Anna Griffin

Are you involved in politics at the local or national level? Why or why not? In what way do you work for women’s power and equality? What do you think is the number one action we as a society can take (e.g. affirmative action)?

I’m currently not involved in politics. As a child, it was certainly my aspiration and I think I am in a place where I don’t believe it is the government’s responsibility to take care of people. I believe it’s the people’s responsibility to take care of people, and the government can provide infrastructure to do so. I feel like I can be more powerful, or better useful, in the world if I apply my energy to take care of the people and the flock that I was given and shape their capacity. Currently, I’m not involved in politics, but it is my belief that people have the responsibility to help people and empower them to help other people. The way I have been doing that is: 1) within my workspace and ability to have a real, large group of both friends and professionals who I get to play mentor to. I’ve got two girls and the youngest is twelve-years-old. They have been mentoring since they were ten, then as teenagers, and then college graduates with young professionals in their own workspace. I feel like I have been blessed with a variety of opportunities and when I’m mentoring someone, I get mentored back–it’s completely a mutual thing. 2) It was in my industry, particularly the advertising space, that I was able to be a family member and part of the #seeher movement. I’ve been very passionate about the #seeher movement, and if you can’t see her, then you can’t be her, and so much that happens within the media. You have TV, the media industry, and the advertising industry where you continue to represent women and cast women in roles that tell a story from the story teller’s point of view. It could be flipped. It is always women who tell the story, but that might not be casted. And, in the light of diversity they can be reflected; so, in our industry, we believe in women. Ad agencies, did you consider to cast or bid a female director? Did you look at the production crew? Did you look if there was a female wardrobe? Did you look at the diversity or people who are gonna tell your stories for advertising? Therefore. TV production, or whoever the story tellers are, should be as diverse as possible. We continue to tell women that their role in hospitals is to be a nurse. 95% of the world’s nurses are women. You become the product of the story you have been told. Women are sexy objects. What I deeply care about in STEM are nerdy white boys dropping out of IVY league schools. You’re never gonna get the Latin population or a young African American boys to see themselves because they only sees themselves as basketball players because of ads on TV and how the media projected the idea that this is what cool kids do, and this what you should look like in the world–so, they start to pursue these traits in other roles. It’s a very important initiate in the advertising, marketing community and we have to make a difference. We also have to tackle the lack of diversity in STEM, which I’m passionate about, and my company greatly believes in diversity in STEM because of the lack of engineering talent and lack of diversity. We go and tell stories and find: twelve-year-old Asian girls writing for her grandmother who has Alzheimers; sixteen-year-old girls who are passionate about robotics changing products in motels; or a 24-year-old African American boy who developed his own company and sold it to SONY. We tell those stories and put it out in the world through the media, where they can actually see and discover their fit. One action we can take in society is self-awareness, to go back to your first question. If you’re highly self-aware, you listen, and say your feelings like how you are suppose to, then do something to act on it. I was doing some work in the embassy for the women and technology. They brought a young woman from South Africa over to my company to be mentored. We has a great relationship, and we knew instantly the day that I met her we were going to have something bigger than a mentorship relationship. A couple of years later she brought the U.S. embassy to South Africa, and South Africa said we can’t afford to bring the girls to U.S., but we can afford the girls to be brought to South Africa within international women’s month. I did that, and for five years now I have gotten to visit different countries and work on different initiatives, and one day I will bring sustainability to South Africa. I met these beautiful women–all different ages, from age 12 to 85–who were taking care of six children. These women naturally picked up the pieces and so many of them, 25 to 45, have missed their academics and have the burden of raising their children in their situation. I spent a day with them and, slowly, started to open up this one woman who was 85-years-old and very beautiful. I asked, “If anybody could help you, what would you ask for?” She said, “If my children could achieve their education there would be nothing they wouldn’t be able to do, and they would have every opportunity in the world.” The education system in South Africa is up to fourth or fifth grade–the teachers can’t teach beyond fourth or fifth grade. So, I thought about it one day and I came back to the U.S. I never lost those words, even as I went on runs, trying to be myself and stay self aware. I heard a voice in my head saying, “you need to build a school for these children, they need to be able to do it on their own, you need to go to school in the long run.” I was like, “no, I don’t build schools. Oprah Winfrey builds schools.” But, I just kept hearing this voice telling me that I need to build a school in South Africa. At the end of the run, I called a gentlemen in Mosiac who I met, and I said there’s a voice that is telling me we need to build a school in Mosaic for children in your care. He said, “You’re calling me to plan to build a school? We are so busy, we can’t take it off the ground. We are so busying making housing, jobs, education, vocational training for women to have lives with their children.” But, he said, “If you think you can tackle school, I can work with the municipality here and the land. But, if you can get us off the ground, nobody in South Africa will ever give money if it’s already built. I can get the support once it’s real, but if there’s only a piece of dust on the ground then money is just squandered.” So, we go back and year one was the land and the foundation, aligning the children and teaching the staff. Year two we started with a two-room classroom, and now we have a beautiful two story building. In the township of Ecahin we are educating 250 students on a daily, national school curriculum, which means these children in the township have the same ability as the White africans across the street. We changed the story and said, “You have the same thing as they have now.” So, now it’s up to you. How are you going to try? It’s so easy in our society to point your finger at the government, or say it’s not fair or not just. You have schools, just like theirs, you have teachers who are trained–it really works on the younger children. Our goals were different for the older children because it’s difficult to go back at 10, 11, or 12 and teach them the same way as four-year-olds or five-year-olds. We have 250 children so far who are successfully being educated. If I was in politics, I could have tired to influence U.S. politics to have more policies in local South Africa, so the politics can get it done. For this to be done, we needed somebody who could do it, and going back to question number 1, just take action. When something needs to be done, do it and don’t be fearful, and the rest will come from your heart; or, if you feel like you need to get it, get your resources to get it done. So, it wasn’t me who got it done, it was him who found the resources and I was just a helping hand because I was self-aware and willing to take action.