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More than 500 people—from across campus and Greater Worcester—filled St. Joseph Memorial Chapel on Oct. 25 to welcome Wangari M. Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai, a world-renowned environmentalist, delivered her lecture to a rapt audience, many of whom had read her new memoir Unbowed, which details her childhood and early education in the 1940s, her political awakening and her lifelong struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation.
Calling Maathai “one of the most significant world figures today,” Timothy Austin, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College, said in his introductory remarks that she exemplifies the key values emphasized in a Jesuit education. In his formal introduction, Thomas Landy, director of the Lilly Vocation Discernment Initiative, quoted from the Nobel Committee’s citation: “Maathai stood up courageously against the former oppressive regime in Kenya. Her unique forms of action have contributed to drawing attention to political oppression—nationally and internationally. She has served as inspiration for many in the fight for democratic rights and has especially encouraged women to better their situation.”
In her lecture, Maathai explained how her life was shaped by her education—12 years of schooling by missionary nuns in Africa and Benedictine nuns at St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, Kan. “All my early education was in the hands of people who served God, in the service of something bigger than themselves," she said.
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