Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a special visit to The Bishop’s School on Jan. 19 to answer students’ questions about her leadership roles in the White House, as well as impart valuable advice to students about how to prepare for life’s upcoming endeavors. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was made possible by the Endowed Leadership Lecture Series, which brings role models who have exuded extraordinary leadership and achievements to the Bishop’s community. Rice was also accorded the school’s highest honor, the Bishop’s Medal, which was presented to her by Head of School Aimeclaire Roche at the school wide presentation. Before her presentation, Rice — who currently teaches political science at Stanford University and political economy at the graduate business school — was a guest teacher in Jeff Geoghegan’s Advanced Placement U.S. History, teaching students about redevelopment after the Civil War. “The opportunity to have the former secretary of state visit this class will be an unforgettable highlight of a Bishop’s education,” said Richard del Rio, chair of the school’s history and social sciences department. “Condoleezza Rice is both a scholar and top-level policymaker who brings enormous personal skills to her interactions with students.” In her presentation, Rice advised students to discover their passions, challenge themselves, gain exposure to other cultures and not to take privilege for granted. “Find what you are passionate about, even if it doesn’t look like something that you’re supposed to be passionate about,” she said. “Don’t let somebody else define your passion by your gender or your race or where you come from. Just find what you love to do.” She said although there is “no earthly reason why a black girl from Alabama ought to want to become a Soviet specialist,” she was hooked after taking her first course in international politics under her mentor Josef Korbel. In addition to seeking out passions, she urged students to challenge themselves by trying something hard. “Those of you who love to read and write, take more math, and those of you who love math, read and write more,” she said. “You will find greater fulfillment in overcoming that which is hard than just continuing to do that which you do well.” She jested that conquering geometry was one of the “great moments of my life.” For seniors who are readying themselves for college, she stressed the importance of maintaining good health, findings mentors and heeding parents’ good advice. “I want you, too, to try to prepare yourself for a world that is getting smaller by exposing yourself to other cultures and other languages,” she said. “When you learn another language, you will find that you have exposure to a people and their culture that you can get in no other way.” Her final words of wisdom included a plea to the students to never take for granted the privileges accorded to them. “Don’t feel that you are having all of these wonderful experiences that you are because you are somehow entitled to it. Consider it a privilege,” she said. “There are many, many people who are just as smart, just as intelligent, just as capable, who never get the chances and opportunities that you are getting.” Those who don’t take for granted the value of a great education, American freedoms and prosperity will extend a helping hand to those less-privileged, she said. “Maybe you’ll decide to tutor a kid at a boys and girls club. Maybe you’ll decide to go and help a young kid who doesn’t have the benefits that you have to learn to shoot a basketball or play an instrument,” she said. “When you do that, you will guard not just against the sense that you are entitled to this wonderful education, but you will also guard against entitlement’s twin brother — aggrievement.” She urged students to imagine the lives of people living on the “wrong side of the tracks” in San Diego and around the world. Instead of asking, “Why don’t I have more?” students should say to themselves “Why do I have so much?,” she said. “You are very privileged young people. Use that privilege. Don’t take it for granted,” she said. “Take full advantage of all that you’ve got and you will have a life ahead of you full of fulfillment, productivity and meaning — and that’s all that you can ask.” Following her presentation, Rice sat down with NBC San Diego’s news anchor Rory Devine, who moderated a Q&A session with students with questions about foreign policy, role models, success and her experience at the White House on 9/11. If you could question Condoleezza Rice, what would you ask? Here is what Bishop’s students asked the former secretary of state:

Justin Porter, 6th grade

P: Your amazing achievements make you a positive role model for many young adults. Who was your role model when you were growing up? A: I had a grandfather who had managed to get himself college educated, despite the fact that he grew up as a very poor sharecropper’s son, and I thought, “If he managed to get himself college educated, then I can do anything.” Throughout my life, I was fortunate to meet people who taught me, like a man named Josef Korbel, my teacher in international politics. He had been a refugee, first from Nazism and then from Communism after World War II, and he had re-established his amazing life, and I always thought, “I’d really like to be like him.” I always looked at people who had overcome hardships. It gave me a reason to believe that I had no reason to fail with all the advantages I had. Alejandra Gallegos, 10th grade

P: What is your definition of success? A: To me, the most successful people are people who find meaning in their lives. I really believe the most important thing in life is to have people who love you and people who you love, because that is the most fulfilling part of being human. You can’t be successful … if you’re always chasing either financial or professional success at the expense of your relationships. I hope that at the end of my life, I’ll be able to look back and say I had an impact on what I did professionally, I was in line with my own religious beliefs, [and] most importantly, I had an impact on people. Josh Clapper, 12th grade

P: A major focus of your time as secretary of state was the Annapolis Conference in 2007. The subject of this conference was the long-standing Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Given that conference’s failure to achieve a more permanent peace, what words do you have for future foreign policy leaders as the U.S. re-crafts its position on the Middle East and its conflict-prone countries? A: The Annapolis Conference was indeed to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, and we did bring them together. In fact, they were awfully close to an agreement, and it’s really quite frustrating that they didn’t quite get there. Prime Minister Olmert of Israel made an offer to President Abbas that, frankly, he probably should have taken. There has to be a two-state solution — a Jewish democratic state of Israel and a state for the Palestinians. They have to live in security and peace, they have to share the land, they have to overcome their narratives of conflict, and they have to reconcile. There’s only one pathway to that, and that is negotiation. My hope would be that they can get back to the negotiating table and start getting at the issues because they need security in order to make it possible for generations of Palestinians and Israelis to prosper. Hanna Bourne, 11th grade

P: How did President Bush arrive at the decision of entering a war with Iraq? Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently? A: The decision to invade Iraq was not because we wanted to bring democracy to Iraq. We went into Iraq because we thought Saddam Hussein was a security threat, but once you got rid of Saddam Hussein, we believed the only way the Iraqi people would reconcile would be through democratic institutions. There is a maxim, “What you know today can affect what you do tomorrow, but not what you did yesterday.” We thought they had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. I would do it probably in the way that we did it, but I would do the reconstruction differently. Where we really didn’t succeed was in quelling the violence in Iraq among the insurgents. We probably didn’t have enough troops on the ground. We were not successful in rebuilding the country because we put too much focus on Baghdad and not enough focus on what was a very big country, and we really didn’t know how to work with the tribes, which we learned to do in 2005, 2006, 2007. So yes, there are several things I would have done differently, but the one thing I wouldn’t do differently — I would not leave Saddam Hussein in power. Andres Worstell, 7th grade

P: How do you argue against a president when you disagree with their action, statement or decision? A: You need to have a relationship with the president that is open and honest and where you can tell the president exactly what you think. The president should be able to rely on you and to expect that you’re not going to have that argument in the New York Times — that you are going to have that argument privately … and that you care to have a very open discussion. Now, if the president ultimately disagrees with you and takes another course, if it is something that somehow violates your values, you have one choice, and that is to resign. If you feel that it is a decision that you disagree with but it doesn’t violate your principles, you recognize that he’s the president of the United States, he’s the one who was elected, not me, so I will back his decision, because he is the one who gets to decide. But the most important key is to have the most open relationship with him as possible so you can express your views to him. Adeline Shin, 9th grade

P: Most of us here were quite young with 9/11 happened, and we don’t remember much about it. What was it like to experience the disaster from the White House? A: On that day, I was at my desk and I received a note that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and I said “What a strange accident.” I called President Bush who was in Florida for an educational event, and he said, “What a strange accident.” When I got off the phone, I went back down to my staff meeting, and a staff member had given me a note that said the second plane had hit the World Trade Center, and I thought, “My God, this is a terrorist attack.” Then, I went into the Situation Room to call the other national security principals — and I look behind me and the plane hit the Pentagon. At that point, the Secret Service came and said, “Dr. Rice, you have got to get in the bunker. Planes are flying into buildings all over Washington. The White House is going to be next.” Now, when the Secret Service wants you to go someplace, they don’t so much as lead you, they kind of pick you up and take you. So I have this vague recollection of being sort of levitated toward the bunker. When the president was on the phone, I did something I would never do again and have never done before. I raised my voice to the president of the United States. He said, “I’m coming back.” I said, “Stay where you are. The United States of America is under attack. You cannot come back.” The worst moment was when the vice president had asked the president, “What should we do if a plane does not respond properly?” because almost every plane that was in the air — and there were about 4,500 planes that were in the air — was a digital missile. The president said, “If a plane does not respond, the Air Force should shoot it down.” And a plane disappeared from the radar screen … and we kept asking the Pentagon, “Did you shoot down an American airplane?” They kept saying they couldn’t confirm. So for 15 awful minutes, we thought we had shot down a civilian airplane. We later learned that that was actually Flight 93 — the flight that had been driven to the ground by the passengers to prevent another attack. It was quite an awful day. What happens to you if you are in a position of power is that you resolve that you will never let it happen again, and that becomes your only preoccupation for the entire rest of the time you are in government. I’ve often said, “Everyday after that was Sept. 12.”