Valerie Cana

I definitely attribute my success to an incredible support system of my mom, my best friend, my sister, other friends, and other women who have helped me along different journeys, whether that's healthcare, emotional and mental health, or physical health. It's just incredible - the more women I speak to, the more confident I feel moving forward. I'm very grateful because I have a very matriarchal family background. My grandmother always understood the importance of education and accomplished her dreams. She moved here from the Philippines on her own, and then had to move each of her three daughters over a long period of time, like every 6 months. She had to work here, set up life, and then move her husband and her three daughters. That struggle, that vision of wanting so badly to create a better life for your family, has gotten me through so much. It reminds me how much power we really have. It helps me get up in the morning and not waste time. My best friend helps me rest and relax, and I do that intentionally at 100%, so that when I get back to work, I'm back at 100% too.

I would say if you're really young, try absolutely everything. I understand the younger generation may feel paralyzed because you have so many options, and you've seen a lot through news, social media, and the internet. We know so many things at the same time right now, so it's hard to make decisions. But I would say you just focus on the next step. If you're even slightly interested in something, you just go ahead and do that. Your curiosity will lead you to every answer that you need. You don't have to have it all figured out right now, but you'll soon realize, okay, I tried that, I tried this, and I tried this. You'll be able to make better decisions for yourself and get even more specific, and you will find that calling over time. So just don't just do one thing. You're not meant to just do one thing. You can do as many things as you want.

The biggest challenge is that people are fearful that their jobs may be replaced by artificial intelligence. That's the main reason why I went back to school, because CMU is actually the birthplace of AI, and I wanted to be part of understanding it more and shaping it. It is difficult to understand where human cognition can reduce with unintentional usage of AI. If you just let it generate everything, like writing-wise or creative workflow-wise, it really does get in the way. But I've learned here that it's more important than ever for more people to understand how things get generated and how to basically control the horse. If you really understand that, it actually amplifies what I can do. It puts me more into a director position, and I still understand great visual taste, understanding systems as a whole, and understanding humans as well. And that's not something that computers will ever, ever take away.

Number one is definitely empathy. I'm definitely an empath with a capital E. Going through much of the corporate world, of course being a woman, I was like, okay, if I'm not careful, it really can make me roughen up in a way that I don't like, or index on competition or just being fearful. But that's not aligned to who I am, so empathy for others, being authentic and honest, and I'm very driven by community success. You know the saying, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. I really believe we never do anything alone in this world. We always get help from somebody else. So I try to progress in my career so I can do that for other people. I want to have more resources, know more, so I can give that to others. I'm very much a softie at heart, and I am sensitive, but I think most importantly, having the emotional intelligence to understand people and realize we're not meant to compartmentalize work and life. These things are intermixed. So treating each other with that kind of respect and realizing we're multi-dimensional people is just so important in honoring that.