essayist Madhukar RaoEach week we’ll hear a new This I Believe essay – today from Madhukar Rao. The native of India came to America with his parents at the age of three, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in materials science from Pennsylvania State University. But when faced with racial tensions at a new high school, Rao relied not on physical strength but his inquisitive mind to defuse the situation. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania, a non-profit social service organization. Now in adulthood, Rao still finds that asking simple questions can yield surprising results. Click here to read a transcript and to listen to the audio of his “This I Believe” essay.
Click here for guidelines to write and submit your own statement of beliefs.