So You Won the Nobel. What Are You Going to Do About It? by Joss

So You Won the Nobel. What Are You Going to Do About It? by Joss - December 2018 Scholarship Essay

I have been placed on the committee that awards the Nobel Prize. Now I've been asked what two qualities the Nobel recipients would need to possess.

The first quality they would need to possess, without question, is humility. I believe that Nobel recipients have a duty to pass along to the world the knowledge and wisdom they possess, and I don't believe that is possible if humility is not present. I don't want Nobel recipients to believe they are done with their achievements. I don't want them to believe they have nothing left to prove. I want them to keep reaching higher, to never stop learning. Because when they adopt that mindset they are showing the generations that come after them that although winning awards is nice, there is so much more they can achieve, and so much more they can give back to the world.

The second quality I would like them to have is generosity. Because it's one thing to win prizes for your achievements, and it's another thing to give of yourself, your wisdom, and your knowledge, back to the world. I would hate to see a Nobel winner take their prize and hide themselves in a laboratory. The best gift they could give, and the best way to ensure their honor lives on in others, is to become a mentor for others. Find that next generation of great thinkers who could truly change the world for the better, and give what you have learned back to them. Mold them, shape them, so that when the time comes they themselves are awarded this high honor because they went out into the world and made it a better place.

Thank you for the opportunity to answer this question.