Ladies and gentlemen Elizabeth Becker on how to be a foreign correspondent. Please give it up So Basically imagine yourself in the back of a car You're being tear gas your eyes are burning you just want to get out of there and you're fleeing from a riot at the West Bank in 2009 Most people that would be a nightmare and for me it was a dream come true because I always wanted to be a work correspondent Just like my hero Nelly fly who was actually an international reporter for humanitarian needs and she just inspired me From a young age that even though I was in my early 20s. I had no experience who cares if I want to do something I could do it. I just had to figure out how so Seville is an organization that gave me a great scholarship to Learned about Palestinian Christianity in the West Bank of Israel in 2009 It was founded by Desmond Tutu who's another hero of mine for his peace activism So once they gave me the $2,000. I knew I had to get prepared this happened really quickly once I decided to do it and Basically, I had no you can't prepare to be a foreign correspondent. I read everything I could I didn't understand anything about Palestine But before I knew it I was on a plane to Tel Aviv with a tent like I'm gonna go camp out in Israel and study whoever and As the plane was landing I basically just had this thought and even our favorite superhero reporter Super or Spider-Man might feel like this Sometimes and I feel like this for the next six months. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing trying to go be a foreign correspondent in the Middle East But I decided to make friends with people which is something I'm actually pretty good at Even though I'm not that great a reporter so I worked at it with Palestinian Christians and I lived with Israeli Jews and I Volunteered with Palestinian Muslims and everybody thought I was a Jewish spy for some reason So you know, I kind of realized everybody's got this wall up and when you're a reporter You're gonna have to get down to their level and be in their wall with them So you're not just looking at a map. You're right there with them So I realized I needed to get pretty humble. This wasn't just an adventure for me This was people's real stories and everybody needed to be able to share openly with me. So this is Mrs. Ooms granddaughter. She was a Palestinian. This is Mrs. Ooms That I met who's homeless demolished in Jerusalem. She ended up living on the sidewalk And this was a woman who didn't have any walls around her literally, but also figuratively She taught me that you know, you can just speak out and not have any fear But a lot of these people are living in fear so Bethlehem I met people who had lost their son in the middle of the night for a house raid a man in Hebron had seen his Neighbors welded into their homes for peace activism and in a refugee camp. I met Palestinians who have still had the keys to their homes, but we're no longer a lot to live there So when people stop you with guns and you're trying to be a foreign correspondent You're on the right track and it doesn't feel right But you know you're about to get some really valuable information if you can just stay calm So one thing that helped was I joined a local news group called the Palestine monitor and I got to see some of these stories really Up close and in person from totally fearless people like the head of the Palestinian Government and agriculture and Juliano Marjama's Juliano Marjama's was the man. I was so fortunate to interview He is a huge peace activist and unfortunately at the end of our interview He ended up getting me fired and it was the last interview I ever got to give because he thought I was a Jewish spy like everybody Unfortunately Juliano was assassinated a year after our interview and I always had some resentment against him But I remember to quote that he gave me in our interview Which is when you are afraid is when you must speak and Juliano was very afraid for good reason But your voice counts so if you have any interest whatsoever and either being a foreign correspondent or just sharing someone's story We have to celebrate the fact that we do have free speech and we're allowed to come out places like at night and tell people stories So if you still want to be a foreign correspondent or just convince anyone anywhere that you're a spy that turned out to be very good at You know here is some you know a recap I guess of some things that I had to consider Basically, you know just like Spidey says go for it Decide for what is gonna motivate you and you know kind of just throw caution to the wind because Overall It's not it wasn't nearly as bad I guess as I thought it was going to be and all the bad parts ended up being pretty good in the long run I'm still here, right? So speak out and share your story whatever that story is We have places like ignite Twitter with Facebook go ahead get online and Share your story So if you're interested in talking to me afterward. I've included my oh, it's in trouble Oh, so Shbatterfly is my Twitter and there's my email account. I'm sorry if I inflamed anybody with all this But seriously if you want to follow up with me, I'd love to talk about it a little bit more. Thank you