Video, Photo Gallery: Students Meet With Neil deGrasse Tyson in Exclusive Seminar

YouTube video of astrophysicist giving 6-year-old audience member life advice goes viral

Photography and video by Tom Rettig, Christian R. Santillo, Dan Vaillancourt

On Thursday, Nov. 13, Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium, spent a few, busy hours on the College of the Holy Cross campus as the guest speaker for the 49th annual Hanify-Howland Memorial Lecture. Before his lecture in the Hart Recreation Center, 25 students had the opportunity to interact with Tyson in a small seminar, discussing a range of topics that were both intellectually stimulating and personal.

After receiving the key to the city of Worcester presented to him by Mayor Joseph Petty, Tyson spoke in front of a full arena of more than 2,500 people. One particular interaction with an audience member, first-grader Kaitlynn Goulette, stood out to those in attendance. A video of the intimate and inspiring moment between the astrophysicist and six-year old soon went viral, claiming more than 300,000 views on YouTube and even resulting in an article by Time.com, which highlighted the video on its homepage.

YouTube: Neil deGrasse Tyson responds to six-year-old: "How can first graders help the earth?"

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