Medical Student Who Fled Ethnic Violence Encourages
Students to Open Their Eyes to the Pain of Others

 

Pictured left to right: Caldwell College President Nancy H. Blattner, Ph.D.; Director of the Caldwell Public Library Karen Kleppe Lembo; Head of School, Mount Saint Dominic Academy Sister Frances Sullivan, O.P.; Deogratias, Vice President & Founder, Village Health Works ; Patrick Progar, Ph.D., Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Caldwell College; Harriet Schenk, Assistant Academic Dean who spearheaded the Freshmen Seminar Experience project; and Kevin Barnes, Principal James Caldwell High School

Pictured left to right: Caldwell College President Nancy H. Blattner, Ph.D.; Director of the Caldwell Public Library Karen Kleppe Lembo; Head of School, Mount Saint Dominic Academy Sister Frances Sullivan, O.P.; Deogratias, Vice President & Founder, Village Health Works ; Patrick Progar, Ph.D., Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Caldwell College; Harriet Schenk, Assistant Academic Dean who spearheaded the Freshmen Seminar Experience project; and Kevin Barnes, Principal James Caldwell High School

More than 400 students, staff and faculty at Caldwell College heard from Deogratias (Deo), Vice President and Founder of Village Health Works on September 20. Freshmen at Caldwell College are reading Strength in What Remains by Pulitizer prize-winning Author Tracy Kidder, which chronicles Deo’s life.

“You have to do good in your journey.” Those were the words of Deogratias (Deo) as he spoke to over 400 students, faculty, staff and community leaders at Caldwell College Monday.

Deo is the man who Pulitzer prize-winning author Tracy Kidder chose to write about in his book Strength in What Remains. Deo is a man who fled ethnic violence in his native Burundi and Rwanda, lived homeless in New York City, graduated from Columbia University, and is now in medical school at Columbia. Deo is a man who goes around the country raising awareness about the deplorable medical conditions in his homeland and speaking about the ways we all have a responsibility to not close our eyes to the pain of others.

Students from James Caldwell High School in the Holocaust//Genocide class also attended the lecture.

“Don’t take anything for granted,” and “when you finish school make someone who is in pain smile,” Deo said.

He certainly knows what pain is having grown up in one of the most impoverished countries in the world where ill health, lack of food, shelter and clean water are commonplace.

The students already knew that Deo was a man on a mission who had gone back to his homeland and created a health care clinic. They knew he had established Village Health Works, a collaborative effort between the community of Kigutu, Burundi, the neighboring villages, and people in the U.S.

What they didn’t know was how truly inspiring he was in person. “It is a blessing that he would come here and spend time, (with us)” said freshman Michael Parker of Elizabeth.

“The book was inspiring. So many people would have given up. He never lost hope,” said freshman Candace Johnson of Paterson, NJ. Bryan Broderick, a senior who plans to go to medical school, said the message resonated with him. “I could see myself giving back.”

Caldwell joins several colleges that have implemented Strength in What Remains, as part of a Common Reader experience. The new class had been reading the book as part of required reading for their Freshmen Seminar Experience. “This is a wonderful opportunity to expose our students to a broader world and help them discover how our personal journeys shape our identity and inform our understanding of a just society,” said Harriet Schenk, the Assistant Academic Dean who spearheaded the project and incorporated it into the Freshman Seminar Experience.

At Caldwell upper classmen serve as “peer mentors” to the freshmen and meet with them to discuss issues raised in the book and their adjustment to college. Junior Kaitlyn McFarland, who is a mentor, said “it is a way to reach them on a different level.”

On Thursday September 16 over 30 students took part in “Boxtown” where they slept in cardboard boxes overnight to raise awareness about homelessness and money for Village Health Works. Other fundraisers will be held in the fall including a soup lunch.