The call was scheduled for noon.
Professor Sandra Chen was exactly as Aria had expected from Diana’s description — precise, warm, with the specific quality of someone who had spent thirty years teaching people how to think rather than what to think and had arrived at a deep respect for the difference. She had read everything Aria had written and sent — the business plan documents, the Merritt case materials, the Cole Okafor engagement framework — with the careful attention of someone building something from what they found.
“I’ve been thinking about the structure of your talk,” Professor Chen said. “The draft you sent is excellent. The forty-eight names as the foundation — that’s exactly the right instinct.” She paused. “I want to suggest something that will make it more.”
“Tell me,” Ar
