Speaking Topics

The True Meaning of Resilience

Emi Nietfeld rejects the easy label of an “overcomer.” Even though she kept her dreams alive against the odds and attended a top college, she knows it wasn’t solely due to resilience: success required luck, privilege, and support. In this passionate talk, Nietfeld asks her audiences to throw away the American fantasy that poverty, illness, or any other adversity can be conquered through sheer grit and bootstrapping ingenuity. She urges us to shift our focus from encouraging “resilience” and instead address the underlying social problems and provide individuals the support they need to persevere.

Bridging Engineering and Creativity

When Emi Nietfeld entered Harvard, she had a passion for writing and literature, but needed a career that could lift her out of poverty and debt. So she majored in computer science. Now, a successful writer and software engineer, she proves that “passion versus money” is a false binary—and a classist one. In her relatable talks, Emi Nietfeld encourages students that it is possible to follow your dreams outside of a career. Nietfeld shares her personal journey to becoming an author, and how she’s balanced it with her full time “day job.”

Navigating Mental Health in Adulthood

As a teenager who struggled with depression, anxiety, and an eating disorder, Emi Nietfeld often found herself struggling to hide a taboo subject from admissions committees and employers. In reality, no one is entering college—or the workplace—and leaving their identity behind. In this talk, Nietfeld shares lessons from her mental health journey, with practical lessons on how students and young professionals can address their emotional well-being as they navigate higher education and begin their careers. This talk can also be adapted for higher education administration and faculty who want to better understand how to overcome stigma in the application process for incoming students.