Featured Speakers at KSU

Derreck Kayongo, CNN Top 10 Hero, discusses the foreign aid challenge as a context for his Global Soap Project and CARE. Sponsored by the KSU Democracy Project, the Department of First-Year Programs and University College. The Global Soap Project collects discarded soap from hotels and reprocesses it into new bars that are given to vulnerable populations throughout the world. They work with organizations that have existing operations in these communities to ensure the soap is distributed to those in need, with the goal of improving health through personal hygiene. The Atlanta-based Global Soap Project collect used hotel soap from across the United States. Instead of ending up in landfills, the soaps are cleaned and reprocessed for shipment to impoverished nations such as Haiti, Uganda, Kenya and Swaziland. Each year, more than 2 million children die from diarrheal illness -- the approximate population of San Antonio, Texas. According to the World Health Organization, these deaths occur almost exclusively among toddlers living in low-income countries. "The issue is not the availability of soap. The issue is cost," Kayongo said. "Make $1 a day, and soap costs 25 cents.

Greg Mortenson discusses the founding of the Central Asia Institute and his best selling book “Three Cups of Tea”. The Central Asia Institute helps improve infrastructure and builds schools in impoverished areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Greg Mortenson also discusses his new charity “Pennies for Peace”. He talks about certain moments and decisions in his life that inspire him and his charity work.

Dr. Daniel Papp, David Frohman, and Dr. Edgar Mitchell discuss artifacts from the Lunar Missions. They also discuss Edgar Mitchell's mission and his revelation of observing the Earth and the Universe from outer space.

Darby Tills, sentenced in 1979 to death row in Illinois for a crime he didn't commit, was finally exonerated in 1987. Since then he has been an outspoken advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and for a fair and just judicial system.

In 2006, students were given a reporter’s view of the Iraq war from internationally acclaimed journalist Ethan Bronner‚ who provided them with an understanding of the conflict they cannot get from the nightly news. “The Iraqi conflict is a very hard story to cover‚ yet it’s the biggest one today‚” said Bronner‚ deputy foreign editor of the New York Times. “Every foreign reporter has to take two realms and skillfully combine them for readers to understand. For example‚ the Iraqis are very different from us‚ yet they are still similar. They love their children‚ too‚ and care about the same things we care about.” Bronner‚ whose speech was titled “War and Terror: How The New York Times Covers Today’s Big Global Conflicts‚” has covered foreign affairs in places such as Jerusalem‚ London‚ Madrid and Brussels for most of his 26−year career. Sponsored by AASCU in collaboration with The New York Times‚ the American Democracy Project aims to produce graduates who understand and are committed to engaging in meaningful actions as citizens in a democracy.

Gregory Williams is the son of a white mother and a father who passed himself off as Italian. Young Gregory learned after moving from Virginia to Indiana that his father was actually African-American, and that information and that move changed his life dramatically. Gregory Williams is now the president and a professor of law at the University of Cincinnati. He has written a book about his life called "Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black."