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Is My AI Really Empathetic? · AccessCo Leaders Career Conversations

• Vinessa Gingrass: Welcome Reggie, Panaligan again. Thanks so much for being on Access Co. Leaders to speak into our students from New Hope Solebury. So let's get into it. In one to two sentences, tell us what is your role as director of mid-market commerce at Google? Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, I'd lead a first off. Good morning, Vinessa. Good morning, everybody. Students, Ilyne. It's great to be here. I'm so ⁓ honored to be able to answer some questions for you all. Yeah, my name is Reggie Panaligan. I am director of mid market sales at Google. In one to two sentences, essentially, I help small and sized businesses grow their businesses on Google using a variety of products that we have. Google and YouTube from enablement to help their marketing teams do better or just even add platforms to help get their brand out there to find customers. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay, so you're dealing with a wide array of different customers in different market spaces. Reggie Panaligan: Correct, yeah. So we have customers from, know, customers in the healthcare space, have customers in the apparel space, you know, we have some in the automotive space. So there's a wide variety of customers that my team and I get to partner with on a daily basis. It's really fun every single day is different. And yeah, that's one of the best parts of the job. Vinessa Gingrass: Awesome, love that. And it's a capital B, a billion dollar sales work and organization you're kind of running there, isn't it? Reggie Panaligan: That is correct, yeah, that's correct. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay, us where did you grow up and then where are based now? Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, I grew up in a place called Valencia, California, which is about 30. Well, now with traffic, it's about 45 minutes north of downtown LA. It is your typical suburbia. know, it's a great place to grow up. But you know, a lot of the houses look exactly the same. The streets wide and ample parking, but very safe. And, you know, I grew up just, well, I was also very hot. And the other claim to fame of Valencia is that there's a big Six Flags theme park there called Magic Mountain. And so I spent a lot of my youth and either going to the theme park every weekend with my friends when I was in high school and middle school, and then ultimately working there at Six Flags as, know, they literally hired anybody. at that time and so ⁓ was my first job while was still in high school. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay, that's an exciting and rewarding regular weekend programming for you. Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, it's fun. was, you know, I think it also helps help my parents, you know, that you could drop your preteen or your teen off at a place for eight hours with their friends and, you know, know that they're at least very self contained in a theme park. Vinessa Gingrass: Love that. And then in high school and middle school, what else was keeping you busy? Were you already looking at marketing or big communication or what were your interests? Reggie Panaligan: You know, I was a big, and I continue to be a big basketball fan, sports fan in general. think, so, you know, I grew up in the, I was in middle school in the late nineties. And so that was, you know, Michael Jordan era. And so I was a big, yeah, big basketball fan. I just like being outside playing and riding my bike around town and going to the mall arcade a lot when, know, malls were. a thing to do. yeah, that's how I kept busy in middle school and high school. I was involved in student government. I basketball as well. actually for me high school, the main activity were two things. One was student government and the other was academic decathlon. And I joined academic decathlon my sophomore ⁓ I went to a high school Bishop Alameda High School. you know, we, at the time, and it might be different now, but at the time we weren't very good at sports. of our teams, I think our football team was kind of good, but the team that was perennially champions was this academic decathlon team. ⁓ so I didn't know much about it, but I decided to join and was a great experience for me. ⁓ Do you have academic decathlon at New Hope, at your high school? Well, let me tell you a little bit about it. think it is a competition. Decathlon 10 subjects ⁓ a variety of fields. You had science, had music, had math, speech, interview, all of these. And would I would have to learn. a lot about a lot of things very fast in preparation for these competitions. But I think the thing that was probably the most applicable, there's a lot of things that were most very applicable to my career. in addition to learning these things very fast, I mentioned that there was a speech and interview portion of the competition. And, you know, as a 15 year old, 16 year old, you know, to deliver a speech. So you had to prepare a speech. That was one part of it. And then the other was you had to an impromptu speech. And so they would give you a topic when you walked into the room, you had about 90 seconds to sort of compose yourself, figure out what you're going to talk about. And then you deliver, I believe it was a two minute or three minute speech to judges. ⁓ know, is a skill I developed on. It comes into practice every single day. It's coming into practice as we speak here on a podcast, the Zoom call. And so, ⁓ again, be able to story tell is something I learned very quickly, something I was very passionate about. ⁓ ended actually, because of one of my career goals when I was high school was ⁓ I wanted to a storyteller. I wanted to be you know, either ⁓ actor or writer, something in the entertainment field, because of that experience. And, and, know, ultimately that kind of, you know, motivated me to make a few decisions that I've had ⁓ in my career. ⁓ yeah, that was a really pivotal, experience for me. And then of course, interviewing that skill just to be able to kind of, you know, connect with other people one to one, tell, you know, Vinessa Gingrass: Okay. Reggie Panaligan: kind of promote yourself, talk about your philosophies and how you think about things. Like that's such an important skill as well. And was very fortunate to have that ⁓ in Academic Decathlon. Vinessa Gingrass: Awesome, Reggie. Well, yeah, a lot to unpack there. Michael Jordan was the first book that I ever bought too. So I relate to you there. And yeah, it sounds like you were keeping busy socializing and networking in your friends group, a good balance of academia, as well as that adventuresomeness. And thanks for drawing that connection to how those activities play into your role today. That's my job normally. So thanks for jumping right into that. the networking and then I'm sure for your sales presentations, all that practice is largely ⁓ into play on a daily basis. So I think we'll go ahead and turn it over to our students. Reggie Panaligan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sofia C: Is there anything you had to learn like on the job that school didn't teach you? Reggie Panaligan: A great question, Sophia. Is there anything on the job I had to learn that school did not teach me? Yeah, there's a lot of things. you know, with any as you get into careers, right, I the, you know, conflict resolution. So, you know, there's oftentimes things that happen in a job, right, where you have to one person is thinking, and has their own opinion and wants to do things this way. Uh, another person has a completely different sort of, um, you know, uh, way of thinking, uh, you know, in high school, um, at least for me, I don't know how it is for you, you all in high school, you know, you don't necessarily, you know, not the, the brave ones are the ones who kind of step forward and, you know, resolve conflicts sort of independently. And, know, yes, I was there. I tried to do that. oftentimes in my career, but again, I don't think I was mature enough of a person be able to really understand and empathize with different points of view when was in school. And that's I've had to really gain over time. You know, I manage a team now of roughly 60 people, right? And to, know, large part of my job is to get everybody on the same page. And even if they disagree with the direction, I them to be to commit. and move forward versus kind of sulking and, know, stopping progress. And so, you know, that's, think something I've learned over time is to really listen and ⁓ understand you know, folks are coming from and what their positions are. And then, know, independently take that all in and make a, you know, choose a direction that I think is the strongest and then motivate folks to follow me in that direction or kind of explain to folks. ⁓ why I didn't choose that direction. And so that's something that I think I definitely did not have at school, but certainly something that I've learned throughout my career. It's a great question. Vinessa Gingrass: Okay, yeah, great question, Sophia. And I think you're really speaking to leadership as well, connecting and guiding people from all different walks of life and with all different sensitivities and kind of having to tailor each message or direction depending who or when you're dealing with your team. ⁓ Reggie Panaligan: Absolutely. Dianne Aludino: Because there are so many roles within companies like Google, how would you recommend someone my age start narrowing down their interests without feeling overwhelmed so that they kind of figure out which path to go into? Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, yeah. My first piece of advice to you, Diane, is you don't have to have it figured out now. I'll give you just a little story. I graduated high school. went to ⁓ Berkeley. ⁓ when are Berkeley, the first two years generally is like you're undeclared. But you know, I had come from high school where I'd excelled and done really well for myself and even, you know, throughout all throughout my sort of academic career. And, and I got to Berkeley and it was like, all right, I'm going to do the hardest thing possible, which computer science at the time, That was the sort of major that I wanted to do. And when I realized that it was, I was not cut out for that, but I up until this point for many, many years throughout my again, like, you know, middle school and high school years, like I was used to kind of being able to achieve what I wanted to achieve. I quickly realized that like, again, I was not cut out for that, that major. And it was really the first kind of path where I was like, Oh, I, you know, I hit a roadblock. And, you know, at the time, it was pretty devastating because that was sort of the direction I wanted to go. But I want to realize it like, you know, there are so many opportunities to kind of figure out what you want to do and who you want to be, ⁓ high school and in college. And, you know, I pivoted very quickly into the that I enjoy today. So I ended up studying economics, which is essentially that if you like think about it from its most scientific definition, it is how you allocate scarce resources across people, across companies, country, everything. that was really fascinating to me. And so I, you know, the, for you, like I would say, I would suggest like, you know, be open to right now, many different things. And also I will say that we're living in a time the world where this ⁓ is ⁓ the are being rewritten. we're going through probably the biggest transformation from a, ⁓ with AI that might ever experience in our lives. And so I think it's really important to be curious. First and foremost, be curious about what is now possible in the world with lot of the kind of tools that are coming out to sort of help us understand the world. That to me is, I think, the biggest piece of advice I would tell you is just be curious. You'll find the things that you're passionate about. if you haven't already found them, over the course of questions and leaning in into different areas ⁓ over Vinessa Gingrass: Okay, so being open, staying curious is really how you found your place and kind of alleviating yourself of that pressure to be all knowing right away and just lead with that interest and curiosity. Reggie Panaligan: Yeah. Elizabeth V: How do you think that your childhood activities like basketball and the academic decathlon helped you kind of find your role and shape how you manage a team at Google? Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, these are all great questions, by the way. Fantastic job. I wish I was as inquisitive and eloquent as you guys when I was in high school. so I would say ⁓ played this position point guard in ⁓ basketball, which you're not familiar, they're generally kind of like the floor general. you know, they ⁓ are... the ones who kind of bring the ball up the court, they initiate like what play the team should run. They're generally kind of the extension of the coach. And so I would say like from our early age, I enjoy responsibility of sort of seeing where everybody was on the and kind of seeing how things unfold. And I wasn't very good at it, but I enjoyed that sort of task. And so, you know, that is... you know, even from an early age, when I was playing basketball, I remember like probably age seven is like when I started playing that position. That like even that skill alone is something I do on a day to day basis. Like I have to now understand what's around the corner for my team and my company. I have to understand who the players on the field are, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are. put them in the best position to succeed. so, you know, my basketball days like, yeah, that was very much something I learned. you know, academic decatholon talked about very specifically, like, you know, some of the skills, but you know, just generally, I would say like committing to something and seeing it through. you know, this was not a, it was not like, look, academic you go through ⁓ your full day. you know, seven to eight to three, whatever it was. And then you'd sit in a room with your teammates and you'd study some more. It's not like you would like go outside and like practice football or like go swim in the pool. No, we would sit in a room and like study more stuff. You know, and so like some days you just didn't want to do it. And you know, particularly on like a Thursday or you know, like Friday, like, but, you know, I will say like, there's moments where it just becomes worth it, right? And like we won, won the that year. And I remember like sitting, you know, being on stage and I had a medal around me and like, you know, the next day, was also really great ⁓ is that day after, guess like the Monday after at school, after you won, they actually would like announce to everybody like, we, you know, here, here. the championship academic decacatholon team. And because of their accomplishments, everyone gets tomorrow off. And so you really felt like a hero because you, yeah, I got everybody a day off of school, but like it's those moments where you're like, this is all paid off. Like if I didn't put in the work early on and I didn't have that commitment, then none of this would have happened. And again, that's just a lesson for, for life that I take every single the hard things hard work and And there's moments where it might not seem like it, but you're passionate about something and you really believe in ⁓ yourself the outcome, it's always worth pushing on. And so I that thankfully ⁓ early on in my life. Vinessa Gingrass: Awesome. yeah, the academic decathlon is really that tenacity as well as like patience for yourself as you're growing into something too. So definitely lifelong skills there. And then with leadership, kind of, was like your micro and macro ability to see the team and the vision. So what small things need to be done to accomplish this big goal and try being able to kind of route that path. Reggie Panaligan: Yeah. Ilyne Deliquina: I love that you brought up how much you and how you prioritize academics. But what I do know about you personally is that you value culture. Can you share a little bit with our ⁓ students how you integrated that passion of your culture? Reggie Panaligan: course. Ilyne Deliquina: being Filipino in your college years and how you integrate that now in the decisions you make in the different companies that you work for. Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, sure thing. yeah, like Ilyne, you and I are fellow Filipinos. culture is very familial. ⁓ you do everything with and for your family. And I grew up with that sort of sense on, again, in my life. ⁓ I was the eldest of 10 cousins. So I was the one kind of babysitting folks. you know, even that sort of lead, take out that leadership role early on is something that is ingrained in like, flowed into, you know, like basketball and my career and college, all those things. And so I think that sort of familiar aspect and having a sense of responsibility to just yourself, but those around you and knowing that you represent. more than just yourself, you represent your family, you represent, again, the Filipino culture. There aren't that many Filipinos. And oftentimes in the work, the places where I work, or ⁓ ⁓ in college, and ⁓ sort of take that on as a ⁓ badge of pride. so ⁓ I was in college, ⁓ was one of the executive producers ⁓ of Cultural Night, which is... at Berkeley, pretty, it's a huge event actually hitting its 50th anniversary this year. But it is a cultural show where we put on essentially, you know, plays and dance performances. It's a two, three hour event attended by, I think it's like thousands. Yeah, it's like 2000, 3000 people. They have this at different campuses. But you know, it really was, you know, for me, like I talked about earlier, like the storytelling aspect of passion that I have. And ⁓ this sort of merge with my passion for again, my Filipino community and family. so, I really want to take on that role. was such an ⁓ experience for me to put on that show. That is a year-long commitment. Again, I didn't realize all these themes would come together, but this is a year-long commitment starting from the year prior. is my senior year. And ⁓ essentially kind of like the CEO of like, you know, 200 people. are 200 dancers, there's 200 ⁓ making costumes, writers, all of these things. And you bring it together. and my partner, if she ever watches, I have to like shout her out. Cheryl Banaras, who was my co-executive partner and also my now wife, who is one of co-writers with me. But anyway, it all of these things together to executive produce that event. know, passion for storytelling and entertainment, you know, passion for Filipino culture, and then also kind of committing to something, taking ⁓ on that leadership knowing again what people good at. Like, you might not be a hip hop dancer, you might be better in ⁓ writing You know what I ⁓ That, yeah, think that was kind of a good culmination of all of those things up to that point of what I was passionate about. And then what's also great you have that experience and in college and you're interviewed for jobs. You know, you have this wealth of experience like doing that, that you can talk about in interviews. You can draw upon when you ⁓ turn you see like similar situations. And so, you the experience that you that you gain, like, look, you're in high school and college, you're not going to be like making huge, you know, multi billion dollar decisions, right? Perhaps you are now in the age of AI, but you know, what really is important is sort of getting the reps and experience in whatever sort of situation you're in, in terms of taking leadership and like, again, doing the hard thing, pushing through. Those are the things and those are the stories that you tell to get that, you know, that first opportunity, the first job, then, know, the, sort of experience builds and crescendos and grows over time. and that for me, at least that's led to bigger and better opportunities as I've gone Vinessa Gingrass: Okay, so in honoring yourself and your culture, you're able to do that for others and kind of bring that familial aspect to your team and the feeling on your team. Great. Sofia C: all these leadership positions and roles, how do you learn to manage pressure or high-stakes situations effectively? Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, it's a really great question. It's a really important skill. I generally, in these leadership positions, I kind of have this mindset that nothing is permanent. Whatever decision you make, you let it be. There's a reaction, there's stuff that happens, and then it leads you to the next decision. everything that you do is a journey, is part of the journey, right? Like, and so you can't, for me, whenever I, like, there's a high-stakes decision, I can't like, let myself think like, ⁓ this is the end all beyond, like, you know, again, like I have to sort of prepare myself for what the next decision I need to make is, or what the sort of reaction is and how I sort of adapt to it. And so you have that kind of mindset, where again, it's like, this is a journey, we're all careers are long, right? Like you make one mistake, it's okay, like that you've learned from that mistake, or you you choose a different direction. Like having that kind of mindset frees me up from that pressure. And so, yeah, I think that's like, yeah, I would say that's probably the thing that helps me ⁓ most. Vinessa Gingrass: awesome. I think we could all benefit from giving ourselves a little bit more grace. So I think that that's what you're speaking to there and kind having a backup plan for either direction too. Like if it goes this way then I'll be ready there. ⁓ Reggie Panaligan: Yeah. Right. Yeah, I think that's also that's really important, right? Like having I tell my sales team this often, which is, you know, you're not pitching a particular, you know, product or recommendation, you're pitching an if then statement, you're pitching if we do this, if you do this, and it goes like this, then we're going to do plan B plan C, you know, like, so ⁓ is making sure that you are continuously kind of thinking around the bend versus like only thinking like, you know, within the vacuum of a specific decision. And so yeah, that's, that's been really helpful for me. Vinessa Gingrass: Awesome. And that's kind of how you found your niche, your career you're in today. So Diane, a fellow Filipino, have you up next. Yeah. ⁓ Reggie Panaligan: ⁓ yeah! Dianne Aludino: Yes, okay so this kind of goes along with the previous question that Sophia asked and you also talked about this earlier. Industries are always changing especially in the time that we're in right now. So my question is how do you stay adaptable and continue learning in your role today? Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, you have to put in the time. Like I think right now in particular, you know, there ⁓ things that like, for example, like I'll give ⁓ a real example. So I lead a team and we have about, I want to say we have about like a thousand customers, a thousand businesses that we work There's no way, two years ago in this job, there's no way for me to understand what's happening with all thousand customers. But now I can just wake up in the morning, playing around with some of the AI tools that we've got and have a good understanding within 15, 20 minutes of here's the focus areas for me. Like these are the companies that are growing fast. Like we need to like... This is like where I, you know, my team should be spending their focus and these are the areas where it's not important or these are the trends. That is really like that to me, right? Just the information gathering and the amount of expertise that anyone can have is changing everything that we do. And so I think the, like, especially now it's important for all of us, particularly you guys in high school to be able to like, again, like stay curious, like understand what the, ⁓ know, how things can augment your learning, like all these, some of these tools can augment your learning, but also know that like, it can't just be the end all be all you're going to have to like, so there's AI and like there's information that feeds the AI, like there's stories that feed the AI, there's conversations that you have with you know, your peers that like, you know, the AI algorithms just can't, you know, comprehend now. And so I think it's like twofold. would say like, remain curious, understand the tools that are coming out, the innovations that are coming out and how they could help you feed your curiosity. And so knowing that and embracing that is really important and also like exploring But then at the same time, like all of this information is being fed by like, you know, humans interacting with humans. with others. like I talked about this earlier, one of the ⁓ main jobs I have is to have empathy for others understand where everyone else is coming from. And that's not something that AI has, right? That's what humans have. And so I think being able to have that, building that skill of really listening. and kind of connecting the dots. That is like a really important thing to continue to have. Vinessa Gingrass: All right, yeah, AI is a tool, but the people and our stories and our culture and our humanness, our empathy, our interconnectedness really what makes the world go around. So Elizabeth V: Did you always want to work at Google or how did your career path kind of evolve as you moved on through life? Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll talk a little bit of my career path. So this is my third stint at Google, which there's not that many of us that have left twice and come back a third stint. ⁓ I mentioned in college, I studied economics, which again, very similar to economics and business. And my job out of school was working at a consulting firm. just to give you an idea of what a consulting firm is this is a business that helps other businesses make decisions and they do so by like so let's say ⁓ and I worked with a consulting that helped real estate hospitality companies so for example a business owns a plot of land is New Hope by the way? in Pennsylvania, correct? Right. So let's say there's a new like giant plot. Maybe there's not a giant plot of land that's like, or a mall that ⁓ to be redeveloped. Right. ⁓ it was ⁓ company who owned them all would hire the company I work for to help them understand like what they should build and how they should price it and who's going to buy it. ⁓ all those things. Right. And so they hire consultants. to essentially provide their opinions and their thoughts. you know, as a coming out of college, it is a, you know, really like a boot camp and like learning all of those things, right? I mentioned like understanding audiences, pricing, understanding like competition. So at an early age, you are thrown into these like really deep, you know, and complex problem solving exercises, which I really loved. Also, So I did that for a couple of years and I really trained just how to think as a professional. Then I went to business school. So I got my MBA at UCLA. Shout out to them, Women's National Basketball Champions the other day. So I furthered my education in business strategy and entertainment strategy. And again, I mentioned to you when I was little. storytelling and entertainment was really interesting to me. I up in LA, obviously, near Hollywood. And I had a neighbor who was a TV writer. I just wanted to be in that industry. And so I actually went to business school to study entertainment strategy at UCLA. have a really good program and classes for business entertainment, the of entertainment And so I did that. I ended up going back to consulting because when I graduated in 2010, there weren't that many jobs. The economy was kind of difficult, particularly for entertainment jobs. I ended up going back to consulting. I had a friend from business school tell me about this company called Google back in 2012. She was like, yeah, I really love it here. It's a small company. Um, and I think you'd really like it. work with entertainment clients to help them, you know, when they have advertising on YouTube, uh, so they put the trailers on. And so I explored it. There was a job opening. I ran into her randomly on a plane. Um, this is a happenstance, like, you know, there's moments in your career that will change the trajectory of everything running into her on a plane. Um, when I was coming back from a consulting job, uh, and she was just talking about this job like that. completely change it. So I looked into Google, I was very fortunate to secure a job there back in 2012. And I was essentially helping movie studios ⁓ make of all of the data that they were getting at Google. So for example, if you had a movie like Top Gun, there's a lot of search volume, search searches that happen like, ⁓ who's Glenn Powell? Who's Glenn Powell? Or what happened to this character? Like that's really useful information movie seers, because then they can help understand like, ⁓ who's popular within my cast or what are people curious about with this film? And so I helped them ⁓ understand a lot of like really interesting insights about their movies and their TV shows. And so it was a cool job at Google in that intersection of like, you know, working at a big tech company or at least a small tech company at the time, mid-size. and working in entertainment, which was my passion. And so I did that for a couple of years then because I was helping a lot of the studios understand that information and it was fairly new. was a new sort of source of information for them. was able to paramount pictures offered me the opportunity to run and build their analytics department. They wanted me to kind of come to paramount to essentially. helped them specifically on all of these sort of movie marketing decisions using data. And so I did that for a couple of years. It was great. And then I found myself, ⁓ then thing called the streaming wars happened where Netflix was launching all the other streamers started to launch Peacock Paramount Plus. And at Google, kind of had the ⁓ Again, the same way that I was helping movie studios back in 2012 figure out how they should be marketing their films because all the streamers were now coming up, there was a great opportunity to come back to Google and help them with this new business model, all the companies. And so I decided to go back to Google there and work with lot of the streamers, which is an excellent opportunity for me. But then I realized like, oh, this is fun. I've done entertainment now for 10 years. scratched that itch. I've worked at a studio. Now I want to really apply my learnings across the board. the role that I'm in now, talked about all the different clients that I get to work with. Like this is that type of role. I get to ⁓ understand a lot about a lot of different industries and a lot of businesses of all sizes. And that me is really, really fascinating. And so. There was another stint in there. actually like just came back to Google. I mentioned this my third time I worked at a startup called House to essentially helps companies understand how marketing is doing. If they have a TV ad or they have a billboard, what's that actually doing? That's what this company did. And so that was also a great experience just to work at a, you know, ⁓ at the like a 70 person startup. because then things move much faster than they do at a company like Google. And so to get that experience was really valuable for me. But yeah, I guess I really like it at Google because I'm back for the third time. Vinessa Gingrass: Well, thanks for sharing your story. And yeah, it's interesting how you just keep getting drawn back there. But yeah, a lot of different experiences along the way and just staying open and curious and things all come together. going to go ahead and switch gears a little bit. So is in the ninth grade and is really interested in math and science considering potentially radiology. If you could shed some advice to her as anything, you know, she can be doing now for these decisions, that curiosity to start coming together. Elizabeth V: Yeah, I'm taking honors biology right now and that course is probably one of my favorites. learned a lot about like the different functions of the body. So that really interests me and that's something I want to continue when I go out of high school and into college. Reggie Panaligan: That's awesome. That's awesome, Elizabeth. think the, you know, the piece of advice I would, there's a couple of pieces of advice that I would have because my brother is a, he's an ER doctor and I sort of saw his journey medicine. And you know, he ⁓ is, an smart guy ⁓ and, but he like enjoyed himself. enjoys himself like especially when he was in high school like he wasn't someone who was like you know getting the ⁓ the best grades he wasn't the one that was like in the library all the time he enjoyed his high school experience and at the time you know like ⁓ I say like probably my parents and even me like when I because I'm seven years older than him like when he was in high school I was like ⁓ yeah man you gotta like find a direction pal like And what I realized, especially now in hindsight, like, no, you just got to be a kid. And like, if you have these inklings in this as passion, Elizabeth, like you're already ahead of a lot of folks. because ⁓ like, it's rare to sort of have that kind of, initial passion and curiosity. so I would say like, you know, you're to go down the, ⁓ the, that route that you want to go down to, go into medicine. is a hard path. And want you to also realize that you should give yourself some grace the way that my brother who again went down that path, ⁓ still enjoyed himself. He still enjoyed his youth. You get caught up too much into how difficult it is. And yes, it is difficult, but you should ⁓ give moments to breathe and really kind of. Again, enjoy your youth because as you get further and further into Korea, you get into med school, you into the job, that's when like all the stress is going to really hit. And so ⁓ I say that's one thing is like, you know, give yourself that grace. Secondly, I would say, you know, ⁓ as mentioned, would try understand how a lot of these like tools will help you. be a better radiologist in the future. The reality is the playbook for any job right now is being rewritten. Whether that's your teacher, whether you're a sales manager, whether you're a radiologist, whatever it is. And so it's going to be the people that are, again, really curious about what is going to happen, what is kind of on the fringe right now to help you within your job. The degree to which you can kind of like look into that and include that as part of your curiosity. That's going to be important. Vinessa Gingrass: All right, what do you think of that advice, Elizabeth? Elizabeth V: think that's, thank you for that. That was really helpful. think it's great that I shouldn't be too worried about what I wanna be doing when I get out of high school that I have this time now to kind of explore all my interests. So thank you. Vinessa Gingrass: Awesome, yeah. Don't forget to live and enjoy yourself. did you pick up from Reggie today? Elizabeth. Reggie Panaligan: And you got it, Elizabeth. Elizabeth V: ⁓ I picked up a lot of helpful advice, but I think one of the main things was like how business is kind of evolving right now because things are changing and I think using AI as a tool is probably one of the biggest things I've learned because while it can be like kind of dangerous for students who are still learning when you are in business, can be a great tool to help you kind of. navigate through different things. Vinessa Gingrass: Definitely, yeah. And from someone at Google, you heard it first. ⁓ Sophia, we're coming to you. Everybody on the call today does have a healthcare interest. Sophia specifically in ⁓ and researching, Sofia C: Um, yeah, I really like like biology and like molecular biology and like a focus on like the DNA and the genes. I just want to like learn about that and like cancer cells and I want to research about like the different causes and how to like help cancer treatment. I'm also like really interested in like space and like I just learned recently that NASA has a program where you have molecular biology in space and I'm really interested. Those are two of my really good passions and I would love to have them intertwined. Reggie Panaligan: Yeah, that's awesome. I'm glad I mean, all of you like the healthcare field is such a ⁓ noble field. so yeah, I again, I came from a family of nurses, I think I'm the only one in the family that didn't into healthcare. So maybe I'm the black sheep of them all. But ⁓ have so much respect for healthcare professionals. So Sophia, I would say, you know, like, Vinessa Gingrass: That's amazing. Yeah, go ahead, Reggie. Reggie Panaligan: guess, you know, my advice to you is like, there's so much happening in that particular area that you're talking about. you know, like, I hate to keep going back into AI. But here's the thing, like, there's a lot of really dense ⁓ that's being done in in those fields that can again, like, explained to a normal person like me. a high school person like you. like, think what, you know, to feed your curiosity and, you know, bring your knowledge up to, you know, in this space up like feed, feed like, you know, Gemini, some these AI tools, like some of these really dense papers and like explain it to me like I'm five. you're much, ⁓ much smarter than a five year old, but explain it to me like I'm a, like a college student, right? Like Those types of, like, this is very specific feedback. But yeah, like you'll be able to learn a lot about what's happening that will make you smarter. Like again, feed your curiosity. And as you think about like, you know, as you apply to schools for this or internships or programs, like that's ⁓ one to like really stay ahead of your of this particular field. And so I, you know, I would say that's like a really good sort of, use case ⁓ very practical like ⁓ as you ⁓ your knowledge or interest in the field, like really rely on the tools to, again, get a good solid understanding of all the things that are happening and look like we've got talked about space, like Artemis two like is happening right now and like that what a time to be alive like. Yeah, like there's just so much new research and so many new findings that will likely happen from that, that probably won't make it, you know, into the news, but like really stay on top of what happens with Artemis 2. Like what did those and researchers learn? Like all that stuff is available to us for understanding. So I would say like the other thing is like go a level deeper. If feel like passionate about something that like go beyond sort of headlines and go beyond what you might see. different articles. Vinessa Gingrass: And we love that rampant and evolving curiosity, Sophia. So keep it going and use AI to help you there. What did you pick up from Reggie today? Sofia C: Yeah, like the AI using, I actually did over spring break use AI to like teach me and like what I need to know before. actually read an article about the like phenotypes and the genotypes of autism and how it's like different, which is like really interesting that like AI can help us in so many different ways. yeah. Vinessa Gingrass: awesome. Reggie Panaligan: I love that. Like, look, you're the generations that's going to save us all. I have never, I don't know, Vinessa, Ilyne, Sarah, I cannot speak for you all, but I certainly would never have had that information or that sort of passion, ⁓ the that you display. Sophia, so again, like use it. You all are, you guys are going to write the playbook for how a lot of this operates, not ⁓ us, which great. Vinessa Gingrass: Props to you Sophia, keep it going. has a family who are nurses as well. So she does have ⁓ healthcare interest and is thinking about nursing, but is also thinking about a lot of things. Dianne Aludino: Yeah, so as said, ⁓ Filipino. I grew up with ⁓ ⁓ of Filipinos, almost ⁓ in my family as my parents are. So I think from a young age, I really developed that passion to want to really help people. So I think that's kind of what I've been building on as I grow up. ⁓ that's kind of just been my core mindset is helping people. ⁓ right now I'm kind of gravitating towards nursing because I think that's one of the best opportunities and best professions that I can go to that suit my interests. Reggie Panaligan: Awesome. see a lot of, yeah, I know how that goes. have lot of similar mindset to you, I think, growing up. I just wanted to help people. And I guess my advice to you is just that there are many different ways to help people. like you, was very much... I gravitated toward nursing like, you know, it's not just my my family, but like, you know, even now my peers, like, one of my friends have done careers, and then they ended up going to nursing. Because that's they sort of grew up on. I think the for me what I realized, and this might be different for you, Dianne, but like, I realized I'm ⁓ not good with And so, you know, couldn't I would love to help people. I cannot be a nurse. And so the, ⁓ get, yeah, my advice is like, if, if helping people is, is really the goal, nursing a fantastic way to do that, but also know that like the universe of, of, you know, jobs and like professions you could do ⁓ to people. it takes on many different forms. And so, you know, you know, utilize time, to, you know, explore and understand those areas. Like you can help people all like even in my job, feel like. like the best part of my job is helping grow. Like there's a lot of, you know, ⁓ business who ⁓ we with because some of them are like small, medium sized, like they've poured their entire, you know, life savings into whatever this business is. And, you know, ⁓ I can of help, my team can be of help to you know, help them reach that next milestone and, you know, impacting their, you know, not just their family, but the next generations of their family, finding growth in that business. Like that to me is, is the rewarding part of my job. And I credit that to like, again, seeing my, family, like in, in nursing roles and medical professions and helping people. And so, yeah, would say like, there's many different ways to help people, but it's, ⁓ you know, like said, it's like such a noble. very noble of you to sort of have that as a career and life passion. Vinessa Gingrass: Keep going, Diane. What'd you pick up from Reggie today? Dianne Aludino: This conversation in general really expanded my understanding about career paths and how they can evolve and will evolve. And hearing your perspective really helped me understand how broad and dynamic careers can be. like you said, that deep connection that our experience and actions that we have now have with our future and the importance of curiosity and being open-minded and really exploring ⁓ as as we can and taking advantage of everything that we have. And so I think I'm really walking away with a clearer sense of direction and a better approach to exploring different paths moving forward. So I really appreciate your time and your insight Vinessa Gingrass: Amazing. ⁓ you so much to my student co-hosts from New Hope - Solebury, Diane, Sophia, and Elizabeth. And thank you so much, Reggie Panaligan, Director of Mid-Market Commerce at Google. It's been an honor having you on AccessCo Leaders. And we'll see you next time. Reggie Panaligan: My pleasure. Thank you so much.