Samantha Power is a boss. Not only is she an Invisible Children supporter and human rights activist, but she’s also the United States Ambassador to the United Nations (no big deal).

Samantha Power rocking her first public speech as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations at the Fourth Estate Summit 2013.

Samantha Power at the Fourth Estate Summit 2013, rocking her first public speech as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Last week, Ambassador Power spoke to the graduates of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in Boston, MA. That was a mouth full, but stay with me.

Ambassador Power’s speech began the way most do– a short introduction, thank you, and personal story. But then it got better: she started talking about human rights and the need for agents of change, just like yourself.

In her own words, here are 2 important lessons to take away from Ambassador Power’s speech:

1. Sometimes challenging the government is necessary

“Indeed, all of the steps toward more inclusive and rights-respecting democracies — in India, in Tunisia, in the United States, and in so many other democracies, young and old — can be traced back to the demands of citizens and the agents of change who have inspired and empowered them”

“None of these once-unthinkable changes [civil and social rights] would have been possible if citizens had not fought doggedly to make them happen, if agents of change — people just like you — had not challenged their government and their courts to right historic wrongs.”

2. Education is the key in combating injustice

“I suspect you will not hear me utter a line like this one again, but here goes: Boko Haram understands something very important about those girls.

They understand that educated girls will ask smart questions.

An educated girl will question whether she wants to grow up in a society where she is condemned to silence and servitude.

An educated girl will question the values of a justice system that sentences a woman to death simply because of her religion or that of the man she loves, as happened two weeks ago in Sudan to a woman who, just yesterday, gave birth to a child in prison.

For all of those reasons, Boko Haram understands that a generation of girls armed with books, with pencils, and with the ambition to learn is a greater threat to their close-minded vision of the world than any military.”

——-

Thank you, Samantha Power, for your continual dedication and promotion of human rights and universal justice.

Check out Samantha Power’s entire address here.