[ applause ] >> the pain a child experiences from poverty lingers. the hunger, the hopelessness, the lack of possibilities. for 18 years she lived with her three siblings and her mother in a shack with a dirt floor and a tin roof. every time it would rain, it came through. even though nellie could read, she made reading a priority and nelly got a full scholarship to a college in illinois. she worked in the weekends in the cafeteria and the weekend as a janitor and sent all the money back home to her family. it was there where she became in love with science and became an engineer and she founded tech