Nobel Laureate from Kenya Can Come Home to Kansas
Kansas City Star
January 30, 2007
Wangari Maathai enjoys a joke, Kenya, 1999. Photo by Mary Davidson.
Colleges are designed to leave lasting impressions on students, not the other way around.
Yet it was clear from the rock star-like reception that Nobel laureate Wangari Muta Maathai received at Benedictine College on Sunday that sometimes it’s the school that benefits from the presence of the student.
The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica invited me to attend a special brunch and Mass on Sunday in Atchison, Kan., for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner. I graduated from Benedictine College in 1980, but I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Maathai to enroll at Mount St. Scholastica College — which later merged with Benedictine — in 1960 in the midst of the civil-rights era. Maathai ended up graduating in 1964 with a degree in biological sciences.
Florence Conrad Salisbury, a member of the class of 1964, befriended Maathai the very first day she arrived on campus. On Sunday, Salisbury, who hails from Burlington, Kan., and now lives in the Washington, D.C., area, brought her mother and her siblings with her.
“I met Wangari when she stepped off the bus in 1960,” Salisbury said. “She would come home with me for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and all those holidays. She really became a part of my family. I’ve stayed in touch with her over the years.”
Salisbury recalled Maathai’s sense of humor. During their freshman year, Maathai had been teaching her classmates traditional African dances when she decided to enter the school’s talent show.
“We were all going to the event, expecting to see this wonderful African dance,” Salisbury said. “And what did she do but come out and do an Irish jig? She brought the house down. She had been taught it by Irish nuns in Africa.”
Maathai is eternally grateful for the lasting friendships she made, especially the one with Salisbury.
“I had become one of her family,” Maathai recalled. “She had lots of siblings. Now they’re all grown up. Florence’s mother was such a wonderful mother to all of us, especially to me, someone who was so many miles away from home.”
Today, Maathai is internationally recognized for her fight for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. She started the Green Belt Movement and became known as Kenya’s “green militant.” She is credited with saving water supplies and other natural resources.
Since winning the Nobel, she has dreamed of returning to the very campus where things all came together for her academically, spiritually and philosophically.
“This is definitely coming home for me,” Maathai said. “It’s overwhelming. I’m seeing girls I haven’t seen for more than 40 years. And I’m remembering the wonderful times we shared in these buildings with the sisters.”
Indeed, her homecoming was fit for a hero. A sign hoisted right over the main street into town said: “Welcome Home Wangari.”
“It’s so wonderful to see the Benedictine spirit poured out as always,” Maathai said. “It’s overwhelming. My classmates have changed a little bit. But it’s still wonderful to see them.”
Maathai has fond memories of her classmates. In fact, she devotes a chapter in her book Unbowed to her experiences at Mount St. Scholastica.
“They were so warm to me,” Maathai said. “They made my stay here such a wonderful experience. That inspired me when I went home.”
Maathai gives most of the credit for how she turned out to college.
“These are the surroundings and the friends that created the Wangari who went home,” Maathai said. “This was part of the inspiration that made me who I am.”
It was clear from all the tears and emotion she displayed this past weekend that her love for Benedictine is genuine. Maathai seems to understand better than most the concept that there’s no place like home.
Yet it was clear from the rock star-like reception that Nobel laureate Wangari Muta Maathai received at Benedictine College on Sunday that sometimes it’s the school that benefits from the presence of the student.
The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica invited me to attend a special brunch and Mass on Sunday in Atchison, Kan., for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner. I graduated from Benedictine College in 1980, but I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Maathai to enroll at Mount St. Scholastica College — which later merged with Benedictine — in 1960 in the midst of the civil-rights era. Maathai ended up graduating in 1964 with a degree in biological sciences.
Florence Conrad Salisbury, a member of the class of 1964, befriended Maathai the very first day she arrived on campus. On Sunday, Salisbury, who hails from Burlington, Kan., and now lives in the Washington, D.C., area, brought her mother and her siblings with her.
“I met Wangari when she stepped off the bus in 1960,” Salisbury said. “She would come home with me for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and all those holidays. She really became a part of my family. I’ve stayed in touch with her over the years.”
Salisbury recalled Maathai’s sense of humor. During their freshman year, Maathai had been teaching her classmates traditional African dances when she decided to enter the school’s talent show.
“We were all going to the event, expecting to see this wonderful African dance,” Salisbury said. “And what did she do but come out and do an Irish jig? She brought the house down. She had been taught it by Irish nuns in Africa.”
Maathai is eternally grateful for the lasting friendships she made, especially the one with Salisbury.
“I had become one of her family,” Maathai recalled. “She had lots of siblings. Now they’re all grown up. Florence’s mother was such a wonderful mother to all of us, especially to me, someone who was so many miles away from home.”
Today, Maathai is internationally recognized for her fight for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. She started the Green Belt Movement and became known as Kenya’s “green militant.” She is credited with saving water supplies and other natural resources.
Since winning the Nobel, she has dreamed of returning to the very campus where things all came together for her academically, spiritually and philosophically.
“This is definitely coming home for me,” Maathai said. “It’s overwhelming. I’m seeing girls I haven’t seen for more than 40 years. And I’m remembering the wonderful times we shared in these buildings with the sisters.”
Indeed, her homecoming was fit for a hero. A sign hoisted right over the main street into town said: “Welcome Home Wangari.”
“It’s so wonderful to see the Benedictine spirit poured out as always,” Maathai said. “It’s overwhelming. My classmates have changed a little bit. But it’s still wonderful to see them.”
Maathai has fond memories of her classmates. In fact, she devotes a chapter in her book Unbowed to her experiences at Mount St. Scholastica.
“They were so warm to me,” Maathai said. “They made my stay here such a wonderful experience. That inspired me when I went home.”
Maathai gives most of the credit for how she turned out to college.
“These are the surroundings and the friends that created the Wangari who went home,” Maathai said. “This was part of the inspiration that made me who I am.”
It was clear from all the tears and emotion she displayed this past weekend that her love for Benedictine is genuine. Maathai seems to understand better than most the concept that there’s no place like home.