Greg Mortenson, the author of the NY Times Bestseller Three Cups of Tea, came to USF today to receive an honorary degree. Three Cups of Tea is Greg's true story of how he got started building schools in Pakistan and Aghanistan.



Greg is an American who was raised in Tanzania. At 11 years old, he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. He moved back to the U.S. with his family when he was a teenager. He eventually began living in the Bay Area and working in San Francisco as a nurse. When his younger sister died of an epileptic seizure, he decided to climb K2 in Pakistan, the world's second tallest peak, in her honor. In 1993, Greg went with a team to try to climb K2. However, he failed to reach the summit when he stopped to help save a fellow climber. Exhausted, he didn't have the energy to continue. People from the nearby mountain village of Korphe took Greg him and nursed him back to health. When he recovered, he saw that the village children would kneel on the ground outside and do their times tables in the mud with a stick because they didn't have a school.

That day, Greg made a promise to return and build them a school. Little did he know how challenging building a school would be. He returned to the states and sold most of his personal belongings. He even started living out of his car in an attempt to save money for the school. In between working two shifts daily as a nurse in San Francisco, he rented a typewriter in Berkeley and hand typed 580 letters to celebrities, philanthropists, and star athletes in an attempt to raise money for the school. It took him months to type all of the letters. Out of those 580 letters, only one person responded. News broadcaster, Tom Brokaw, sent him a $100 check.

Eventually, someone taught him to use a computer to make his work faster and more efficient. Word of his efforts to build a school reached Dr. Jean Hoerni, a multi-millionaire mountaineer who invented the first microchip. He financially backed Greg in his efforts to build the school.

Three Cups of Tea chornicles Greg's mission to build almost 70 schools in Pakistan and Aghanistan. In the decade it took to build his schools, he has been homeless, kidnapped by terrorists, and has been the victim of death threats from Americans who don't like the fact that he is helping Muslim children after 9/11.

Greg strives to provide a good education to all children in the Middle East, but especially to girls. He believes in the African proverb that if you educate a boy, you educate an individual. But if you educate a girl, you educate the community.

This proverb comes from the idea that boys often leave the community in search for jobs. But girls are the ones who stay at home and mold the community by raising the children. So if you want to change society, educate the girls.

 Greg talked about how four of the teachers at his schools are former Taliban members who were against offering education to girls. Some are critical about the fact that these men are allowed to teach the children. Greg, however, responded that these former Taliban are now the most passionate about educating girls. This is because their mothers pulled them aside and told them that their violent lives in the Taliban are against the teachings of Islam. This is the power of educating women.

Greg Mortenson was supposed to receive his honorary degree today to become a Doctor of Humane Letters at USF's annual Mass of the Holy Spirit. However, his flight was delayed so a Punjabi USF grad student accepted the certificate on his behalf. Then, from 2:30pm-3:15pm Greg arrived on campus to sign his books for students. Unfortunately, my communications class let out at 3:15 and by the time I got to the book signing, they wouldn't allow any more to get in line.

Discouraged, I decided to see him at his lecture at 5pm. He was giving a talk on his book in the conference hall in my residence building. At about 3:30, I went back to my building to drop some books off in my room. When I stepped into the building, I saw a huge line waiting for the doors to open for his lecture. There was a sign that said people who couldn't fit into the room could watch a live feed in other buildings. I went to my room and dropped off a few things so I could make my way to one of the overflow rooms to just watch it on tv. When I went downstairs, they suddenly opened up the lecture hall and I just walked right in. Fortunately, I was able to get a great seat.
 

At 5, Greg walked in and began to speak. The packed, standing-room-only crowd was captivated. Greg was initially a little uncomfortable speaking to such a large crowd. He even admitted that he was a really shy guy, but we were all hanging on every word he said. We had all read his book, so we were all there because we were already fans. His message was just so amazing and his stories were so incredible that he held the audience captive for 2 hours.

What really struck me about Greg Mortenson was his humility. Here standing in front of us was a man who changed the lives of thousands of people in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His efforts have made people all over the world more aware of our responsibility to educate our children and children all over the globe. Not to mention, he is the author of a book that has spent 82 weeks on the NY Times Best Sellers list. Tonight was supposed to be about him. But he didn't want it that way. In his two hour talk, he spoke of the people in the Middle East; he spoke of the American children who took 6 weeks to raise over $620.40 in pennies for his schools; he spoke of his family and the other people who have dedicated their lives in helping him educate children. But he rarely spoke of himself. He wanted the focus to be on the children and how a good education can change their lives.

Greg Mortenson, you're my hero.