This Yalie was interviewed by Lady freaking Gaga

In case you missed Saturday’s big news, Lady Gaga found her way to the Yale campus for the Emotion Revolution Summit, an event made possible by the Born This Way Foundation and the Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence. What most students don’t know is that one Yalie was lucky enough to be interviewed by the pop icon.

You read that correctly. Chris Rim did not interview Lady Gaga, Lady Gaga interviewed him.

The Tab sat down with Chris for an exclusive recount of that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

OK, Chris. How did you manage this?

Well, it all began in high school when I started a nonprofit organization called It Ends Today, which is a bystander intervention organization that visits over 400,000 students annually through our 26 chapters. I started this after the suicide of a family friend, so the message was very important to me.

A year after It Ends Today was created, Lady Gaga’s team invited me to the launch of the Born This Way Foundation at the Berkman Center in Harvard. So I went, of course, and it was just incredible to experience what Lady Gaga was doing with her position in society to deliver such an important message to youth all over the country.

Most celebrities start non-profits like this at the end of their career, but the cool thing about Lady Gaga is that the Born This Way Foundation has been with her from the beginning. So I asked her, “why are you doing this now? You’re so busy with 1,000 other things.”

She said that it was a no-brainer for her. It’s just something she truly believes, so she doesn’t think of it as something else on her plate. She thinks of it as a part of who she is.

So my freshman year of Yale, I emailed Marc Brackett from the Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence suggesting that we work with the Born This Way Foundation, because we all had the same mission. I guess he loved the idea and since then, he’s pretty much acted as my mentor. He introduced me to Lady Gaga’s mom and Maya, who runs the Born This Way Foundation on a daily basis.

I’m on the Youth Advisory Board of the Born This Way Foundation and I’m also on the advisory board for the Emotion Revolution Summit, so I helped plan out parts of the event. This entire thing was literally 18 months in the making and it finally happened this Saturday.

From left to right: Joe Germanotta (Lady Gaga’s father), Chris Rim, President Salovey and Dr. Marc Brackett (Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)

What happened at the event?

So at the summit, I was interviewed by Soledad O’Brien, who is one of the top journalists of all time. She broke barriers for women of color in journalism. Soledad and Lady Gaga interviewed me and two other high school students who are also on the Youth Advisory Board for the closing of the event.

They basically asked things like, “how will we continue this conversation,” “how will we take what we’ve learned today and actually implement it?” and “what is wrong in today’s society that is allowing students to feel the way they do?”

The information that we got out of this national survey was that kids are feeling tired, bored and stressed in school. I mean, I felt those emotions as well, but it was very minimal. And to think that someone feels that way 70 to 80 percent of their time blows my mind. There’s something wrong with that.

Basically, what I said was that it has a lot to do with the media. Because when you think about it, sites like TMZ or Perez Hilton only report on negative stories because it’s dramatic and boosts the page views. But constantly reading stuff like that really brings everyone down. You know, what if the media started posting inspiring, positive stories? Then possibly, other people would start to do the same. At least, that’s what I think.

What was it like emotionally, physically, or, I don’t know, spiritually, to be interviewed by Lady Gaga? She’s such an icon

I was really nervous the night before, because, you know, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. All I kept thinking was, “what do I do, what do I do?” I also had a cold, so I wasn’t feeling very well.

But luckily, I met her earlier that day, so that got rid of some of the nerves. She was so down to earth. Within five seconds of meeting her, I felt like I was talking to a regular person, which she is. She’s just a very talented regular person.

When I met Lady Gaga, she told me something very interesting: how it really bugs her that people only want to take pictures with her and that it makes her feel shallow. I guess I’ve never thought of it like that, but she’s right. How many people have walked up to a celebrity and simply asked them how they were doing?