What business does the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ Center for Homeland Security have bringing a celebrity peacenik to Colorado Springs? Plenty, when the missions dovetail.
More than 1,000 listeners are expected at a 7 p.m., Jan. 15, event at Shove Chapel to hear New York Times best-selling author Greg Mortensen speak about his passion to bring schools and education to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Listeners are encouraged to arrive early to get a no-charge seat.
Mortensen’s visit — which also includes a tightly packed agenda of meetings with students and educators – is co-sponsored by the UCCS Center for Homeland Security.
It was the brainchild of Steve Recca, director, Center for Homeland Security, who says his and Mortensen’s objectives are not as incompatible as they might seem.
“The work Greg is doing is directly related to what I’m trying to do in Colorado Springs, which is to create security through education with a community-based approach,” said Recca. “By building schools in remote and very poor villages in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he is enabling an alternative future for those communities. Greg’s work is creating positive opportunities for the boys and girls of these regions that will deter a new generation from using use terror against the U.S.”
Mortensen, a Montana resident, was propelled into the national spotlight by the runaway success of his 2006 book, “Three Cups of Tea, One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time,” which has sold 720,000 copies. Co-authored with journalist David Oliver Relin, “Three Cups of Tea” chronicles Mortensen’s successful efforts to raise funds to build 64 schools and educate girls in impoverished villages in Central Asia.
Mortensen, a mountaineer who set out to bag Pakistan’s K-2 in 1993, discovered this calling when villagers of the remote mountain town of Korphe, nursed him back to health after a climbing mishap. Since then his brick-and-mortar fundraising has educated tens of thousands of students – many of them impoverished Pakistani and Afghan girls – and garnered positive attention from Parade Magazine, Newsweek, NBC’s The Today Show, and, most recently, UCCS.
“For UCCS to be broadening the conversation is important for us in Colorado Springs, a community so closely tied into security issues,” said Kee Warner, professor, Sociology, and interim associate vice chancellor for diversity. “We need to think about what security means in the world in a contemporary
context. It’s not just a matter of defense but a matter of deeper understanding and greater communication.”
Recca said recruiting Mortensen was a natural fit for the university.
“His message is really about understanding and education and using those as tools – one man’s mission to create peace one school, one community at a time,” said Recca.
Mortensen contends that as America struggles against terrorism, it fails to understand the need for patient negotiation and the power of tribalism. The title of the book refers to the way business is done in the tribal areas where the Taliban has sought refuge. The first cup of tea is to get acquainted, the second to make friends, and the third means that you join the family.
Before the Shove Chapel presentation, Mortensen is scheduled to meet with students from Ivywild Elementary, the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, Cheyenne Mountain Junior High and Cañon Elementary.
UCCS is paying Mortenson’s speaker fee, while the Pikes Peak Community Foundation, Borders, the Colorado Springs Independent, and Colorado College are providing space, discounted copies of Mortensen’s book, advertising and promotion, and the venue.
The mission of the Center for Homeland Security is to provide advanced education and training; conduct leading-edge research; and develop innovative networks through strategic partnerships. The Center has helped support development of the CU School of Public Affairs Ph.D. with homeland security concentration – one of the nation’s first doctoral programs of its kind.
UCCS began its support of homeland security research and preparation of space professionals in the mid-1980s in cooperation with U.S. Space Command. The Center for Homeland Security was in development under the name “Network Information and Space Security Center (NISSC)” prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but its mission was broadened to include homeland security.
UCCS, located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in Colorado Springs, is the fastest growing university in Colorado and one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The university offers 25 bachelor’s degrees, 18 master’s and four doctoral degrees. The campus enrolls about 7,700 students.