Heroism Speaker Inspires Colgate
John Graham Tells Students to Stick their Necks Out for Others
MN Editor
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: News
When most people think of heroes, names like Superman and Wonder Woman tend to jump into their minds. Yet while these comic saviors do good by feeding our entertainment needs, it is important to recognize the real heroes who are sometimes hidden beneath our very noses. On Tuesday, February 5, John Graham of the Giraffe Heroes Project came to Colgate to help students do just this.
The Giraffe Heroes Project is a national non-profit organization that is dedicated to inspiring potential do-gooders by sharing the stories of those who have gone before them. The organization works by receiving nominations and contacting people who they feel have in some way contributed to the common good. Today, there are over 1,000 heroes who have achieved so-called "Giraffedom", ranging in age from seven to 103 years old. These people are recognized in various publications, on the Heroes website and through lectures and speeches given by Heroes project employees. John Graham is one of these employees, and not only did he help publicize many of his heroes' good deeds during his visit to Colgate, but he also provided the student body with a necessary lesson on how we can all become heroes as well.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, Graham gave a series of lectures and seminars including a "Doing Well by Doing Good" lunch at the Center for Outreach and Volunteer Education (COVE), and a slide show of pictures from his Mount McKinley climb at the Outdoor Education base camp, a seminar entitled "How to Tackle Public Problems - Getting the Results You Want." He then offered a keynote lecture in Memorial Chapel called "How to Tackle Public Problems You Care About."
Graham's seminar was focused primarily on how to develop a vision for change, as well as how to overcome the obstacles that may arise. He highlighted the importance of always looking at obstacles from the perspective of having already tackled them. During the seminar, Graham told the students to think of a public problem that concerned them and to imagine themselves having solved it.
The Giraffe Heroes Project is a national non-profit organization that is dedicated to inspiring potential do-gooders by sharing the stories of those who have gone before them. The organization works by receiving nominations and contacting people who they feel have in some way contributed to the common good. Today, there are over 1,000 heroes who have achieved so-called "Giraffedom", ranging in age from seven to 103 years old. These people are recognized in various publications, on the Heroes website and through lectures and speeches given by Heroes project employees. John Graham is one of these employees, and not only did he help publicize many of his heroes' good deeds during his visit to Colgate, but he also provided the student body with a necessary lesson on how we can all become heroes as well.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, Graham gave a series of lectures and seminars including a "Doing Well by Doing Good" lunch at the Center for Outreach and Volunteer Education (COVE), and a slide show of pictures from his Mount McKinley climb at the Outdoor Education base camp, a seminar entitled "How to Tackle Public Problems - Getting the Results You Want." He then offered a keynote lecture in Memorial Chapel called "How to Tackle Public Problems You Care About."
Graham's seminar was focused primarily on how to develop a vision for change, as well as how to overcome the obstacles that may arise. He highlighted the importance of always looking at obstacles from the perspective of having already tackled them. During the seminar, Graham told the students to think of a public problem that concerned them and to imagine themselves having solved it.
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