A lifelong educator, Leslie Noyes Mass began her teaching career in a small village in Pakistan as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1962. Nearly 50 years later, she revisits the country as a 68-year old volunteer for The Citizens Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that builds schools in the country's poorest areas.
In Back to Pakistan: A Fifty Year Journey, Mass skillfully interweaves letters and memories with her observations of present-day, more modernized Pakistan, giving her readers an engrossing memoir and a well-rendered portrait of both eras. Focusing on the accomplishments of the Citizens Foundation, which has set up hundreds of schools since 1996, and where girls now make up 50% of their enrollment, a "staggering achievement in Pakistan," she interviews the organization's CEOs, administrators, teachers, students, family members, and ayaahs (maids), finding people from all educational levels and social classes trying to solve the country's education problems. A descriptive, often vivid writer, Mass evokes the cities, villages, schools, mountain retreats, and people of Pakistan, putting a human face on a multi-dimensional country that she acknowledges still faces immense problems.
Driving Directions:
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/visit/gleacher/
Discounted Parking ($6.00):
300 East Illinois Street (AMC Theater-River East Self Park Garage) $6.00 validated parking after 3PM.
Have your parking ticket validated at Gleacher security.
Program
6:30 PM-7:00 PM: Registration & Networking
7:00 PM-8:00 PM: Introduction & Presentation by Lesli N. Mass
8:00 PM-9:00 PM: Q & A and Book Signing
Speaker Profiles
Dr. Leslie Noyes Mass (Speaker)
Leslie Noyes Mass began her career as an educator fifty years ago in Pakistan as one of the first Peace Corps Volunteers. After returning to the United States she earned her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University in early and middle childhood education. She became the director of the Early Childhood Center at Ohio Wesleyan University, from which she retired in 2007.
Dr. Mass is also the author of In Beauty May She Walk: Hiking the Appalachian Trail at 60 and the former editor of The Thru-Hiker Companion for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
Her latest book, Back to Pakistan: A Fifty-Year Journey, published by Rowman & Littlefield, will be available for book signing ($35). Please note that the proceeds from royalties will fund girls education in Pakistan via The Citizens Foundation.
Questions
K. Rizwan Kadir, '97
8474141853
Other Information
The Pakistan Club, now in its 9th year, started out as an alumni organization at the Booth School of Business. Over the years, we have partnered with other divisions for our programming as well as activities. Now, we have members from all divisions of the University, including current students, alumni, and faculty. We have conducted Admissions sessions, high-profile presentations by senior corporate executives, policy makers, and academics (including one Nobel Laureate economist). We also hosted a highly successful investment conference about Pakistan and another one about the emerging opportunities in the Silk Road countries.
Please visit our Events and News webpages to see what we have been able to accomplish with our limited, volunteer time:
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/alumni/clubs/pakistan/events.aspx
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/alumni/clubs/pakistan/news.aspx
Besides the presentations from our events, we also have Research reports on Pakistan from investment banks and think tanks on our Club's website at the Booth School:
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/alumni/clubs/pakistan/reports.aspx