Lunch with a Nobel Laureate Uncategorized by Sonya Bernard-Hollins - May 8, 2018May 23, 20180 By Sierra Ward The Explorers meet with Nobel Peace Prize Winner during PeaceJam 2018 The organizers of the Great Lakes PeaceJam held the 22nd annual conference on March 14 at Western Michigan University. The event was held in the Bernhard Center where participants from chapters in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin came together to create service projects and honored Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee. Explorer Clara Closson (center) poses with new friends she met during PeaceJam. When Gbowee was first introduced to the audience, I was very inspired by her motivation to help the younger generations. She had a great attitude and I was able to relate to a lot of the things that she said. One thing that I gravitated toward in her introduction speech was the story she told about “Do Good”. The moral of the story was when you do good, good will come back to you. Students pose after lunch with the Gbowee. Explorer Sierra Ward is seated far right. While at the conference, nearly a dozen other students and I had the opportunity to eat lunch with Gbowee. Over lunch, I was fascinated by her drive and passion. Her original mission was to end gun violence in her home, Liberia. The men in Liberia were killing innocent people and she saw that a change needed to be made. Gbowee and many other wives decided to go on a “sex strike” until their husbands stopped doing these terrible things. I also learned that Gbowee had eight children and that they mean the world to her. She has taught them to love everyone no matter their race, religion, or gender, and that everyone should be treated equally. Rooted entertained the students during interactive interpretive dance. Toward the end of lunch, I was able to ask Gbowee what she thought of the historic box-office movie Black Panther. She responded: “I had mixed emotions about the movie. I was very happy so see that the movie was made to explain the African-American culture. On the other hand, people shouldn’t just focus on Wakanda because all of Africa is thriving.” I strongly agreed with her reasoning and the pride in her nation has persuaded me to want to visit Africa. Concluding the PeaceJam conference, I was impressed with the passion and drive of the hundreds of teens who attended my age in my state. Gbowee was a huge inspiration to us and was a good example of how your dedication can make a change.
