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I realized that the only way to get into a good college was to be valedictorian or salutatorian. So that was my goal.

Melinda Gates

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Melinda Gates
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: August 15
Businessperson
Entrepreneur
Organizational Founder
Patron Of The Arts
Philanthropist
Dallas
Texas
Melinda Ann French
Melinda French Gates
Melinda Ann Gates
Valedictorian
Valedictorians
Realized
College
Goal
Way
Good

More quotes by Melinda Gates

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We have to look at it country by country. In places like the developing world where, as you say, in Mumbai, it's about five hours' gap between what a woman does and a man does. You have to start by recognizing the problem and talking about it, trying to change those roles.
Melinda Gates
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My background was computer science and business school, so eventually I worked my way up where I was running product groups - development, testing, marketing, user education.
Melinda Gates
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If you look back at history, [Dale ] Carnegie highlighted the need for libraries to be a place where everyone could go to read if you didn't have access to books. Philanthropy can be a place that'll take a risk or point to areas to make sure they are the right government investments to reduce inequalities.
Melinda Gates
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Make sure you continue to trust what you know now about yourself and stay true to what you believe in
Melinda Gates
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If you invest in a girl or a woman, you are investing in everybody else.
Melinda Gates
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We look in our own backyard and say, 'How do we help at-risk families, at risk youth? How do we think through some of the problems affecting the Pacific Northwest and make some change there?'
Melinda Gates
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If you want to lift up an economy in Africa, you basically start with the women.
Melinda Gates
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Despite the debunking, you have a small group in the last five years that hasn't wanted to vaccinate their children, for instance, for measles. Then, all of sudden, we got an outbreak of measles and kids were starting to die from measles.
Melinda Gates
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Like in Africa, if somebody doesn't have fuel, they're still going and collecting firewood. If they get an oven, that's a huge difference. You can do things to reduce the inequities by making sure that they can get clean energy, safe energy. To make sure they're not having to collect water every day. That's huge for women in the developing world.
Melinda Gates
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I care much more about saving the lives of mothers and babies than I do about a fancy museum somewhere.
Melinda Gates
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I learn in a different way. I learn experientially.
Melinda Gates
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Women around the world should have a tool that helps them plan their pregnancies.
Melinda Gates
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I am inspired by the women I meet everywhere I go. They have to work so hard just to make sure their families survive, but somehow they stay optimistic and do everything in their power to make the future better than the past.
Melinda Gates
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Government funding that's coming from the United States is making a huge difference on the ground in the developing world. It's really palpable - it's making a huge difference saving lives.
Melinda Gates
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Around the world we have girls in primary school at about the same rate now as boys, but keeping them in quality secondary schools is where the world is lagging. I'm seeing a lot of countries look at this now.
Melinda Gates
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I'm constantly saying to myself, 'I'm lucky I was born in the United States.
Melinda Gates
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Bill [Gates] and I believe philanthropy can only be effective if it starts things and proves whether they actually work or not. That's the place that governments often don't want to, or can't, work.
Melinda Gates
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When I look at 225 million women who want contraceptives, and then I look at the 52 million unintended pregnancies that could be avoided by addressing this unmet need, where can we have the biggest impact with our voice, our dollars, our partners? It's on contraceptives. I would rather address the problem upstream.
Melinda Gates
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My undergraduate work was in computer science and economics. It just happened to be at that time when 34 percent of computer-science majors were women. We didn't realize it was at the peak at the time.
Melinda Gates
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We set out what's going to be our work time versus our foundation time versus family time, and we'll reassess that... sometimes every week.
Melinda Gates