EUGENE, Ore. -- (Feb. 22, 2011) - Books can inspire readers and propel them into action. For University of Oregon student Alex Goodell, an influential book was the spark that led him on a life-changing college experience helping others in Burundi, Africa, and to invite the book's author to campus.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder's acclaimed book, "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World," is moving students like Goodell from their comfortable existence in classrooms and coffee shops, and introducing them to faraway and poverty-stricken spots like Haiti and Burundi.
After reading the book, Goodell, a student in UO's Robert D. Clark Honors College and a biology major, went to Burundi, in Africa, for nine months in 2009-10 to experience firsthand the plight of rural villagers in need of basic healthcare. Based on the experience, he requested that the book be adopted as "common reading" for the university, and drove the effort to bring Kidder to campus.
At the invitation of Goodell and other UO students, Kidder will present the UO Presidential Lecture at 7 p.m. March 1, at the Matthew Knight Arena. The public, free talk will be about the life and work of Dr. Paul Farmer, a tireless advocate for medical treatment of the world's poor.
Tickets for the event are free and are available at the Erb Memorial Union ticket office and the campus Duck Store (second floor), as well as online at http://kidder.uoregon.edu.
Kidder, who received a Pulitzer Prize and National Book award for his 1981 non-fiction work "The Soul of a New Machine," will also host a book-signing following the talk.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains" tells Farmer's story: how he took his Ivy League medical education to the world's poor, solving problems in the field and eventually rallying the support of agencies and governments for medical aid and intervention.
"I had been struggling with questions about public health, philosophical questions about medicine and the meaning of the college experience," said Goodell in an interview at http://ufolio.uoregon.edu/commonreading2010. "How do you use college as a tool for a larger goal? Is healthcare a human right? What is the average citizen's role in the global world? This book answered a lot of those questions for me. That was something I thought would be worthwhile to share."
The book also influenced UO student Hannah Carr, who spent the summer of 2009 providing medical aid in Haiti, and has since organized earthquake relief for Haiti at the UO, and made two more trips back to the impoverished country.
For Goodell and others, Kidder's book is a call to local action as part of the University of Oregon Students for Global Health (http://uoglobalhealth.org). The group is working against diseases that most adversely affect people living in poverty and the conditions that make them vulnerable, by raising awareness and funds on campus.
The visit by Kidder is the second annual UO Presidential Lecture, and is co-sponsored by the ASUO, Robert D. Clark Honors College, University Housing, Oregon Humanities Center, College of Arts and Sciences, Cultural Forum, Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Division of Student Affairs, Division of Undergraduate Studies, and School of Journalism & Communication.
The free public event is wheelchair accessible.
MEDIA CONTACT: Kelly McIver, marketing manager, University Housing, 541-346-2672; kmciver@uoregon.edu
###