Ishmael Beah, Author and Former Child Soldier, to Share His Story at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ishmael Beah, author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), will speak at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 4 at the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross.  The talk is free and open to the public.  Copies of his book, which was the common summer reading for Holy Cross students entering their sophomore year, will be available at the campus bookstore.

Beah was born in Sierra Leone, West Africa.  At the age of 11, his life was turned upside down after a gruesome civil war broke out in his country.  His entire family was brutally murdered and he was forced by rebel forces to fight as a child soldier for two years before being saved by UNICEF and placed in a rehabilitation home in Africa. After his recovery, which he recounts in his book, he was invited to tell his story in front of a United Nations panel.  He later was adopted and moved to New York, where he now lives.

In 2004, Beah graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in political science.  As a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee, he has addressed the United Nations, The Council on Foreign Relations, Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities, and many other groups.  There may now be as many as 300,000 child soldiers, forced to take drugs and commit murder in more than 50 countries around the world.

Beah’s keynote lecture is the culmination of Holy Cross’ Second-Year Opportunities Program (or, 2YO).  The program, one of the few of its kind in the nation, provides methods by which sophomores evaluate their academic careers in order to make the most of their three remaining years at Holy Cross.  Through common readings, advising, and other programs, 2YO introduces students to the value of the College’s rich curricular electives, including minors, concentrations, study away and abroad, special academic and advisory programs, internships, college and departmental honors programs, and post-baccalaureate opportunities.