Recipient’s efforts to build schools reflect college’s values

SHERMAN, TEXAS -- Austin College has announced Greg Mortenson, who works to promote peace through education by building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as the recipient of its 2009 Austin College Leadership Award. The award bears a $100,000 prize. 

Co-founder of the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace, Mortenson has established 78 schools that provide education to over 28,000 children, including 18,000 girls, in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where few education opportunities existed before. These efforts, documented in the highly acclaimed Three Cups of Tea, which has been a #1 New York Times bestseller for 91 weeks since its January 2007 release, led to his selection for this prestigious distinction.   

Mortenson will personally accept the award prior to a March 5 public lecture, titled “Promoting Peace through Education,” at the Belo Mansion in Dallas, Texas. Tickets for the event, at $50 each, are available online at http://www.austincollege.edu/category.asp?3523. 

Prior to his public lecture in Dallas, Mortenson will share his insights with Austin College students, faculty, and staff at a campus-wide convocation, followed by a luncheon for faculty and student leaders, and a book signing. 

The Austin College Leadership Award is an extension of the college’s Posey Leadership Institute, which seeks to build character through academic study and hands-on leadership education. The four-year program grounds students in the principles of servant leadership -- responsibility, respect, caring, gratitude, and service -- and how these values help both communities and their economies thrive. Mortenson and previous Austin College Leadership Award recipients are chosen because their lives directly model the leadership goals and ideals taught by the Posey Leadership Institute. 

“Mr. Mortenson’s daring work to help provide for the education of girls and young women in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan demonstrates a passionate commitment to the promotion of peace,” said Oscar C. Page, president of Austin College.  “The impact of his leadership will be far-reaching, for generations to come, and will contribute positively to stability in this region of the world.” 

Among the many accolades for Mortenson’s work, NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw has called him “one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, who is really changing the world.” 

Mortenson’s work has not been without difficulty. In 1996, he survived an armed kidnapping and eight-day imprisonment in the Northwest Frontier Province tribal areas of Pakistan, and in 2003, he escaped a firefight between 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 received hate mail and death threats from fellow Americans after 9/11 for providing education to Muslim children.   

Mortenson has been hailed as a living hero in rural communities of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he has gained the trust of Islamic leaders, military commanders, government officials, and tribal chiefs for his tireless effort to champion education, especially for girls. He is one of few foreigners who has worked extensively in the region now considered the front lines of the war on terror. 

Pakistan’s government announced that Mortenson will receive Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“Star of Pakistan”), for his courage and humanitarian effort to promote education and literacy in rural areas for the last fifteen years. Pakistan’s president will confer the award on March 23, 2009, in an official ceremony in Islamabad. 

Following on the success of Three Cups of Tea, a new book for children, Listen to the Wind, will be available on January 22.  Told in the voice of children from Korphe, in northeastern Pakistan, where Mortenson was nursed back to health after his failed attempt to scale K2 and later built his first school, the illustrated book illuminates the virtues of humanity, caring, and courage. 

About Austin College 

Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college of 1,300 students.  Founded in 1849, and related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA), Austin College is recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of pre-professional training, leadership studies, and international education. 

In fact, few schools the size of Austin College offer a greater emphasis on all things global.  More than 70 percent of Austin College students study abroad at least once, exploring some 50 countries on six continents.  As a result, Austin College has been ranked #1 in the nation three times in the last five years by the Institute for International Education for percentage of study abroad participation among baccalaureate institutions. 

As well, 35 percent of entering students declare an interest in health sciences, and graduates enjoy an 80 percent acceptance rate into healthcare programs, with the highest numbers going to medical school. 

One of only 270 schools in the nation with a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Austin College is also one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges that Change Lives. 

For more information on admission, student life, and the Austin College experience, please visit www.austincollege.edu. 

About The Posey Leadership Institute and Austin College Leadership Award

The Posey Leadership Institute at Austin College provides select students with academic and practical experiences in leadership education.  Created in 1995, the Institute teaches young people the principles of values-based leadership by focusing on service, global awareness, ethics, communication, and community mentoring.  In 2003, the Institute was named in honor of Lee and Sally Posey of Dallas, Texas, in recognition of their generous contributions of time, talents, and resources in mentoring and supporting countless young people.  Lee Posey, who passed away in February 2008, was the founder of Palm Harbor Homes.

Greg Mortenson was selected as recipient of the 2009 Austin College Leadership Award by an advisory committee chaired by Abby Williams, co-founder and chair of the Board of Williams Preparatory School, a Dallas charter school. Committee members include Robert M. Johnson, president of The Johnson Group, Inc., and chair of the Austin College Board of Trustees; Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin College in Maine; Laura Mendenhall, president of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia; Truman (Tim) Smith, president of the Posey Family Foundation; and Fazlur Rahman, a physician, writer, and education advocate, and member of the Austin College Board of Trustees.

In making its decision, the selection committee was guided by the purpose of the Austin College Leadership Award to honor an outstanding individual who, through his or her life’s work, has demonstrated the principles of servant leadership by:

• taking a courageous stand on a public policy issue that advances a humanitarian or educational purpose
• serving the youth of a state, nation, or international community to improve the quality of health, educational, or community services
• creating opportunities for young people that help them enhance their educational experience and move to a new level of service to society

The three previous recipients are exemplary servant leaders whose actions are having a significant and lasting impact upon the lives of young people. 

The 2006 inaugural recipient, Wendy Kopp, is founder of Teach For America and was recently named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people.  Dr. Paul Farmer, the 2007 recipient, is a noted Harvard physician and medical activist, MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, and subject of Tracy Kidder’s book Mountains Beyond Mountains.  The 2008 recipient, Geoffrey Canada, is a social activist whose work as president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone has been called by The New York Times “one of the most ambitious social experiments of our time.”

About the Central Asia Institute (CAI) and Pennies for Peace (P4P)

The Central Asia Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with the mission to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Each one of the Central Asia Institute’s projects is locally initiated and involves community participation. A committee of elders guides each selected project. Before a project starts, the community matches project funds with equal amounts of local resources and labor. This commitment ensures a project’s viability and long-term success. Local NGO’s (Non-Government Organizations) and village communities are selected for their dedication, initiative, and accountability to facilitate the community partnerships. CAI takes great care to cooperate with the various governmental, political, and religious groups of the complex region in which it works.

The Pennies for Peace Program (P4P) educates American children about the world beyond their experience and how they can make a positive impact on a global scale, one penny at a time. It teaches children the rewards of sharing and working together to bring hope and education opportunities to the children in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A penny in the United States is virtually worthless, but overseas a penny buys a pencil and opens the door to literacy. 

Over 3,000 schools, organizations, and individuals have participated in Pennies for Peace worldwide. 

For additional information on Central Asia Institute projects and initiatives, visit www.ikat.org. 

For additional information on Pennies for Peace, visit www.penniesforpeace.org.