2008 - 2009: Three Cups of Tea

Rice undergraduates are members of a community in which students and scholars share a love of learning and collaborate as partners in two timeless pursuits: the search for truth and new knowledge through research and other creative endeavors, and the betterment of our world through service and education.

This year's Common Reading, Three Cups of Tea:  One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Relin, illuminates both pursuits.  Three Cups of Tea tells the story of Mortenson's conversion from elite mountaineer to advocate for using education to combat terrorism and build cultural understanding in the most remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Against great odds, over the course of the past fifteen years, Mortenson almost singlehandledly built and sustained schools for tens of thousands of impoverished Muslim children, especially girls, in the backyard of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

The Common Reading program serves two important purposes: To welcome new students to the Rice intellectual community, and to provide the foundation for a shared experience for the entire first-year class.  We also ask new students to read the book because we believe Mr. Mortenson's experience offers a valuable example as they contemplate their collegiate futures. At Rice, we aspire to produce graduates who will make distinctive impacts in their communities but who also recognize, like Mortenson, that identifying a social need or problem is just the beginning. Providing solutions in today's world requires the ability to cope with ambiguity, the determination to persist in the face of obstacles, a recognition of the delicate interplay between progress and culture, and respect and compassion for people who might be different from us. Reading Three Cups of Tea at the beginning of a Rice career will not only expose students to a poorly understood but consequential region of the world; more important, it will help them begin to understand their own potential to affect meaningful change.

Global citizenship is the subject of extensive attention by a wide variety of public, private, and institutional organizations.  To help you explore the topic and forge your own opinion on the related issues, we have compiled a list of helpful links.

1. Greg Mortenson's personal website and the website for The Central Asia Institute:
   http://www.gregmortenson.com/welcome.php
   http://www.ikat.org/
   
   
2. Beyond Traditional Borders:
   http://beyondtraditionalborders.rice.edu/
   
   
3. Engineers Without Borders:
   http://ewb.rice.edu/
   
   
4. Rice University Center for Civic Engagement:
   http://cce.rice.edu/
   
   
   

Information about Pakistan and the locations described in the book

1. Timeline of Pakistan's History (BBC):
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/country_profiles/1156716.stm
   
   
2. Statistical and Political Profile of Pakistan (BBC):
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1157960.stm
   
   
3. Information on Baltistan, the setting for much of Three Cups of Tea:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgit-Baltistan
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skardu_District
   
   
4. Information on K2:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K2
   
   
5. 3-D animated maps of the Karakoram:
   http://www.earthshot.net/cg_world/k2/animations.html
   
   
6. Google Map of Baltisan:
   http://maps.google.com 
   

About the Author 

Greg Mortenson's webpage:  http://www.gregmortenson.com/welcome.php

Greg Mortenson (bio as of October 2007)

Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of nonprofit Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org, Pennies For Peace www.penniesforpeace.org, and co-author of New York Times bestseller 'Three Cups of Tea' www.penniesforpeace.org which has been a bestseller for over nine months since its release and was Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year. 

Mortenson was born in Minnesota in 1957. He grew up on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro,Tanzania (1958 to 1973). His father, was a founder of Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) www.kcmc.ac.tz a 480 bed teaching hospital, and his mother founded the International School Moshi www.ismoshi.org

He served in the U.S. Army in Germany during the Cold War (1977-1979), where he received the Army Commendation Medal, and later graduated from the Univ. of South Dakota (1983), and pursued graduate studies in neurophysiology.

On July 24th, 1992, Mortenson's younger sister, Christa, died from a massive seizure after a lifelong struggle with epilepsy on the eve of a trip to visit Dysersville, Iowa, where the baseball movie, 'Field of Dreams', was filmed.

In 1993, to honor his sister's memory, Mortenson climbed Pakistan's K2, the world's second highest mountain in the Karakoram range. After K2, while recovering in a local village called Korphe, Mortenson met a group of children sitting in the dirt writing with sticks in the sand, and made a promise to help them build a school.

From that rash promise, grew a remarkable humanitarian campaign, in which Mortenson has dedicated his life to promote education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote, volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

As of 2007, Mortenson has established over 61 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 25,000 children, including 14,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before.

His work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an eight day armed kidnapping in the Northwest Frontier Province NWFP tribal areas of Pakistan, escaped a 2003 firefight with feuding Afghan warlords by hiding for eight hours under putrid animal hides in a truck going to a leather-tanning factory. He has overcome two fatwehs from enraged Islamic mullahs, endured CIA investigations, and also received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after 9/11, for helping Muslim children with education.

Mortenson is a living hero to rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials and tribal chiefs from his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls.

He is one of few foreigners who has worked extensively for fifteen years (spending over 65 months) in the region now considered the front lines of the war on terror.

His cross-cultural expertise has brought him to speak on Capital Hill, D.C. think tanks, the Pentagon, Dept. of Defense, libraries, outdoor groups, universities, schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, business and civic groups, women's organizations and more. From March 2006 through 2007, he has visited over 110 cities to talk about his message of peace through education.

NBC newscaster, Tom Brokaw, calls Mortenson, "one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world".

Congresswoman Mary Bono (Rep – Cali.) says, "I've learned more from Greg Mortenson about the causes of terrorism than I did during all our briefings on Capitol Hill. He is a true hero, whose creativity, courage, and compassion exemplify the true ideals of the American spirit." Tom Brokaw calls Mortenson "one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world."

Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today, and the D.C.-based Freedom Forum, says "Mortenson doesn't just climb mountains. He moves them, and through his courage, he gives hope and has changed the lives of thousands of children in a region of turmoil considered the front lines of the war on terror".

Mortenson advocates girls' education as the top priority to promote economic development, peace and prosperity, and says, "you can drop bombs, hand out condoms, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won't change."

While not overseas half the year, Mortenson, 49, lives in Bozeman, Montana with his wife, Dr. Tara Bishop, a clinical psychologist, and two children.

Book tour, reviews and media on www.threecupsoftea.com

Central Asia Institute website www.ikat.org

Pennies For Peace website www.pennniesforpeace.org

Awards

1975 US Army Commendation medal

1998 American Alpine Club David Brower Conservation Award

2002 Peacemaker Award from Montana Community Mediation Center

2003 Climbing Magazine "Golden Piton Award" for humanitarian effort

2003 Vincent Lombardi Champion Award for humanitarian service

2003 Peacemaker of the Year Benedictine Monks, Santa Fe, NM

2003 Outdoor Person of the Year - Outdoor Magazine

2003 Salzburg Seminar fellow, sponsored by Microsoft

2004 Freedom Forum "Free Spirit Award" - National Press Club, D.C.

2004 Jeanette Rankin Peace Award - Institute for Peace

2005 Men's Journal 'Anti-Terror' Award by Senator John McCain

2005 Red Cross "Humanitarian of The Year" Montana

2006 Golden Fleur-de-lis Award from Comune Firenze, Italy

2007 Medical Education Hall of Fame Award, Toledo, Ohio

2007 Rotary International Paul Harris Award for Promoting Friendly Relations Among People

2007 Mountain Institute Award for Excellence in Mountain Community Service

2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize

Three Cups of Tea - Book Awards and Mentions

Kiriyama Prize Nonfiction Award

Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association - Nonfiction Award

Montana Honor Book Award

Borders Bookstore Original Voices Selection

Banff Mountain Festival Book Award Finalist

Dayton Literary Prize Nonfiction Award – runner up

People Magazine – Critics Choice

Publisher’s Weekly – Starred Review

Contact Info:

C/O: Jennifer Sipes

Operations Director

Central Asia Institute

PO Box 7209

Bozeman, MT USA 59771

Phone 406-585-7841

Fax 406-585-5302

Email cai@ikat.org

Web www.ikat.org

* From http://www.gregmortenson.com/GMBioOct07.pdf

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Calendar of Events

• 09/02/2008 at 7:30 p.m.
  Keynote address by Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea:  One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time (RMC Grand Hall). 
  This event is open only to first-year undergraduate students and their O-Week advisors.  To learn more about Mortenson, please follow this link:  http://www.gregmortenson.com/welcome.php
  
  
• 09/09/2008 at 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. (Farnsworth Pavilion)
  Center for Civic Engagement Fellows' Symposium
  Reception and poster session at which this year's undergraduate student fellows discuss the results of their research and partnerships with Houston area organizations
  
  
• 09/24/2008 at 7:30 p.m.
  Screening of "Beyond Belief" (Rice Media Center).
  This powerful documentary film tells the story of Susan Retik and Patti Quigley, two ordinary moms living in the suburbs of Boston whose husbands were killed on 9/11. Rather than turning inwards, grief compelled these women to focus on Afghanistan, the training ground for the terrorists who took their husbands' lives. Over the course of two years, these extraordinary women dedicated themselves to empowering Afghan widows whose lives have been ravaged by decades of war, poverty and oppression. Director Beth Murphy will be in attendance and answer audience questions. To learn more about the film, please use this link: http://www.principlepictures.com/beyondbelief/.
  
  
• 09/25/2008 at 6:00 p.m. (Dore Commons, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy)
  Lecture by Stephen Lewis, Co-Director, AIDS-Free World and Former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa
  Stephen Lewis is the author of Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa. His impassioned speeches are viewed by many as a wake-up call for a world falling desperately short of the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. Lewis probes the enormous gap between vision and current reality in the global fight for an AIDS-free world, but he also offers bracingly attainable solutions.
  This event is co-sponsored by Rice 360 and Beyond Traditional Borders, along with the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, the School of Humanities, the Jones Graduate School of Management, and the United Nations Association International Choir. Reception and poster session to follow.
  
  
• 09/26/2008 at 1:00 p.m. (McMurtry Auditorium, Duncan Hall)
  Global Health Technologies: "How Rice Students are Changing the World"
  Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
  
  
• 09/26/2008 at 3:00 p.m. (McMurtry Auditorium, Duncan Hall)
  "Wireless Networking for Under-Resourced Urban Communities"
  Edward W. Knightly, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science
  
  
• 09/26/2008 at 9:00 p.m. (Location TBA)
  Hanszen College presents Movie Night: "Charlie Wilson's War"
  Charlie Wilson was a maverick US congressional representative from Texas who seemed to be in the minor leagues, except for his membership on two major foreign policy committees. Thanks to the encouragement of Houston socialite, Joanne Herring, Wilson learned about the plight of the freedom fighters resisting the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. With the help of Herring and a maverick CIA agent, Wilson dedicated his political skills to supplying the Afghan mujahideen with the weapons and support to frustrate the Communist enemy.