June 24, 2009
For
the fourth year in a row, incoming St. John’s University freshmen
have been assigned a special Summer Reading Project. Each of them
has received a copy of the inspiring best-seller, Three Cups of
Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time,
by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, and will be expected to
discuss the book in several settings, including their Discover New
York class, in the fall.
Three Cups of Tea describes Mortenson’s experience in
Pakistan where he was stranded after failing in an attempt to climb
the world’s second highest mountain. After he wandered away from
his group, exhausted and without water, food or shelter of any
kind, he relied on the kindness of strangers living in an
impoverished village, who took him in and nursed him back to
health.
During his stay, Mortenson discovered the need for educational
resources for children who were eager to learn. As a result of the
humane treatment he received at the hands of the Pakistani
villagers, Mortenson vowed to return and build them a school. Not
only did he do so, he has continued his mission to create peace
through education and, with the help of a group of supporters, has
founded 78 permanent schools and four dozen temporary schools in
isolated regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The high point of the students’ reading project will be a special
visit by Mr. Mortenson during Founder’s Week in January,
2010.
The summer reading project, according to University Provost Julia
A. Upton, RSM, Ph.D., is intended to introduce the newest St.
John’s students to New York City and, most importantly, to certain
core values espoused by the University and the Vincentian community
that founded it in 1870. Foremost among these is the commitment to
addressing issues of poverty and social justice. Three Cups of
Tea provides a most apt example of finding effective and
workable solutions to both.
Fourth Year of Summer Reading
Three Cups of Tea is the fourth book selected for the
freshman summer reading program, a component of St. John’s
innovative Discover New
York course, which is required of all freshmen. In 2006, they
read Downtown: My Manhattan by Pete Hamill, in which the
native New Yorker takes a walk through the lower regions of the
city he loves; the following year, the selection was
Triangle, a novel by Katherine Weber, which provided
freshmen with a snapshot of New York City history by relating the
true story of a 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company that
claimed more than 100 lives. Last year’s required reading was
Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters—and
How to Talk about It.