New Hampshire Serving Three Cups of Tea is proud to announce that renowned author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson will be coming to New Hampshire on March 5, 2010 to speak to high school students about his work promoting community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson is author of #1 New York Times best-seller, Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School At A Time, Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea. Mortenson is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute. In 1993 Mortenson’s life was saved by villagers after his failed attempt to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. In gratitude to the villagers, Mortenson announced he would return and build the children a school. Since then, and against great odds, he has seen to the construction of 131 schools.
Since 2008, the Oristano Foundation and The Cricenti Trust have made copies of Three Cups of Tea available to high schools and middle schools in New Hampshire. Heather Cummings, Director of Curriculum at the Governor Wentworth Regional School District, Foundation liaison and co-chair of New Hampshire Serving Three Cups of Tea, reports that currently 37 schools have received books and teachers and students are using the story to build an understanding of the culture and hardships of life in these distant and isolated villages. “These students have become fascinated with the Mortenson’s work in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are learning that not everyone in these countries are bad people looking to harm the United States. Students here are learning that Mortenson believes that ‘If you educate a girl, you educate a community’ and education can change culture.”
Educators in these schools have been developing curriculum and learning experiences around the book. They share their experiences at regional get-togethers and through the Three Cups of Tea blog (http://nh3cupsoftea.blogspot.com/). Some of the educators are also involved in more formal curriculum work through the College of Graduate Studies, Plymouth State University.
This event, being held at Exeter High School, is being sponsored by the Lakes Region Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association.
Mortenson’s interest in New Hampshire is with the high school and middle school students reading Three Cups of Tea. Therefore, the Exeter High School auditorium where Mortenson will appear, is being reserved for students, educators and invited guests. The general public is welcome to watch a simulcast at the Cooperative Middle School in Stratham.
Media Contact: Dr. Kathleen C. McCabe, College of Graduate Studies, Plymouth State University, can be reached at 279-4753.
Note: Greg Mortenson will not be available for interviews. The press is welcome to attend the event and witness Mortenson’s address from an over-flow room.
