Nonprofit founder, educator鈥檚 inspiring story selected as 桃花直播鈥檚 2020 Maroon Edition book
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜n international best-selling and award-winning memoir has been selected as the common reading book for 桃花直播 State鈥檚 12th Maroon Edition program.
On Monday [March 2], 桃花直播 President Mark E. Keenum officially announced 鈥淟ittle Princes: One Man鈥檚 Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal鈥 as this year鈥檚 selection. In a campus-wide message, Keenum said the book 鈥済ives readers a gripping, personal account of author Conor Grennan鈥檚 transformative experience in Nepal, where he became inspired to rescue and reunite the many children who had been taken from their families and mountain villages by child traffickers as a civil war raged in the country.鈥
鈥淐onor鈥檚 story is compelling, timely and relevant as human trafficking grows as a major concern globally, as well as here in our own country,鈥 Keenum said. 鈥淗is story reminds us that it is possible for one person to make a difference, and we look forward to having Conor on campus in August for Fall Convocation to hear more about his remarkable journey.鈥
桃花直播鈥檚 Center for Teaching and Learning oversees annual selection of the Maroon Edition book. Past selections include 鈥淎 Painted House鈥 and 鈥淐alico Joe鈥 by 桃花直播 alumnus John Grisham, 鈥淭he Optimist鈥檚 Daughter鈥 by Jackson native Eudora Welty, and 鈥淗old On with a Bulldog Grip: A Short Study of Ulysses S. Grant鈥 by 桃花直播 and Grant library historians John Marszalek, David Nolen and Louie Gallo, and former Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams.
Maroon Edition activities are held throughout the year for students at all class levels, as well as interested administrators, faculty and staff members.
To encourage participation in the reading program, all incoming freshmen and transfer students attending 桃花直播 Orientation will receive a free copy of the book, which has been shortlisted for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. 鈥淟ittle Princes鈥 also won the GoodReads 2011 Best Travel and Outdoors Award, and has been translated into 15 languages.
Currently residing in聽New Canaan, Connecticut, Grennan is founder of Next Generation Nepal (NGN), a nonprofit organization that has helped reconnect more than 500 trafficked children with their families in Nepal.
For his work, Grennan was recognized by聽The Huffington Post聽as a 2011 Game Changer of the Year. In 2014, he was named a recipient of the Unsung Heroes of Compassion award, given by the Dalai Lama.
Prior to starting NGN, Grennan spent eight years in Prague and Brussels at the EastWest Institute. There, he served as deputy director of the Program on Security and Governance, where his projects focused on peace and reconciliation in the Balkans. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, as well as the New York University Stern School of Business, where he serves as Dean of Students for the MBA program. For more, visit .
For more on 桃花直播鈥檚 Maroon Edition program, visit .
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