'Embrace Your Fears,' Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa Tells Toms River Students

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Stand up for what's right. Embrace your fears. Don't think you have to have all the answers today. And treat others the way you would want them to treat you.

Those were just some of the bits of advice Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa had to share with students at Toms River High School North on Friday during a brief visit to the school.

Ressa, a 1982 graduate of Toms River North, also told the students at her high school alma mater that she believes they will change the world that social media has twisted and manipulated.

"You will create the new world," Ressa said. "The world we oldies knew is dead."

Ressa, a 1986 graduate of Princeton, traveled to New Jersey for a ceremony at Princeton on Saturday to receive the university's Woodrow Wilson Award in honor of her Nobel prize.

The Woodrow Wilson Award is given to "an undergraduate alumna or alumnus whose career embodies the call to duty in Wilson’s 1896 speech, 'Princeton in the Nation’s Service,' " according to the university website.

Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October along with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, chosen "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace," Nobel Prize officials said. Read more: Nobel Peace Prize Awarded To Journalist With NJ Ties

On Friday in the media center at Toms River North, Ressa answered questions for more than an hour, sharing with students how her time as a Mariner influenced the path that carried her to the Nobel honor.

"You can't make it the goal," Ressa said.

Ressa, who graduated third in her class, played the violin and was a member of the school's orchestra. She was involved in the theater program, played basketball and softball, and was class president her freshman, sophomore and junior years. She encouraged the students to try many things as they search for their path in life.

"I like being a jack of all trades," she said. (Article continues after photo)

But she acknowledged the pressures that students feel to decide now what they will do for the rest of their lives. Ressa was the oldest of five children, and their parents were both doctors who wanted her to be a doctor, too. It was a path she didn't want to follow, which drew understanding nods from some of the students.

"Don't worry so much about where you are going. If you like a path, keep going. If you don't, make a turn," Ressa said. "Whatever you really love right now, see where you want to be in three years, five years. It's hard to think about that in high school. But if you love it, you will get better and better at it."

And she urged them to not feel like they have to have all the answers.

"Sometimes you don't know until you do know," she said.

Ressa said her years in the Toms River schools taught her many lessons, from learning how to speak English — her family came to Toms River from the Philippines when she was in elementary school — to standing up for what is right and not being afraid of failure.

"You have moments of disappointment and failure," Ressa said, but she counted them as learning moments. Senior year she was not elected class president, which surprised not only her but the class advisers and others around her. In the loss, however, she saw how much support she had from her friends, who did what they could to help.

"My friends took me to see the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' " which in the 1980s played every Friday at midnight at the Dover Mall movie theater. "Then my other group of friends took me to see 'Star Wars' 40 times."

"You have to reach out to your support groups," Ressa said.

Who you surround yourself with, whether it's high school, college or in life beyond, plays a significant role in who you become and how you get there, Ressa said.

"In high school, I learned not everyone is going to like you, and that's OK," she said. It's also the choices made that forge the path to your future.

Ressa shared a story of one of those choices, of how she befriended a girl who was a member of the Toms River North orchestra, who was being bullied by another student. Ressa, who noted several times that she was a nerd, stepped in and befriended the girl. When the bully's attention turned toward her, Ressa's friends stepped in to support her.

"It's kind of frightening if you step in front of a bully, right?" she said. "I was afraid that if she gets bullied I'll get bullied, and it almost happened. But then my friends, the nerds, also came in and helped."

"It's these little moments that define your values, that define who you are," Ressa said. "Even something simple like standing up against a bully. What makes it good is when you are with other people who stand for the same values, the same ideals."

Hear her tell the story:

"Hang onto your ideals," she said. One of hers is the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

Getting into Princeton was a defining moment in her life, Ressa said, as not only did she achieve a high goal — "I applied to 13 colleges," she said — it exposed her to a wide range of possibilities. It also honed her ideals.

At Princeton, students had to sign the honor code for every paper they turned in and every test they took: "You had to pledge on your honor that you didn't cheat, and you also had to pledge to report everyone around you who is cheating," she said.

That is the backbone of who she is as a journalist. She has spent her career in Southeast Asia, first working for other companies and later co-founding Rappler, a digital media outlet based in the Philippines, pushing to expose corruption and hold the governments in Southeast Asia accountable. Ressa's efforts have resulted in her being arrested 10 times by the Philippine government, and she is facing the possibility of 10 years in prison on a charge of "cyberlibel" leveled against her for her reporting.

That threat does not deter her from the work. "The mission is to hold power to account," Ressa said, to halt corruption and force change. It is the focus of a book she has written that is anticipated to be released later this year: "How to Stand Up to a Dictator."

Ressa said winning the Nobel Peace Prize has increased the expectations.

"It used to be feeling like swimming under two oceans of water," Ressa said, noting that she was always taking on too much. "After the Nobel, it became four oceans. More is expected."

She urged the students several times to not be afraid — of uncertainty, of challenges, or of failure.

"Embrace your fear," Ressa said. "Take the sting out of it by embracing it and taking on the challenge."

That especially goes for fearing failure.

"Failure and success is not a zero-sum game," Ressa said. "You have to take risks. It makes the winning so much better."

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