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Three Cups of Tea Author Inspires Keene State Audiences

KEENE, N.H., 3/9/2010 - Greg Mortenson, co-founder of the Central Asia Institute, talked about his work promoting girls’ education and literacy in rural areas of Afghanastan and Pakistan in two presentations for Keene State College’s James D. Ewing World Affairs Lecture on March 5, 2010. Mortenson founded “Pennies for Peace,” an organization that has inspired students from thousands of schools across the nation to raise money for books and school supplies for students in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has established more than 90 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, bringing educational opportunities to more than 38,000 children.

Three Cups of Tea has been a New York Times bestseller for more than 130 weeks (more than three million copies sold), has been published in 34 countries, and has been used by more than 90 colleges and universities and in more than 400 high/junior high schools as a common reading experience. The book is mandatory reading for all senior U.S. military commanders, military officers in counter- insurgency training, and U.S. Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan. It is also used for training at the Norwegian War College.

The morning program was attended primarily by students from area elementary, middle, and high schools. Many had used Mortenson’s book in their classes and engaged in fundraisers to help his cause. Students from area elementary schools held fundraising drives that together raised more than $2,000 for Pennies for Peace, and one group presented Mortenson with a banner that included messages students wanted to share about what they learned from the Pennies for Peace drive experience. A second program in the afternoon was open to Keene State students and the general public. Read more about Greg Mortenson here.

To see a visual recording of the lecture, please contact Kim Schmidl-Gagne at kgagne@keene.edu.

The James D. Ewing World Affairs Lecture was named in honor of James Ewing, owner and publisher of the Keene Sentinel, an award-winning daily newspaper for the Monadnock Region, from 1954 to 1993. The Endowment has been established to bring speakers to Keene State College and the Keene community to address current public or world affairs issues.

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