I think the next generation should choose
to go into the developmental sciences because
I think technology has made the globe smaller,
and we all, as humans on this globe, are involved
in human development and, therefore, learning
about developmental science, having the opportunity
to use it globally.
Not just locally.
It provides the opportunity for us to improve
our relationships with each other as humans,
and to respect the diversity, and to use that
knowledge to improve everyone's, you know,
life course situation.
There are many different opportunities and
different ways
that you can really make a difference.
So, you can do it on an individual level through
intervention programs,
working directly with families.
You can do it - make changes at the systemic
level, and so, working with schools, perhaps.
Or changing policy and really impacting larger
community level or country-level processes.
And so, developmental science gives you, depending
on what you specialize in, can give you the
ability to work with these problems at multiple levels.
I felt I could be much more impactful at many
different levels by doing research, which
is why I chose it.
We need to learn about how to reduce problem
behaviors and negative outcomes,
but that's not sufficient.
We need to go beyond that.
We need to, also, start to understand how
we can foster and promote more positive outcomes
in ethnic/racial minority kids, and I think
that's one major way in which the developmental
sciences has evolved.
Around the world, I see a need for evidence
of research and science to play a role in
practices and policies that affect children.
So, there's a particular need for the expertise,
which is understanding how programs and policies
should really track the development of children
and how their needs, their potential, their
skills, and their interests change across
development.
If we don't do that, we can end up with "one size
fits all" kinds of policies that don't take
into account the fact that different domains
of child development, different areas of skills
develop at different rates, occur at different
points in development, that the vulnerablilites
and the strengths at each stage require a
tailored set of interventions and policies.
Sometimes, we feel overwhelmed and we don't
want to give up, but I would say,
"Young people, don't."
First, progress has been made.
We are better than, say, 100 years ago, even
50 years ago.
We still have challenges, but still, we, each
one of us, have the responsibility to join
in, to do this, to fight, you know, to sort
of, reduce discrimination, and correct injustice,
so all children will get a chance, you know,
they get nurture, care, and a better future.
Right?
So, we are the ones who are going to do it,
yet you have to join and do it.
Because we are in such an exciting time when
technology, or the digital era, along with
shifts in the way that we can think about
connecting with people from around the world,
it is important for someone to be there to
begin to document how these evolving changes
are creating changes in humans, and that's
what a developmental scientist would do.
So it's an exciting time to be a 
developmental scientist.
