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Chattanooga: Author Greg Mortenson visits GPS

By: Kelli Gauthier
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Greg Mortenson is a man of his word.

When he accepted a $60,000 check in May that students had raised at Girls Preparatory School, the philanthropist and author promised the GPS check presenters he would come to visit their school someday.

Making good on his promise, Mr. Mortenson, author of the New York Times best-selling book “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time,” spoke Monday afternoon to GPS students and faculty, and again in the evening to community members.

“This school really stood out in the entire country,” he said. I want to thank you for having me here, but mostly for what you’ve done.”

During their annual Robin Hood fundraising festival, students at GPS last year decided to donate the money they raised to Mr. Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building schools to educate children, especially girls, in the most remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In January, several GPS students traveled to Nashville, where Mr. Mortenson was speaking at a joint Council for Advancement and Support of Education and National Association of Independent Schools conference, and presented him with the check.

“I knew he would come,” said Elizabeth Wray, a 2008 GPS graduate who presented the money to Mr. Mortenson in Nashville.

Inspired partly by reading Mr. Mortenson’s book, Ms. Wray, 18, is headed to Nepal in November with the Students Partnership Worldwide organization to teach students her age about topics such as health and environmental sustainability.

“The book definitely had a big impact on my life,” she said. “Greg is proof that one person really can make a difference.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Mortenson told an auditorium packed with girls about his passion for educating women. Of the 28,000 students now educated in the 78 schools built by his organization, 18,000 of them are female, he said.

“Unless the girls are educated, a society won’t change,” he said.

Although many GPS students already had read “Three Cups of Tea” for class, some of the younger students heard his story for the first time Monday. Eighth-grader Alexandra Traylor, 13, said she enjoyed hearing about Mr. Mortenson’s adventures.

“It was really interesting that he got to go to Pakistan and help, especially the girls,” she said.

GPS Headmaster Randy Tucker said he was impressed that Mr. Mortenson remembered to stop by Chattanooga on Monday after interviews in Murfreesboro and Nashville.

“When he was coming, he had his assistant call us,” he said. “He made a promise that would be easily and understandably forgotten. But he didn’t forget.”

Mr. Mortenson said he planned to return to GPS in February with his daughter, Amira, to give all the students copies of a “young reader’s edition” of his book.

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