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Volume CXXXII, Number 19 |
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Not your average guest lecture
Throughout any given academic year, Bowdoin welcomes a wide range of speakers. Often they are professors or researchers from the very top of their respective fields. They are writers, public servants, and scientists. They always arrive with extensive educational and professional credentials. Their passing contributions to any given week on campus are significant, and academic departments should be commended for their efforts to bring the best and brightest from their fields to speak to students.
Rarely, however, does Pickard Theater fill almost to capacity with students for a guest lecture. And when it does, it is not for someone who could easily be one of the students, and not the speaker.
Craig Kielburger was not typical guest speaker. His story, and his message, came from a perspective very different from those who arrive here from other halls of academia. As the nineteen year-old founder of Free the Children, an all-youth organization dedicated to children's rights around the world, Kielburger lent powerful credence to the oft-quoted maxim, "You can make a difference."
While Kielburger invited others to follow in his footsteps and volunteer, his visit was not a recruiting mission. Central to Kielburger's message was not that in response to injustice and suffering throughout the world we should feel guilty; rather, we should feel lucky to have what we have. This is advice that is well worth considering for a college student. Amidst the trials and tribulations of the course of life in college, it is easy to complain, and complain often. But as Kielburger himself reminded his audience, we are at one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the country. For that simple fact, we are especially fortunate.
Next time we complain about being in sleepy, nothing-to-do Brunswick, be thankful that we're not in Kabul. Next time we complain about our poor draw in the housing lottery, be thankful that we're not living in a box. Next time we complain about pluses and minuses on our report cards, be thankful that we have an opportunity to earn those grades and that there is a dedicated faculty willing to give them. Next time we complain about being in the "Bowdoin Bubble," be thankful that we have seen a recent explosion of student interest in what is going on outside that same bubble. And next time we complain about listening to that boring lecture in our "Intro to Whatever" class, be thankful that we Bowdoin students can listen to Craig Kielburger, too.
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