Is hope everything Disney promises it is? Does hope really have an impact on seemingly unattainable dreams? Through gripping anecdotes and illuminating revelations, our speaker grapples with her views of hope and redefines its meaning in the context of her father’s own battle with a terminal illness. Jothi Gupta is a Robertson scholar and freshman at Duke. She plans to study neuroscience, psychology and journalism. Jothi is a staff writer for The Chronicle focusing on student life and feature stories as well as being a senator for the Equity and Outreach committee of the Duke Student Government. She is also involved in the Duke Justice Project, which focuses on helping incarcerated individuals reintegrate into the community. For the past 5 years, she’s been an outspoken youth voice in the ALS community–the founder of a non-profit, “The RG Foundation for ALS Awareness” and a student leader for the Texas ALS Association in honor of her dad who was diagnosed with ALS 7 years ago. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx