Philanthropy Panel with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bill and Melinda Gates at Hunter College

At a packed auditorium of mainly Hunter students fortunate to be present for an open discussion on philanthropy with Mr/Mrs Gates & Lin-Manuel Miranda (an alum of Hunter's elementary & h.s). Miranda acted as moderator & fielded audience & online questions.  These 3 brilliant & incredibly talented people are dedicated to making the world a healthier, safer and egalitarian place. Miranda is committed to restoring Puerto Rico & ensuring an infrastructure to shield against future disasters.  The Bill & Melinda Gates Fdtn. founded in ('00) is focused on globally enhancing health care, reducing poverty  & domestically expanding educational opportunities & providing access to technology.  Lin-Manuel is a strong advocate for the arts in public schools where he first found his love for theater.  Studies maintain the arts correlate with improvements in all levels of learning.  The panel discussion was taped for streaming.  The 10 tough questions the Gates Fdtn. received were shown on a video beforehand (& are online).  The video included photos of the work being done through the Gates Fdtn. & personal photos of Bill & Melinda as h.s. & college students and of their collaborations.  Bill was asked about dropping out of Harvard.  He felt while in college the advance of technology was at its apex and he didn't want to miss it knowing he could develop great programing.  He hadn't consider at the time building a major corp. around his soft-ware products. He attributed his success to having great partners: Paul Allen & Steve Wozniak.  The sentiment of surrounding yourself with talented & supportive people was shared by Melinda & Lin-Manuel.  Lin-Manuel called out his teachers in the audience from Hunter & said how fortunate he was to connect with director Thomas Kail right out of college.  Bill Gates was the most reticent of the 3 but forthright & optimistic with facts to support his claims.  He said the world is doing better using the metrics of childhood mortality rates going up & cases of malaria and polio going down.  The Gates plan to eradicate both diseases in their lifetime.  Melinda is working toward women controlling their family planning is making great strides.  Bill's father suffers from Alzheimer but he's optimistic regarding research on the brain that will lead to cures for Alzheimers & neurological disorders.  The students asked meaningful questions & they were all poised interacting with the illustrious panel.  All 3 were very encouraging & direct in their responses.  I urge people to watch the taping to see what was proffered from this prestigious panel.  The Gates were asked what they do when they disagree.  Both said they maintain a solid front but are open to each other & listen to one another.  Bill said his weakness was assuming having a 186 IQ (pretentious) he'd be able to manage all aspects but learned he needed the support of an assemblage of talented people in various areas.