By Stacey Axler<\/p>\n
Ishmael Beah arrived to campus on Wednesday, Oct. 23 to culminate the First Year Reads program for the 2013- 2014 academic year.<\/p>\n
First-year students at Hood read Beah\u2019s book \u201cA Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier\u201d prior to coming to campus for the Fall semester.\u00a0 The students received the opportunity to meet Beah, hear him lecture to the campus, and get their books signed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing my book being used as a teaching tool in places like Hood College is a great thing.\u00a0 It provides an educational opportunity to learn about child soldiers,\u201d Ishmael Beah said.<\/p>\n
Beah began the day speaking privately to a political science class, where the conversation ranged from child soldiers to rap music.\u00a0 Beah hopes to educate many people about his experience as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone Civil War, which began in 1991 and ended over 10 years later in 2002, in order to provide understanding to the experiences and challenges children face when recruited to act as child soldiers.<\/p>\n
Beah explained that his main motivation to write his memoir stemmed from \u201ca deep frustration.\u00a0 Before [\u201cA Long Way Gone\u201d] there were many books written about us.\u00a0 But there were no accounts written by actual boy soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beah\u2019s memoir chronicled his experience in the civil war, his indoctrination into the life of a boy soldier, and his subsequent redemption and strive to educate others through UN efforts.<\/p>\n
After his class lecture, a reception for Beah occurred in the library porch of the Beneficial-Hodson library, where students could both speak to him informally and get their pictures taken with him.<\/p>\n
The last event of the day occurred in Hodson Auditorium, where Beah spoke to the Hood Community as a whole.\u00a0 Beah recapped his book and spoke in detail about his experience as a child growing up in the civil war that plagued his country.<\/p>\n
After Beah was removed from the war, he eventually moved to New York City after being adopted by a woman he met while speaking to the U.N.<\/p>\n
He detailed his adjustment to American culture, including an anecdote about education:\u00a0 \u201cIn my country, we loved going to school.\u00a0 I discovered that here it was \u2018not cool\u2019 to care about school or your grades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with this realization, Beah faced stigmatization from other classmates due to his past as a boy soldier.\u00a0 This frustrated him, and fueled his desire to write about his experiences.\u00a0 This writing turned into \u201cA Long Way Gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t originally want to write about [my experiences].\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to go back to [that time].\u201d\u00a0 But Beah continued to write.<\/p>\n
After high school, Beah went to OberlinCollege,\u00a0 he graduated in 2007, the same year he published the memoir.<\/p>\n
After his discussion, Beah stayed on campus for over an hour to sign books for students.<\/p>\n
This is the third year of First Year reads, and the third author to come to campus.<\/p>\n
Beah hopes his lecture will inspire others to promote knowledge about the plight of child soldiers around the world, a practice that still continues today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I finished my book it was hard to pick a title.\u00a0 Nothing seemed to fit.\u00a0 We had many, many options.\u00a0 Finally, my publisher and I both read it over, and \u201ca long way gone\u201d popped out to us.\u00a0 Just because your are a long way gone, not everything is lost,\u201d Beah said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"