Peace Prize Forum!
Last week Concordia College hosted the 20th Annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum on our campus.
The event is hosted alternating between five Norwegian Lutheran colleges of the upper Midwest including Concordia, St. Olaf, Luther, Augsburg and Augustana.
This year we had the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Mohammad Yunus gave the key note address. We also had Jeffrey Sachs and Greg Mortenson, both actively involved in making our planet a better place to live for all mankind.
Out of all the sessions we had, I really liked the world café where we got together with four people and discussed poverty and ways to alleviate poverty. Every session I went to was informative and gave me simple advice on how to cautiously view the world around me and how to give equal opportunity to all people.
I met people from all the other colleges and from around Minnesota. I also met with Dr. Yunus. I was so excited to meet him that somehow I lost my train of thought…and managed to look like a complete idiot and felt like one too! 
There were also two students on campus from Bangladesh. We went out to dinner with them and it was super fun!
At our booth (ISO) we had spread out a world map and asked people where they would like to see peace in the world. It was amazing how many places are suffering from unrest. My plan this summer is to make a list of all the marked places on the map and find out what was going on in these places.
Overall I learnt that there are some terrible things happening in the world today. People are suffering from hunger, homelessness, poverty and diseases. I learned that we can all make a change just by lending a helping hand and actively thinking about the world we would like to see 20-50 years from now!
Liberal arts education may ring a sour bell in your heads and I have to tell you the truth I wasn’t too excited about it either but I have realized that in today’s world you really need to know what’s happening around you and that’s what Concordia can offer!