I grew up watching my mom and dad selling rooms in our motels. We had CEOs coming to our house so that my dad could persuade them to have their executives stay in Hyatt hotels.

The fact that my father set out on his own to build Hyatt - a business the family was not in and a business he was learning about as he was building it - is instructive.

Head Start has been a key component of health, nutrition and early learning opportunities since the 1960s.

Governor Rauner talks about what he might get done or what he tried to get done. It's past time for all his talk. It's time for action. It's what I've been doing my whole life.

My interest in science started in junior high school where an outstanding science teacher, Mrs. Baumgardner, introduced me to the joys of science.

I not only couldn't read but often couldn't hear or understand what was being said to me - by the time I'd processed the beginning of a sentence, the teacher was well on her way through a second or third.

What America is thirsting for now is a battalion of strong, down-to-earth 'doers' - managers, frontline activists, business and social entrepreneurs engaged in tackling America's manifold problems of unemployment, education, and competitive slouch.

I've gone to prom multiple times, had fights with the principal, a relationship with my teacher. When people ask if I wish I had gone to high school, I tell them that I've acted all of that stuff out, and it just doesn't seem like fun.