little bit?
[00:00:30.030]Are you talking to him?
[00:00:31.820]Or you pull out your iPhone and start doing this.
[00:00:35.610]No?
[00:00:36.938]Okay, okay.
[00:00:37.771]So, all of us have had a journey of some sort.
[00:00:40.130]So, if you look at this,
[00:00:42.880]you have one, this one right here.
[00:00:45.130]Have you heard of her before, Susan La Flesche?
[00:00:48.680]Yes
[00:00:49.677]Yes, famous woman.
[00:00:50.510]Right, the first one.
[00:00:52.237]How about Carlos Montezuma?
[00:00:53.858]Have you heard of him as well?
[00:00:57.270]People that, and you can keep going on and on,
[00:01:00.477]Native Americans that have done different things
[00:01:03.230]that have contributed, in some way,
[00:01:05.290]to the betterment of not only the country,
[00:01:06.880]but some people that they've tried to help.
[00:01:09.690]Although, if you look at that,
[00:01:10.980]originally, and I have a slide that I'd like
[00:01:13.978]to talk about in a little bit.
[00:01:15.619]They always say people's perspectives about who you are
[00:01:20.320]and what one can do is extremely broad.
[00:01:24.593]When I said last night that I saw you,
[00:01:26.652]and I was looking at you, and I thought
[00:01:28.273]what can one do, what could you.
[00:01:30.713]I don't know if you thought much about that.
[00:01:34.680]What do you wanna do, here now
[00:01:37.190]in this program that you're in?
[00:01:40.260]When you're done, what do you think you'll be?
[00:01:42.833]Where can you imagine?
[00:01:47.953]Correct, well, sometimes what you need,
[00:01:50.353]that's what I'm talking about,
[00:01:53.769]what she had to do, right, in order
[00:01:55.030]to finally arrive there.
[00:01:56.450]Sometimes you have to sacrifice certain things
[00:01:59.140]along the way to arrive at the point
[00:02:01.516]which you are now.
[00:02:02.450]Even myself, I've never heard that term,
[00:02:05.020]urban community, before.
[00:02:06.340]I've heard lots of different terms,
[00:02:08.300]and you grow tough skin on the outside
[00:02:12.430]'cause, you know, you dealt with it a lot in your life.
[00:02:15.030]But, this is prominent when I see this type
[00:02:18.050]of behavior here.
[00:02:19.270]All their achievements that you see,
[00:02:21.620]you know, I had spoken to you a little bit
[00:02:23.968]about when I was at Montana State, I could keep going on.
[00:02:25.930]I was the first to graduate in the College of Engineering
[00:02:30.320]back in '94.
[00:02:32.520]You guys probably weren't even born.
[00:02:33.980]But anyhow, I think I'm getting old.
[00:02:37.460]I was the first to graduate in the College of Engineering
[00:02:39.690]as a Native American.
[00:02:40.810]I was the first to graduate from Virginia Tech
[00:02:43.220]with a PhD.
[00:02:44.910]You know, everyone has a story.
[00:02:46.330]I'm sure Dr. Thomas will talk about,
[00:02:48.400]probably one of the very first
[00:02:50.360]to graduate in different areas,
[00:02:51.790]and to see that there's many of us
[00:02:54.520]that have done different things,
[00:02:56.060]and we're one of the first generation,
[00:02:58.667]just like your grandparents talked about,
[00:03:00.448]the first, this first, and what we tried to do
[00:03:03.940]is provide a pathway for you to be successful.
[00:03:07.740]Have you ever seen an ice breaker before?
[00:03:10.844]Does anyone know what an ice breaker is?
[00:03:14.100]No?
[00:03:16.110]So, if you ever watch that show, Bering Sea,
[00:03:20.907]Fishing in the Bering Sea, does anyone
[00:03:24.086]know where the Bering Sea is?
[00:03:26.470]Yeah.
[00:03:27.569]So, it's up there, you know, up near Manaka.
[00:03:29.570]It freezes over 'cause it's so frickin cold, right.
[00:03:32.330]It's so cold.
[00:03:33.590]So, they'll have this ice breakers,
[00:03:35.210]which are ships that have really thick hulls,
[00:03:38.040]thick skin, right.
[00:03:41.200]Their job is to go through and break the ice
[00:03:44.510]so that others can follow behind,
[00:03:48.060]so other ships can do that.
[00:03:49.340]So, once you break it up, and you get this ice broken,
[00:03:52.280]as long as other ships start flowing through there,
[00:03:54.450]that stays open forever, or forever in the sense
[00:03:58.080]that until spring comes and melts,
[00:04:00.000]and you start all over again.
[00:04:02.610]However, if no one follows behind you,
[00:04:06.250]you can guess what happens, right.
[00:04:08.651]The ice that was broken comes back together
[00:04:10.744]and refreezes again.
[00:04:14.550]So, all of us here that are talking to you,
[00:04:19.547]Dr. Thomas will talk to you, you probably
[00:04:21.426]have others that have told you stories.
[00:04:22.969]Your grandparents told you those stories, right.
[00:04:25.040]We were different ice breakers
[00:04:26.550]that have come forward and done things
[00:04:28.760]to try to make it, to try to provide a path for you
[00:04:32.460]to go forward, to overcome.
[00:04:35.851]I'm envious of you 'cause of all the things
[00:04:39.408]that you're going to be able to do
[00:04:40.770]that are going to be opportunities for you,
[00:04:44.140]and I think that's gonna be a wonderful thing.
[00:04:45.850]So, let me tell you a little bit about myself.
[00:04:48.331]Now, Cornelius.
[00:04:53.051]Does anybody know these Cornelius's?
[00:04:55.670]Yeah, all of them.
[00:04:57.086]Yeah.
[00:04:59.350](audience laughs)
[00:05:00.367]Yeah, you know back in the,
[00:05:02.827]in fact, my wife dared me to do it.
[00:05:05.020]Then she found out later on that I was a nerd.
[00:05:08.910]Secretly, I was secretly a nerd all the time.
[00:05:12.649]I actually won pizza just for American Bandstand.
[00:05:17.345]But, anyhow, I'm pretty good at it.
[00:05:20.651]So, I do with I was Cornelius Bennett,
[00:05:23.186]but you know, I'm a small guy, and that's
[00:05:24.300]not gonna happen, right.
[00:05:26.850]Any of you guys remember this guy?
[00:05:28.204]Yeah.
[00:05:29.120]Yeah, what did he, what was he looking for?
[00:05:32.210]Some gold, right.
[00:05:34.280]His ice pick, throws it up and he goes, no,
[00:05:36.710]dang it, not there yet.
[00:05:38.920]I always was embarrassed when I was younger
[00:05:41.240]about this one.
[00:05:42.487]Does anyone know who this is?
[00:05:44.043]Some of the older ones in here,
[00:05:45.650]we totally know this one.
[00:05:47.467]This was, they actually had action figures
[00:05:49.426]of all these people.
[00:05:53.430]That was a hard one, you know, 'cause growing up
[00:05:55.211]in Montana you know, it's like, Cornelius.
[00:05:56.526]It's almost no Cornelius.
[00:05:58.408]Actually, I don't even know anyone.
[00:06:00.220]Although, sometimes I wish I was
[00:06:02.250]related to this man up here.
[00:06:04.811]Anyone know who Cornelius Vanderbilt is?
[00:06:08.571]Who knows?
[00:06:09.404]Nobody?
[00:06:12.530]Okay, who is it?
[00:06:14.390]He was one of the wealthy people
[00:06:17.910]of the early 20th century.
[00:06:19.480]Was he a robber baron?
[00:06:21.440]He was the train man.
[00:06:23.510]The train man.
[00:06:24.557]So, you can look at all of the different,
[00:06:26.667]you know, these big Roosevelts,
[00:06:29.470]that had all this power, and you had JP Morgan, right,
[00:06:33.640]these big people that came and really
[00:06:36.730]shaped, formed this country in different ways.
[00:06:40.310]Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of these people,
[00:06:43.771]incredibly rich man.
[00:06:44.604]I remember when I was living in Connecticut,
[00:06:49.200]they had this place where you're really rich,
[00:06:51.490]and all these rich people were in Rhode Island,
[00:06:54.345]and they would go up there in the summer
[00:06:55.270]because it's actually beautiful up there
[00:06:57.290]in the Northeast during the summer.
[00:06:58.731]They all had their homes.
[00:07:01.370]One woman that had a home, who was related to JP Morgan,
[00:07:04.460]the entire building was made of marble.
[00:07:06.800]It came all from Italy.
[00:07:08.630]It had to be grand marble.
[00:07:10.827]So, the whole house was marble.
[00:07:12.120]The walls were marble.
[00:07:13.728]The floors and all were marble.
[00:07:14.561]It was just for summer.
[00:07:16.170]They would come there for maybe a month,
[00:07:17.750]and that was it.
[00:07:18.747]Then they'd go to other places.
[00:07:20.107]So, Cornelius Vanderbilt had the same thing.
[00:07:22.287]He had all these summer homes.
[00:07:23.790]Sometimes I wish I was related to him.
[00:07:26.827]And, of course, he's really cool in my mind,
[00:07:28.790]and I wish I was related to him as well.
[00:07:32.769]I just though I would mention that.
[00:07:34.545]So, anyhow, and then, of course, Pope Cornelius,
[00:07:36.920]which my mom wishes sometimes I'd lean
[00:07:39.095]to religion.
[00:07:40.750]I have a brother who's a pastor.
[00:07:43.457]That was one of the callings that my parents
[00:07:45.030]wish I would've done, but I'm other than that.
[00:07:48.753]Which one?
[00:07:50.215]Which one?
[00:07:51.048]All of them.
[00:07:52.563]Actually, I'm not related to all those.
[00:07:54.950]Actually, probably, if you talk to my mom,
[00:07:58.470]and when my dad was alive, they'd say him.
[00:08:00.615]You know, a lot of the names that my family members have,
[00:08:02.892]which is a big family, we have a big family.
[00:08:05.500]Eight in our family total.
[00:08:08.580]All of them have somewhat religious names,
[00:08:10.400]'cause that is what they're hope was.
[00:08:13.340]You do this, and then, you know, your life
[00:08:15.560]will be better in some way, right.
[00:08:17.340]We give ourselves names for reasons.
[00:08:19.770]Names represent something in hopes
[00:08:22.604]that we might be something of it.
[00:08:24.633]Now, like I said, I'm not one of those guys,
[00:08:27.436]but that's okay.
[00:08:28.600]I'll accept who I am and what I do.
[00:08:32.220]So, you've heard this theme come forward, right.
[00:08:36.440]Why college?
[00:08:38.215]Why go to college?
[00:08:39.916]Why college?
[00:08:41.000]There's other paths that you,
[00:08:44.220]what are some of the reasons why you're in,
[00:08:48.360]where you are right now?
[00:08:49.870]Why have you chosen this?
[00:08:53.663]What is your hope by doing this?
[00:08:56.960]Where do you see yourself later?
[00:08:59.470]These are the questions we have to think about, right.
[00:09:02.367]I did tell you, I told this story before.
[00:09:05.304]My original path was not the most traditional in any way.
[00:09:11.050]We talked a little bit about that.
[00:09:14.520]This is a question for you, and when we
[00:09:17.100]were talking last night, and I saw you,
[00:09:19.010]and I heard that we, in my heart
[00:09:21.590]that you have potential that you just don't know yet.
[00:09:24.080]You're so young.
[00:09:25.650]This is a drop in the bucket for you right now.
[00:09:29.343]What you want to do is push yourself
[00:09:33.460]and see what you can become.
[00:09:36.380]I sometimes think of it this way.
[00:09:40.677]So, you grew up here, right.
[00:09:42.240]Let's imagine this.
[00:09:45.370]When you were one year old, and I took you as a child,
[00:09:50.300]right, and I put you in Japan.
[00:09:53.023]You have your parents that are perfect.
[00:09:55.653]I put you in Japan with new parents who are Japanese.
[00:10:00.960]What do you think?
[00:10:02.720]Who would you be?
[00:10:04.870]What language would you speak?
[00:10:10.480]Absolutely.
[00:10:12.863]You'd have some sushi and rice.
[00:10:14.650]You'd speak Japanese.
[00:10:16.720]You'd probably speak Chinese.
[00:10:18.150]You learn English, but you'd still
[00:10:20.890]be on the outside the same person.
[00:10:23.500]Inside of you, there are other core things
[00:10:26.460]that make you who you are.
[00:10:30.593]What has happened is the circumstances
[00:10:33.066]around you, that mold you indefinitely, right.
[00:10:36.880]So, what we are hoping for you is
[00:10:39.400]that we can, you can put yourself into an environment
[00:10:42.920]that can change your circumstances.
[00:10:46.042]Then, who you become as a result of that
[00:10:48.463]could be pretty dramatic in all ways,
[00:10:53.710]which is exciting, right.
[00:10:54.740]You have incredible potential.
[00:10:57.560]I always think of it like Aladdin, right.
[00:11:01.282]What did they say about Aladdin?
[00:11:04.710]Remember that?
[00:11:07.130]When he had to go into the Sphinx,
[00:11:08.929]what did they refer to Aladdin as?
[00:11:11.800]The diamond in the rough, something that you
[00:11:14.400]just don't know yet what it is.
[00:11:16.310]So, this is why I think you should continue forward.
[00:11:19.610]I would challenge you to seriously think about that.
[00:11:22.390]There are so many things that you could do.
[00:11:25.090]Now, here's a picture of my father.
[00:11:30.320]Unfortunately, I can't, I don't have facial hair.
[00:11:33.550]That's one of those genetic features
[00:11:35.397]when you're Native, sometimes you don't get that.
[00:11:38.363]So, not happening.
[00:11:41.363]My father was incredibly supportive.
[00:11:44.490]He went to Haskell, and my mother went to Haskell.
[00:11:48.650]That's where they met.
[00:11:51.410]He then shared some of his life, you know,
[00:11:54.600]basically grew up in Haskell.
[00:11:56.380]He was there since he was 10.
[00:11:58.790]He spent his entire time there.
[00:12:00.370]The original mission of Haskell wasn't
[00:12:02.020]to train you in the way that it is now.
[00:12:04.650]It was actually there to train you in a trade.
[00:12:07.980]If you look at what America's original thought there,
[00:12:12.559]the government, they thought that we as Natives,
[00:12:14.863]aren't really intelligent enough
[00:12:17.630]to learn more than that.
[00:12:19.860]So, we would be best if we were taught,
[00:12:22.724]that we would get a trade of some sort,
[00:12:24.658]'cause that's what we do.
[00:12:25.491]We could do really well at that,
[00:12:26.870]but other things, not so much.
[00:12:28.670]This is in the early 1880s.
[00:12:31.182]Now me, today, if I was there, I'd say,
[00:12:34.510]why did you seek that.
[00:12:37.082]What has made you make that decision?
[00:12:40.350]You can always find this throughout history.
[00:12:42.460]It doesn't matter what culture you're talking about.
[00:12:44.550]They'll make assumptions about you.
[00:12:47.340]So, my background is that I learned a lot.
[00:12:51.250]I was like you, a very quiet person.
[00:12:55.760]All of you are very quiet.
[00:12:59.604]You are, shy.
[00:13:01.430]You're more shy than I am today.
[00:13:05.140]But, I did learn something.
[00:13:07.300]This is why I was telling you about this,
[00:13:10.260]if you grew up in Japan, and it changed you.
[00:13:13.090]So, I had not done anything really before
[00:13:16.470]in the sense of life changing.
[00:13:18.820]I grew up in Montana.
[00:13:19.970]There was only two Native families in my high school.
[00:13:22.884]I mean literally two families.
[00:13:24.500]That was it.
[00:13:25.750]I was one of them.
[00:13:28.010]We were the Cornelius family 'cause we were big,
[00:13:29.350]so they knew a lot about us.
[00:13:31.110]Anyhow, there was only two.
[00:13:33.538]It was hard for us.
[00:13:36.710]Probably for me, the change probably for me the most,
[00:13:40.735]all of us have some life changing event,
[00:13:43.390]is I joined the military 'cause I wanted
[00:13:45.680]to try to change my life.
[00:13:47.401]Earlier in the back, we had some talking
[00:13:50.180]about being at the University of Iowa,
[00:13:53.760]and the family, exciting them, right.
[00:13:55.450]So, think after that.
[00:13:57.220]Even for me, that's the same story.
[00:14:00.362]I got married in high school.
[00:14:04.783]We had a child when I was a senior.
[00:14:09.002]I worked as a grocery store cashier first
[00:14:12.020]before I did anything.
[00:14:13.130]But then, in my mind, I knew that this
[00:14:15.350]was not gonna be a life that I could then use
[00:14:18.470]to help my children to be better,
[00:14:20.460]make it better for them in any way, I knew that.
[00:14:23.360]So, I had to do something.
[00:14:24.600]I had to change that.
[00:14:26.644]So, what I decided to do originally
[00:14:28.140]was go into the Army.
[00:14:30.027]That's what I chose to do originally.
[00:14:33.980]Thank goodness my recruiter talked me
[00:14:35.760]out of going full time.
[00:14:36.760]I actually went into the Reserves.
[00:14:38.862]It taught me some things, especially in basic training.
[00:14:41.180]So, what do you guys know about basic training,
[00:14:42.850]about any military?
[00:14:44.420]Do you have any family that went into the military?
[00:14:46.490]Yes, did you go into the military?
[00:14:48.241]No.
[00:14:49.620]So, what happened to her before and after?
[00:14:52.110]When she went in, she was quiet and shy.
[00:14:54.460]So, it is very overwhelming.
[00:14:57.030]I think the first thing you experience,
[00:14:59.380]so, for me, I said very shy guy,
[00:15:01.684]very shy person, you know.
[00:15:04.260]I was taught to listen.
[00:15:06.480]When it's time to speak, speak like the traditional way
[00:15:10.610]in which we're raised, right.
[00:15:12.875]When you get in the military, and you're in basic training,
[00:15:15.430]they shave off all your hair, and then they
[00:15:18.660]start challenging you every single moment.
[00:15:22.880]You people fall into certain groups,
[00:15:25.536]and immediately you find out.
[00:15:27.250]Now, what I found is you have people
[00:15:29.800]that either will, the majority of people
[00:15:32.470]will want to follow orders, 'cause it's very stressful.
[00:15:37.035]It's easier to be a follower than anything else.
[00:15:40.630]Then there are some, because it's very traumatic
[00:15:43.910]to do this, some, like you were talking about,
[00:15:47.296]you know, this is not really the right fit for you,
[00:15:49.220]so you stop, and so you see some people
[00:15:52.933]not make it through the process.
[00:15:56.000]Then there's another smaller group like me,
[00:15:58.330]and others, that said I do not like
[00:16:01.000]being told what to do.
[00:16:03.150](laughs)
[00:16:04.569]I just don't like it.
[00:16:06.430]So, after that, and other things we learned, too,
[00:16:11.320]I got very fluent in four letter words now,
[00:16:13.950]which I get into even more.
[00:16:16.313]Like I said earlier, my brother's a pastor,
[00:16:19.870]and I thought about going down that path,
[00:16:22.153]but you can't use those four letter words anymore.
[00:16:24.670]You become very fluent in that language.
[00:16:26.720]Why do you become that way?
[00:16:28.291]Because you get so stressed out
[00:16:29.930]that you have to, your tolerance for things
[00:16:35.390]becomes small.
[00:16:38.110]That means in all ways.
[00:16:39.310]So, for me, what I learned, and all those
[00:16:42.330]around me learned, that we cared about two things,
[00:16:45.110]honesty and integrity.
[00:16:46.900]Communal, working together as a team,
[00:16:49.970]and challenging each other.
[00:16:51.720]That is something that was very strong.
[00:16:54.610]So, when you learn those things, and when I left,
[00:16:57.800]I learned that I am not going to let anyone
[00:17:01.360]say no to me.
[00:17:03.700]You have no right to say no to me.
[00:17:07.209]I was telling you about my first experience
[00:17:09.150]when I went to Montana State where I had
[00:17:11.290]a certain economics professor that said to me,
[00:17:13.457]"oh, we've never had anyone like you
[00:17:15.077]"graduate from here before."
[00:17:16.780]I wanted to say oh, yeah, I got some
[00:17:18.570]four letter words for you.
[00:17:20.030]But, anyhow, instead of saying something like that,
[00:17:22.606]I was like, I'll show you.
[00:17:23.623]I will succeed where you said I could not.
[00:17:26.470]I wish he was still around.
[00:17:28.020]He probably died.
[00:17:29.369]It would be kind of awesome to go back and say hey,
[00:17:31.550]look how many publications I had.
[00:17:33.229]How many did you have?
[00:17:34.062]How much have you done?
[00:17:34.930]I've done so much more than you,
[00:17:36.606]and you've been here forever.
[00:17:37.550]What's wrong with you?
[00:17:39.297]Right, your thought that I could not
[00:17:41.290]do what you said was wrong in every way.
[00:17:45.104]This person had assumed what one could do.
[00:17:48.686]Just like right now, you have teachers
[00:17:50.760]and other people on the outside assume
[00:17:52.686]that you should be a certain way,
[00:17:55.000]assume that you can't achieve something.
[00:17:58.010]Our goal is to say no, that's not true.
[00:18:00.310]Don't allow that to happen.
[00:18:02.567]You know, Cindy was up there talking about,
[00:18:10.340]yeah, Rebecca, she was talking about you know,
[00:18:13.588]I've heard these stories of no crab in the bucket
[00:18:16.126]and all that stuff, but I think in general,
[00:18:17.570]that's kind of what we feel, right,
[00:18:19.610]people think about me.
[00:18:21.828]You know what?
[00:18:22.825]Don't care about that.
[00:18:24.377]That's a drop in the bucket of life.
[00:18:27.740]So, that's what I did.
[00:18:28.573]I worked, and it taught me things.
[00:18:30.550]The military taught me again, as I said to you.
[00:18:33.050]It taught me that I was going to say
[00:18:35.326]I don't care if you say no.
[00:18:37.622]I'm gonna do what I think I need to do.
[00:18:41.497]I'm not gonna do that right now.
[00:18:49.899]But, I got to do something that really inspired me
[00:18:52.140]to do the things I do.
[00:18:56.640]Now, when you go into chemical engineering,
[00:18:58.260]or any discipline that you decide to go into,
[00:19:00.870]you're gonna find some things that you like.
[00:19:07.325]Professor didn't really talk about all the things
[00:19:10.128]we do as a civil engineer, but there are also
[00:19:13.125]things like chemical engineering, electrical engineering.
[00:19:16.440]So, for me to be finished, you're at X,
[00:19:19.867]flow, all these things.
[00:19:22.180]Which one do I wanna choose?
[00:19:23.260]That's always the hard part.
[00:19:25.029]What do I wanna choose?
[00:19:26.000]So, for me, I found I love polymers
[00:19:29.770]because I worked for Dow Chemical.
[00:19:31.700]When I did, I was involved with a lot
[00:19:34.020]of different outreach activities during that time,
[00:19:36.170]but also, I learned that I could take materials
[00:19:39.510]and design them using catalysts.
[00:19:42.550]That just fascinated me that I could
[00:19:45.408]basically give birth to materials that don't exist,
[00:19:49.417]and alter their properties by combining them
[00:19:52.180]in different ways.
[00:19:55.287]That, to me, was sexy.
[00:19:58.570]Of course, I got boring, but to me that's exciting,
[00:20:01.710]right, to be able to design something you want,
[00:20:03.783]like the glasses you have are some type
[00:20:06.100]of polymer material, and if I change its composition,
[00:20:09.210]I could change its refracted index,
[00:20:11.230]and thereby making it either thinner or thicker,
[00:20:13.850]or make it do whatever you want it to do.
[00:20:15.710]First generation of contact lenses
[00:20:17.800]were created off what we call hybrid organic
[00:20:19.830]inorganic materials, which are a combination
[00:20:22.180]of polymer and cellulose acetone based materials
[00:20:25.470]of metal, that made them soft and pliable,
[00:20:28.770]and oxygen permeable, so that you could
[00:20:30.340]wear them for hours, all day long.
[00:20:33.270]That's a polymeric material.
[00:20:35.620]So, I fell in love with that.
[00:20:37.270]I had a chance to work at 3M.
[00:20:38.670]I lived close to my brother in Aberdeen, South Dakota,
[00:20:41.980]which I had no idea that it got that cold.
[00:20:45.190]I'm from Montana.
[00:20:47.088]That, I don't even know, they should ban that state.
[00:20:50.672]It's too cold.
[00:20:51.952]I don't know why.
[00:20:53.488]It's insane cold.
[00:20:55.669]So, anyhow, I thought I was from the cold,
[00:20:57.667]but that was something.
[00:20:58.500]But, this really inspired me to go
[00:21:00.380]and do graduate work.
[00:21:02.528]The reason for that, just like right now,
[00:21:04.110]you're in a junior college, and there
[00:21:07.008]will be certain things you can do,
[00:21:09.163]and certain things you cannot do.
[00:21:11.429]So, when I was at 3M, this is what really
[00:21:13.190]showed me that I had to go on further,
[00:21:15.860]I remember I was running a plant in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
[00:21:20.971]I really wanted to do more research stuff,
[00:21:23.640]research-like stuff.
[00:21:25.370]So, I read, you know, I would read.
[00:21:27.589]I knew a lot of stuff, and we had this one guy
[00:21:30.680]that came from, he came from Notre Dame,
[00:21:34.800]but, because he had a PhD, he got to run everything.
[00:21:37.607]He had a background in metallics.
[00:21:39.290]He knew nothing about polymers, I mean zippo,
[00:21:44.032]but because he had a PhD, because that's the culture
[00:21:46.810]within many companies, this person
[00:21:49.330]was allowed to make all decisions in everything,
[00:21:52.229]even though they had no knowledge or experience.
[00:21:57.040]That just frustrated me.
[00:21:58.460]I remember trying to move within 3M
[00:22:01.420]through that little delusion, and I kept
[00:22:03.800]getting the same response, which was well, Chris,
[00:22:06.947]you don't have a PhD.
[00:22:08.038]Well, Chris, you don't have this polymer background.
[00:22:10.427]Well, Chris, you don't have that.
[00:22:11.527]It's like well, okay, you're not gonna say no to me.
[00:22:15.510]So, I decided to leave for that reason,
[00:22:18.848]'cause they said no.
[00:22:19.820]Like I said at the beginning, this no thing,
[00:22:23.181]you can use it to your advantage.
[00:22:25.640]Where did you really want to be?
[00:22:27.762]Because you're young, all the things
[00:22:29.977]that you can do are endless, right.
[00:22:35.464]So, that inspired me leave from there,
[00:22:39.360]finish my PhD at Virginia Tech,
[00:22:41.880]start an asis program there, expanded there,
[00:22:44.980]and then I ended up being able
[00:22:47.085]to do a whole bunch of things because I would not
[00:22:50.790]let someone say no to me.
[00:22:53.800]That let me do all sorts of things.
[00:22:55.430]So, I had a group, I actually had Russian scientists
[00:22:59.330]working in my lab for three years
[00:23:01.540]'cause they wanted to come work with me..
[00:23:03.210]We built this idea, I had this crazy idea
[00:23:05.430]that I could take what we call a pressure swing
[00:23:09.559]into our group, which is basically a thing
[00:23:12.410]that had geode lights in it, which are like rocks,
[00:23:16.184]some rocks, porous rocks.
[00:23:19.303]I could take that and I could combine it
[00:23:22.120]with carbon molecular sieves, and then I put it
[00:23:24.100]in combination with membranes.
[00:23:27.940]What I could do is I could take oxygen from air,
[00:23:31.299]does anyone know what the concentration
[00:23:32.597]of oxygen and hydrogen of air is?
[00:23:34.740]Yes.
[00:23:38.480]Yes.
[00:23:39.760]So, what I did is I designed something
[00:23:42.480]that could take a combination of a PSA,
[00:23:45.200]a membrane technology, and I could produce oxygen
[00:23:48.353]that is 96%, and recover 78% of it from air.
[00:23:53.603]So, that was patented.
[00:23:54.643]So, I had research scientists from Russia
[00:23:57.260]come and work with me.
[00:23:58.904]We developed this as a product.
[00:24:01.990]Again, the only reason I could do that
[00:24:04.264]is because I decided I'm gonna go further.
[00:24:06.423]I'm not gonna let someone say no to me.
[00:24:09.805]That let me do all sorts of different things.
[00:24:10.940]I had a company from, does anybody know
[00:24:12.920]who Sharp Corporation is?
[00:24:16.360]Sharp?
[00:24:18.720]Yeah, yeah, Sharp microwave.
[00:24:20.400]So, I had a job with these scientists
[00:24:22.328]that come from Japan, and they worked with me
[00:24:24.860]for two years, developed portable fuel cells
[00:24:28.320]that are sometimes used to power things
[00:24:30.830]like your radio, your car, that range of things.
[00:24:35.200]So, they came and worked with me
[00:24:36.340]to help do those things.
[00:24:38.110]All those, so I helped mentor all sorts
[00:24:41.520]of different people, and again,
[00:24:43.786]to go back to the very beginning, who was I?
[00:24:46.528]I was just some guy.
[00:24:47.890]So, because I said no, and I said I'm not
[00:24:51.290]gonna let you say no, this kind of gives you
[00:24:53.480]a background of who I am.
[00:24:54.800]I have been, I had a path, right.
[00:24:59.380]I contributed in multiple ways.
[00:25:01.010]People know who I am based on papers I've written,
[00:25:04.040]more than just the poster.
[00:25:06.620]My background is such that I really
[00:25:08.580]am interested in the intersection of materials,
[00:25:11.260]water, energy, things that help society,
[00:25:14.510]that's what I'm really interested in.
[00:25:16.510]I like solving problems.
[00:25:18.531]Because of that, it's allowed me to work
[00:25:20.893]with all sorts of different people
[00:25:22.387]throughout that, 3M, Toyota, Honda, Goodyear, Sharp.
[00:25:25.970]I could list a whole bunch of different companies
[00:25:27.900]I worked with simply because I was going to
[00:25:30.840]turn that no into a yes, and turn that yes
[00:25:34.947]into something else.
[00:25:36.650]So, when I look at you, I say I'm so happy
[00:25:40.980]to see that you're in college right now.
[00:25:44.248]I would say go further than that.
[00:25:46.684]Think beyond where you are in life now.
[00:25:49.245]What I was saying to you, you don't have to come here.
[00:25:52.264]You could go somewhere else, but the idea
[00:25:54.500]is that you could continue on, and there's such
[00:25:57.345]a successful road that's ahead with you.
[00:26:00.400]There's so many people with models.
[00:26:02.183]Yes, there is going to be challenges.
[00:26:05.720]That's just the way life is, right, challenges.
[00:26:08.845]But, you can turn those challenges
[00:26:10.560]into opportunities for you.
[00:26:13.110]So, here's some monetary reasons
[00:26:16.570]why you should consider that.
[00:26:18.430]It's funny, I'm gonna tell you a story.
[00:26:20.670]A couple years ago, I think about seven years ago,
[00:26:24.790]my brother and I, rather my family,
[00:26:27.237]and my youngest son, we were playing the game of Life.
[00:26:29.980]You ever played Life before?
[00:26:33.620]Yeah?
[00:26:34.830]At least one you'll admit, right.
[00:26:36.470]What do you know about Life, the game Life?
[00:26:39.650]You said you played it.
[00:26:40.483]What do you know about Life?
[00:26:45.770]You said, I saw you raise your hand.
[00:26:47.057]Did you say you played the game Life before?
[00:26:49.860]Uh, yeah.
[00:26:51.430]What do you remember about it?
[00:26:53.343]You had to go on a board,
[00:26:55.130]and you gather money, trust funds.
[00:27:01.438]Yeah.
[00:27:03.390]Yeah, it's kind of a fun game, right.
[00:27:06.250]It's decisions, right.
[00:27:07.083]You have to make decisions of what you wanna do.
[00:27:09.659]So, my son, we started off the game.
[00:27:11.470]The first thing he decided right away
[00:27:12.900]is I'm gonna go, what did he say,
[00:27:15.077]I'm gonna take the first career possible.
[00:27:17.100]So, he chose the lowest bar of all.
[00:27:19.670]Then, you know, everyone else said they
[00:27:21.120]were all gonna go to college.
[00:27:24.260]So, towards the end of the game, he goes,
[00:27:26.540]'cause he had nothing, he was broke,
[00:27:28.120]and he had four kids.
[00:27:29.822]He was broke, and he goes I should've went to college.
[00:27:32.462]I wish I could've filmed that.
[00:27:33.758]It was so funny.
[00:27:34.760]But anyhow, that's, whether you're talking
[00:27:36.550]about that game or not, you could
[00:27:38.720]look at where you could be within the spectrum.
[00:27:43.858]There's nothing wrong with any of these choices
[00:27:47.010]that one could make, but if you're hungry inside
[00:27:51.043]that you know that there's more than that
[00:27:54.250]to achieve, that you know you can achieve more,
[00:27:57.800]this gives you a range, right.
[00:28:00.320]Basically, high school, you could go
[00:28:01.720]from 30 to well beyond 100 plus thousand dollars,
[00:28:08.055]just by continuing to move forward.
[00:28:10.563]In doing that, you pick up different opportunities
[00:28:12.859]like this one that I chose to be here.
[00:28:14.840]I really want to try to help others,
[00:28:17.160]inspire them, try to get beyond.
[00:28:19.822]I think it's necessary, so I sacrificed to be here,
[00:28:26.191]and that's okay, 'cause it's fun.
[00:28:29.093]It's fun to be with you.
[00:28:32.800]I know this is probably, this always
[00:28:35.587]reminds me of Dude, Where's My Car.
[00:28:37.685]Did you guys ever watch that before?
[00:28:39.107]Remember, they're, he's ordering food,
[00:28:41.285]and he goes why.
[00:28:42.291]And then, and then, and then, right.
[00:28:43.790]So, if you ever heard this comic, right.
[00:28:47.120]Why go to college?
[00:28:49.510]I'm sure you probably heard this before.
[00:28:51.766]So, you get a degree, so you get a good job,
[00:28:53.890]so you make more money.
[00:28:56.691]The opportunities that you're gonna be hearing
[00:28:58.820]later on is there are many things
[00:29:02.200]that are in place to try to help you in college,
[00:29:05.688]help make it possible for you to go,
[00:29:08.049]so it's easier for you to succeed.
[00:29:09.960]I would say that you want to take advantage
[00:29:12.270]of all those things right here.
[00:29:16.940]People wanna see you succeed like me
[00:29:19.171]and this whole program.
[00:29:20.248]That's what it's all about.
[00:29:22.745]So, like Billy Mills, anyone know who Billy Mills is?
[00:29:25.651]He was a cool guy, right.
[00:29:26.800]My dad and him went to school together.
[00:29:29.470]But, think about if he had stopped, right.
[00:29:31.700]He was originally at Haskell.
[00:29:34.168]I don't know if you were aware or not,
[00:29:35.608]if you know that.
[00:29:36.611]He was at Haskell first, right.
[00:29:37.608]Imagine if he had taken all those no's,
[00:29:42.170]he also went in the Marines.
[00:29:45.793]But, anyhow, he took all those no's,
[00:29:49.297]and decided to take a challenge to go to Kansas,
[00:29:52.300]which then allowed him to have an opportunity
[00:29:54.140]to become an Olympic person, and win a gold medal.
[00:29:59.183]Imagine if he had caved in to all those people
[00:30:03.610]that had said you can't do that.
[00:30:07.423]What do you think you're doing?
[00:30:10.495]Because of this, now he's an inspiration to others,
[00:30:13.290]and has a gold medal.
[00:30:15.560]So, when you're thinking about all these things,
[00:30:18.020]I know that all of us have some kind
[00:30:20.175]of adapting, just culturally.
[00:30:22.890]We can use those as strengths, right.
[00:30:26.120]You can use relationships to do that.
[00:30:29.130]We hear earlier, sometimes you have overcome
[00:30:32.210]certain things, but in general, you know,
[00:30:34.890]there's lots of community that will
[00:30:37.652]help you be successful.
[00:30:39.092]Take advantage of those.
[00:30:40.473]So, when I see you, I see this.
[00:30:42.473]I see all these little different seeds, potential.
[00:30:46.287]The question will then become who do you become, right.
[00:30:52.852]Not that I'm saying you're an orange or a pear.
[00:30:56.120]What I'm saying is there's something in you
[00:30:59.535]that could be significant, even more
[00:31:02.160]that what we know now.
[00:31:05.380]So, I'm sure you've all read the Sneeches before.
[00:31:09.753]Don't let someone say to you because you don't
[00:31:12.113]have a star on your belly that you're not good enough.
[00:31:15.190]Don't let that be the thing that stops you.
[00:31:18.393]Don't let that occur.
[00:31:19.750]Don't let that be the thing that prevents you
[00:31:25.033]from becoming who you possibly could be.
[00:31:32.073]Sitting Bull said, "Let's put our minds together
[00:31:33.787]"to see what we can build for our children."
[00:31:37.390]Last night you heard stories, and like I
[00:31:40.320]was saying earlier at the very beginning,
[00:31:42.110]there are generational things that are occurring here.
[00:31:44.840]You are a part of another generation,
[00:31:47.310]and the question will be the thing that you build
[00:31:50.260]will be benefits for your children,
[00:31:52.317]and your children's children.
[00:31:56.570]So, the sacrifices that you are making,
[00:32:00.130]you may not see the benefit now,
[00:32:02.380]but maybe in another 30-odd years, you'll see it.
[00:32:07.840]It'll be a wonderful thing to see.
[00:32:10.390]So, we kind of finish right here.
[00:32:12.686]I simply say you're on this wonderful journey.
[00:32:15.750]I'm so excited to see that you have
[00:32:18.027]decided to come here.
[00:32:19.510]I'm hoping that you will come out sometime
[00:32:22.386]to call and talk.
[00:32:27.180]But, I'm gonna stop here.
[00:32:29.830]Like I said, you're on a journey that I
[00:32:31.530]am jealous of because opportunities
[00:32:36.450]that you have are far greater than when I was there.
[00:32:40.040]Dr. Thomas will share his.
[00:32:42.190]Because someone has helped pave the way
[00:32:44.891]as an ice breaker for you, you are successful.
[00:32:48.100]That's a challenge for you now.
[00:32:49.820]What are you gonna do with that?
[00:32:51.566]Are you gonna let it close up behind you,
[00:32:53.050]or are you gonna follow along,
[00:32:54.430]what your parents did, what your grandparents did?
[00:32:58.200]So, I'm gonna stop here.
[00:33:00.729]I'm gonna have to teach, but I will
[00:33:01.930]give this couple of minutes if you
[00:33:03.990]have any questions for me.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Tags:
ntc
matc
nebraska transportation center
mid-america transportation center
matc scholars program
scholars program
chris cornelius

Comments

0 Comments

2018 MATC Scholars Program: Dr. Chris Cornelius

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments