<b>Ebbe Strathairn '05 Presents on Rwanda at School Forum </b>

After a heartfelt introduction by his former advisor, Bill Hardy, Stathairn began his talk about his experience with Partners in Health in Rwanda and how his involvement in service has altered his perspective of the world.

A graduate of MIT, Strathairn majored in architecture and wanted to augment his studies with some real-life experience. He was set up with the organization through his internship and traveled to the villages of Rwanda to help build a hospital for the townspeople. As part of his presentation, Strathairn coupled his anecdotes and travel notes with pictures of the people, buildings, and landscape in Rwanda.

He described his experience as extremely worthwhile; he not only was directly involved with the hospital’s inception, but he also witnessed a community of strong, supportive, and eager people. He noted how one might be shocked to see how incredibly upbeat and optimistic the Rwandan people are despite the recent genocide that terrorized the countryside.

Strathairn’s presentation was the perfect start to the school year. It afforded the Millbrook community the opportunity to gather as a group during the first weekend of school and, more importantly, highlighted the focus of the year, service. Stathairn thanked the Millbrook community for instilling in him the passion for service, and he advised the current students to choose a community service that would inspire them to continue once they graduated. As part of his continued efforts to serve the community in Rwanda, Strathairn hopes to begin collections of books and supplies to send back to the town in which he lived. 

Check back here soon to see the complete webcast of Ebbe Stathairn's Forum presentation.