Campus News

Campus Shares 'A Long Way Gone' as Author Visits Campus

of

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 28, 2014) — A good book can be a life changer, but one good book has become a campus changer.

This year’s University of Kentucky Common Reading Experience book, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” by Ishmael Beah, has changed the UK freshman experience immeasurably. The author may change even more people and their understanding of a child soldier’s life when the author visits the campus today to present the annual CRE author lecture. Beah speaks at 7 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Singletary Center Concert Hall. A book signing follows the free event.

The UK Common Reading Experience is a collaborative effort — with New Student and Parent Programs, Student Affairs, Undergraduate Education, and other campus partners — designed to introduce new students to academic life at the university. The goal is two-fold: first, to bring new students together for a common reading experience that introduces them to academic discourse during the summer preceding their first year; and second, to engage the entire UK community in a common intellectual experience through year-long programming.

When new students first arrived at UK in August, they were asked what they thought of “A Long Way Gone,” what they learned from this rare first-person account of a child soldier. Here are some student quotes from that survey:

·       I learned that a book can bond people together.

·       I learned that your past does not define who you are as a person. You can choose to overcome your hardships and to grow as a person, like Ishmael did.

·       I learned that just by seeing somebody, you don't know what their life has been like.

·       I learned that the will to carry on will take us farther than we can ever imagine.

·       I learned about the conflict in Sierra Leone, as well as themes of resilience in the face of seemingly hopeless situations.

·       I learned that we must "strive to be like the moon." (That is my favorite quote.).

While these first-year students have enjoyed the common intellectual experience of small group discussions with other new and upperclass students and public events coordinated around the book's themes, topics, and issues, perhaps the most lasting and personal touch has been achieved in the classroom, where inventive faculty have brought the book to life for their students. Here are only three of many examples:

·       Rebecca Freeman, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, College of Arts and Sciences: In her "Sustainable Planet" class, the students used Sierra Leone as an example to relate recent class discussions about diamond mining and how cultures use and control available resources and energy.

·       Marty Henton, senior lecturer for the School of Art and Visual Studies, College of Fine Arts. In her "Pathways to Creativity" class the concept of mind-mapping turned into an actual mapping activity based on Beah's journey through Sierra Leone to New York, and to Oberlin College in Ohio, and lastly to Kentucky where he speaks Tuesday night. Four large maps will be created by four teams of five students; each will display the outlines of Sierra Leone, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky using plastic tape to show the author's path to Kentucky.  These large maps will be installed outside of the Singletary Center in the grassy area on the corner of Avenue of Champions and Rose Street. 

·       Conrad Davies, senior faculty lecturer, Division of Instructional Communication and Research, College of Communication and Information. Davies had a very personal relationship with Beah’s story as his parents are Sierra Leonean immigrants, which he shared with his class. The in-class commentary about his and Beah’s homeland helped students with their three CRE-related assignments: reviewing the book’s website; comparing and contrasting cultural differences using the students’ own world view; and identifying how the book affects American perceptions. Noting this is the first non-American CRE author, he said many students knew nothing about Sierra Leone. He said some students gained great insight, while others found the book difficult to read due to its graphic nature and others could not put the book down because it was so good.  

Born in 1980 in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Beah was picked up by the government army when he was 13 and trained to commit truly terrible acts that even an adult may have trouble overcoming. Luckily for Beah, UNICEF removed him from the fighting at age 16 and taught him how to forgive himself and how to heal.

Now, Beah is a New York Times bestselling author of “A Long Way Gone,” which has been published in over 30 languages and nominated for a Quill Award in 2007. Time magazine ranked the book No. 3 in its top 10 nonfiction books of 2007. He is a UNICEF ambassador and advocate for children affected by war; a member of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Advisory Committee; an advisory board member at the Center for the Study of Youth and Political Violence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; visiting scholar at the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University; visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University; co-founder of the Network of Young People Affected by War (NYPAW); and president of the Ishmael Beah Foundation. He has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and many panels on the effects of war on children. He is a graduate of Oberlin College with a bachelor’s degree in political science and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

MEDIA CONTACT: Gail Hairston, 859-257-3302, gail.hairston@uky.edu