Eric Jolly

You are going to change the world. I don’t know how, but I know that you’ll meet someone, someday who least expects it, and for no other reason than the fact that you’re a great human being, you’ll help them. You’ll say something kind to someone who needs to hear something kind. You’ll help someone who didn’t know it, but needed help, and you won’t take credit for it and they’ll go on to do something different and live a better life because of you. And so the best seeds in the world are children, because they grow to change the world.

Eric Jolly

My name is Dr. Eric Jolly. I was born January 5th, 1957. I am the President of the Science Museum; that’s my home. I was born in Rhode Island and raised between Rhode Island and Oklahoma. So, I was sent back and forth as a young person. Just off the reservation and then into the city.

My early childhood was all about exploring. The first language that my parents spoke was Alogee, which is Cherokee language. And then, my mother’s mother spoke French. So the next language I learned after Cherokee was French. Then I started speaking English at home when I was four or five years old.

Today I also speak a little Russian and Romanian, plus French Sign Language, American Sign Language and Russian Sign Language. I like languages a lot.

My earliest memories are of my beautiful grandfather. I remember his hands lifting me up out of the crib with love. He put me down on the counter and I’d sit there and listen as he told stories.

Stories became one of the most important things in my whole life. We use stories to help teach not just language, but to teach ways of being, to answer problems. I’ve probably spent my whole life collecting stories.

I started college part-time at twelve and full-time at sixteen years old. I got degrees in all sorts of things that interested me. One time, I was getting my degree in physics and a degree in psychology. I was in school and I thought, you know, I’m not having fun. So I was sitting on the steps one day and I was thinking about dropping out of school.

As I was about to drop out of school, a professor saw me sitting there and he said, “Eric, what are you doing?” And I said, “I'm on my way to drop out of school.” He said, “Why?” “Because I can’t get a job with these degrees and I’m going to need to get a job when I’m grown up.” And he said, “You know, if you do what interests you, then you'll be the best at it. You’ll never be the best at things you don’t like. Be the best at things that you like. Do what you love. And then see what happens.”

And so because of that, I didn't drop out of school! I just did more of what I liked. I liked learning things so I learned sign language. I wanted to study mathematics and psychology so I thought, that's it. I finished my degrees.

I wrote to a school that had a program that worked with chimpanzees who spoke sign language. I said, “Can I talk to your chimps for you? I’ll do it if you’ll help me learn.” They gave me a free education, a place to stay, paid for my food, and let me study mathematics and psychology and I got to be a person who worked with sign language and chimpanzees. I may be the only person you’ll ever meet that's been called stupid by a chimpanzee. It’s true!