Novelist Khaled Hosseini wished Vanderbilt graduates prosperity in their post-college lives, but suggested they stay connected to suffering in the world by tithing 5 percent of their time or money to those less fortunate.
Hosseini, author of the bestsellers The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, spoke May 13 in Memorial Gymnasium to 2010 graduates, their friends and family members.
I ask you to seek out people in your community in need to try not just to understand them, but to help them, Hosseini said.
It is hard to make a connection with people who are suffering. It requires you to take on some of that pain for yourself. It makes you see a kinship with misfortune, and to see how it could happen to you, and how it would make you feel.
Hosseini is the 2010 winner of Vanderbilts Nichols-Chancellor Medal, one of the universitys highest honors, which is given to individuals who define the 21st century and exemplify the best qualities of the human spirit. It was created and endowed by Vanderbilt Law School graduate Ed Nichols and his wife, Janice, in honor of Edward Carmack and Lucile Hamby Nichols. The medal comes with a cash award.
15 окт 2024
