Greg Mortenson with Sitara "Star" schoolchildren, Afghanistan. Click on photos for larger versions. (Image courtesy Central Asia Institute)*HOUGHTON -- Step into Fisher Hall today, Thursday, Feb. 5, to warm up during your tour of the Michigan Tech Carnival statues and take a minute to notice members of a new student organization selling restaurant raffle tickets for a worthy cause -- Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute for building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The raffle, with meals donated by local restaurants as prizes, is just one of several fundraisers the students plan to hold this semester -- from bake sales to tee-shirt sales to letter-writing and more.
During his visit to Michigan Tech last August 2008, Greg Mortenson, co-author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time, speaks about building schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson gave several presentations during his visit, speaking to MTU students, faculty and community members as well as students and faculty from Finlandia University and local high schools, some of whom are pictured here. (Photo © 2008 Michele Bourdieu)After reading the book, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time, co-authored by Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, and listening to Mortenson speak at MTU last fall, a small group of inspired students began having meetings to discuss ways they could get involved in supporting Mortenson's work. The group has expanded to nearly 60 members at MTU and formed a chapter of a non-profit organization called T.E.A. -- Taking Education Abroad.
Travis White, president of MTU's T.E.A. chapter, is a Michigan Tech student in mechanical engineering with a French minor. White said MTU's T.E.A. group is just one of about six chapters that have now formed all over the State of Michigan. White and a group of friends from his home town, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, founded the non-profit student organization last summer.
"It all started last summer at a campfire," he explained. "One of my friends mentioned reading the book (Three Cups of Tea) and how much of an impact it made on his life ....He inspired us all to read it."
Porters carry roof beams 18 miles to the Korphe School, Pakistan, as described in the book, Three Cups of Tea. (Image courtesy Central Asia Institute)White and his friends met again a week or so later in the summer and decided the best way they could help Mortenson's school building projects in Central Asia would be to start a non-profit student organization. They continued to meet often during the summer and contacted Mortenson's Central Asia Institute (CAI) to find out how they could coordinate efforts with them.
The Central Asia Institute, founded by Mortenson, is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.*
Greg Mortenson with Nowseri schoolchildren of Azad Kashmir (earthquake region), Pakistan. (Image courtesy Central Asia Institute)*In August and September, armed with information from CAI, White and his friends then left for their various colleges and started chapters of T.E.A. in several Michigan colleges and universities that now include Lake Superior State University, Saginaw Valley State University, Hope College, Northern Michigan University and Michigan Tech. The movement is spreading to schools in other states as well, including Notre Dame in Indiana.
White also learned that the incoming first-year students at MTU were required to read the book last summer as part of the Reading As Inquiry summer reading program and that co-author Greg Mortenson himself would be coming to Michigan Tech to speak about his work. White, who is studying leadership through MTU's Pavlis Institute for Global Technological Leadership, and other Pavlis students Jessica Banda, now vice-president of MTU's T.E.A. chapter, who is studying scientific and technical communication and journalism, and Travis Anderson, a mechanical engineering student, put together a Power Point presentation and held some information and organizational meetings last fall. This semester their focus is on holding a fundraiser every two weeks with a goal of raising $12,000 in one semester -- the cost of building one of the CAI schools in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
In October 2008, MTU student Travis White speaks about fundraising at an organizational meeting of the group T.E.A., Taking Education Abroad, which now meets regularly on campus to plan fundraisers for Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute. (Photo © 2008 Michele Bourdieu)At the first meeting, Banda commented on Mortenson's presentation at MTU. She was especially struck by the ex-mountain climber's efforts to fit in with the culture of people from a small village who had rescued him after his failure to climb the second highest peak in the world, K2, in the Karkoram mountains of Pakistan. After the villagers asked him to build them a school where they had none, he found himself traveling under challenging, often primitive and dangerous conditions, to various remote towns and villages and building more schools. How did he do it?
"He found himself a contact and worked with him and followed his lead as to what would be culturally appropriate," Banda noted. "He overcame so many obstacles and was still able to accomplish his goal....That's something we can all learn from."
Jessica Banda, right, vice-president of MTU's chapter of T.E.A., and Katie Dobbins, MTU student in computer engineering, offer information and brochures about T.E.A. at the D-80 Conference held at Michigan Tech last November. Both are studying leadership in MTU's Pavlis Institute for Global Technological Leadership.** (Photo © 2008 Michele Bourdieu)Katie Dobbins, also a Pavlis Leadership student, said she learned about T.E.A. from Travis White and decided to read the book, Three Cups of Tea.
"I think it's amazing," Dobbins said, "just the story about how he got to know the people and to build them a school and how that expanded into the Central Asia Institute."
Travis Anderson said he was interested in T.E.A. because he would like to get involved in foreign affairs, especially in the field of education.
"I think education is really important," Anderson said. "I think everyone should have the opportunity to receive education."
Mortenson's chief goal has been to introduce the education of girls in remote places where customs are often opposed to girls attending school.
During his talk at MTU, Mortenson said, " If you educate a boy you educate an individual. If you educate a girl you educate a community."
Some of the female graduates of Mortenson's schools have gone on to secondary and post-secondary schooling and then returned to their villages as health workers or teachers, educating other women and reducing the number of women dying in childbirth. Other graduates have become enlightened mothers who refuse to give permission to their sons to join the Taliban.
Civil engineering student Joshua Jensen said he was also inspired by Mortenson's book and by his presentation in the Rozsa Center last August.
"It was such an awesome presentation," Jensen said. "There were people out in the lobby watching it on T.V. There wasn't a seat in the house."
Jensen, a second-year student at MTU, said he heard about the book because he was working as a mentor for residence life.
"I read the book, and I was looking for ways to make it real in the community -- some service opportunities -- and this (T.E.A.) looks like a great way to get involved with that," Jensen added.
During a planning meeting in January 2009, T.E. A. members, from right, Joshua Jensen, Kari Paquette and Raeanne Madison finalize plans for the restaurant raffle fundraiser now being held on the MTU campus. (Photo © 2008 Michele Bourdieu)Jensen is also planning to participate in Pennies for Peace, a project in elementary schools started by Greg Mortenson's mother, who was a teacher in Wisconsin at the time he founded CAI. In schools all over the U.S. now, children collect an amazing number of pennies to support Mortenson's school-building efforts. This month, several MTU student volunteers will be giving presentations about Pennies for Peace in at least six local Copper Country Schools.
Benjamin Fedorka, Computer Science Learning Community Program coordinator, who is organizing Pennies for Peace volunteers through the MTU Learning Communities in the Residence Halls, said he will be leading a group of volunteer students in a visit to South Range Elementary School during the week of Feb. 12. Six other groups of MTU students are organizing visits to six other elementary schools in the area.
During a recent T.E.A. meeting, Benjamin Fedorka, standing, right, Computer Science Learning Community Program coordinator, tells other T.E.A. members about the Pennies for Peace program beginning this month in area schools. (Photo © 2008 Michele Bourdieu)"We're going to tell them a little about what education is like in Pakistan and Afghanistan and how one penny can make a difference in the world," Fedorka said. "We need volunteers!"
MTU students who would like to volunteer may contact Fedorka at bpfedork@mtu.edu. Teachers who wish to run their own Pennies for Peace campaign can find resources at penniesforpeace.org.
During her recent presentation about T.E.A. in an English class at Finlandia University, Jessica Banda reported that in late January, T.E.A. students held their first fundraiser -- a competitive pop can collection in the MTU dorms. Men and women competed and collected about $170 in 45 minutes. She invited Finlandia students to join T.E.A., and some of the students in the class offered to sell some restaurant raffle tickets. (These are being sold on a donation basis.) Watch for announcements of future T.E.A. fundraisers.
For information on purchasing raffle tickets or contributing in other ways to T.E.A. fundraisers, please email Jessica Banda at jebanda@mtu.edu.
* For video clips taken at some of CAI's schools, visit their Web site.
** For information about the Pavlis Institute for Global Technological Leadership at Michigan Tech, visit their Web site.
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