My friend Maureen Reed became the Forum’s Executive Director late last year. When Maureen and I realized that SJU/CSB would be in South Africa as the Forum occurred, we decided
this was "meant to be." So, Nelson
Mandela Metropolitan University participated in the Forum for the first time, in real time. One of our students - Joe Mork - asked the very first
question of the keynote presenter who was speaking on renewable energy and its relationship to sustainable peace.
One takeaway I'll always remember arose from the Q and A session after the speech, where the presenter (in response to a question from us) estimated that it would take $300 million dollars to bring electricity to every single person in the country of Mali, West Africa (using solar and wind power). While the people back in Minnesota were contemplating that $300 million is one-third of the amount of money we may be soon spending on a new football stadium, another NMMU student told the conferees that $300 million was the entire budget for some countries in Africa. Gives all of us some food for thought relative to our spending priorities! I think it was important that Nelson Mandela Metropolitan students participated. Don't you?
Here are a few pics of our CSB/SJU students talking with other NMMU students as we all participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.
I think I've said this a few times before but I'll say it again, what a wonderful experience you are providing for these college kids. Experiences they may never have encountered if you and Jim (and people like you ) did not have the excellent leadership skills you do to facilitate these learning experiences.
ReplyDeleteI never want to be college age again, just be, 'in college' again.
Thanks for writing this so we can learn along with you all.