Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Jody Williams
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Best-selling Author Khaled Hosseini
Notables on Campus Jody Williams Nobel Laureate Jody Williams, whose work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) resulted in an international treaty, presented the 2013 Lillian Parker Wallace Lecture at Meredith on April 2, sharing her story as a grassroots activist who received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Williams, who said she is inspired by “people no one knows, who get up every day in the most dire circumstances and work to make peace,” told the audience to use their lives to make a difference. “Don’t be afraid to think outside the system. Think, say things you believe, and don’t be afraid to make people uncomfortable,” Williams said. “Change happens when people are uncomfortable.” Williams is the fifth Nobel Laureate to speak at Meredith College.
Khaled Hosseini Best-selling author Khaled Hosseini visited Meredith College on June 15 to discuss his latest novel, “And the Mountains Echoed.” The event was co-sponsored by Meredith’s Friends of the Library and Quail Ridge Books & Music. “My books never, ever go where I think they are going to go. This book followed that same pattern,” Hosseini said. “I am drawn now to characters who are conflicted … it requires an act of restraint to let it be, and allow people [in the book] to be messy and mysterious.”
Gwendolyn Oxenham Summer Reading Program author and athlete Gwendolyn Oxenham discussed her book, “Finding the Game,” with a Meredith audience on August 28. Oxenham offered freshman students advice about using
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Summer Reading Program Author Gwendolyn Oxenham
their college experience to chase their dreams. “Finding something to care about is important, and college is about helping you do that,” Oxenham said. “Make sure you step out of your comfort zone, and watch out for being too closely tied to the ideas you have for yourself … it’s the loss of one dream that allows you to create a new one.”