A Conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis
Meet Pascale, a 2016 graduate of Gashora Girls Academy and 2021 graduate of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota where she delivered an electrifying speech at her graduation ceremony.
Pascale had the opportunity to sit down with friend of Rwanda Girls Initiative, Jamie Lee Curtis to watch a portion of the inspiring speech and take part in a mutual interview. Pascale's energy, ambition, and brilliance is contagious in this quick 7-minute conversation.
Below is a small portion of the transcript.
JLC: What was the most important lesson you learned from the Gashora Girls Academy?
Pascale: We are empowered to be bold, and empowered to achieve our dreams, and empowered to speak on behalf of others who don't have a voice or don't have an opportunity to speak up. When you are bold, when you can pursue your dreams, then that changes the world.
Pascale: What are some challenges you have faced in your career and are any due to your gender?
JLC: There has been a lifelong discrepancy between pay for women and pay for men. Equal pay is a very important step so that women can move forward. It takes both sides. It takes women stepping up saying, "I want equality." And it takes men having the courage to say, " I want them to have equality."
And for me the biggest challenge of my life is that I was a drug addict and an alcoholic, a very secret one, but nonetheless, a pervasive one that was causing my life internally a lot of issues. I have been sober for 22 years.
Pascale: That's so good!! Let's go!!
JLC: And that is the single greatest accomplishment of my life.
JLC: What is your superpower?
Pascale: A superpower that I also want to grow in or learn more about is to see the unseen. I just want to see those that the world forgets and those that we just walk by, and we don't notice. I want to be able to see them. I want to see the lonely, I want to see the broken. I want to love on them. No matter what you have done, or where you've been, whatever you believe, to know that you are loved, that you are seen and that you are known. I want that.
