How a brave student inspired a generation by speaking up when everybody else was also willing to speak up
UC Davis is such a large institution with so many brilliant students that it’s probably impossible to say there’s a single one that outsmarts the others ー until now.
Eric Dukakis, second-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major and Albert Einstein impersonator, showed that he is indeed better than all of us in every possible way during his organic chemistry lecture last Tuesday. A classmate of Dukakis described the event that took place.
“It was really a sight to behold,” said Emily Strangler, second-year chemistry major and star of TLC’s I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant. “Our professor asked us what element is represented by a ‘C’ and Eric shouted the answer out at an unnecessarily loud volume a fraction of a second before everyone else said the answer. It was incredible. Everyone burst into applause. The girl sitting next to me started crying. I mean sure, everybody knew the correct answer, but Eric said it first, which makes him better than all of us by miles.”
It’s rumored that the professor teaching the class stopped lecturing, offered Dukakis a research position in her lab, a new car and $100,000 cash for his unprecedented achievement.
“In that moment I just had such a rush of emotions; I’m not even really sure what came over me,” said professor Michelle Rodriguez. “I realized that Eric was so much better than all of my other students and that his courage to speak up when everyone else was also willing to speak up made me really like him and want to give him an A in my class.”
Dukakis has been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, nominated for an Oscar and a Grammy and might even be made the new chancellor of UC Davis because of the courage he showed in organic chemistry that day.
“I guess I was just having a moment of pure genius,” Dukakis told The Aggie. “I’m thinking about running for President of the United States in a few years. I think this nation — the United States, that is — could really use someone who is a leader like I am and isn’t afraid to take risks, also as I am. We could also use someone who is really well-spoken and cool and a genius like me.”
Possibly the most important message that we should take from this inspiring story is that we will simply never be as good as Eric Dukakis. And if that doesn’t inspire you, then I’m not sure what will.
Written by: Brian Landry — bjlandry@ucdavis.edu
