The New York Times calls it a tale "that inspires, discomforts, and provokes." USC anthropology professor David Simmons calls it "a message students have been waiting and wanting to hear."
It's the true story of Paul Farmer, a Harvard-trained physician and medical anthropologist whose ongoing public health efforts in the poorest region of Haiti inspired a best-selling book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: the Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder.
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| Paul Farmer |
On August 21, USC's freshman class will have the opportunity not only to discuss the book as part of the 13th-annual First-Year Reading Experience but also to hear talks by Farmer and two USC faculty members who have worked with him. Simmons and his wife, Kimberly Eison Simmons, a USC anthropology and African-American Studies faculty member, will discuss an ongoing project that was inspired by Farmer in the Dominican Republic.
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| Tracy Kidder |
"We get these generic messages about the need to reach out and help, but often the message is so generic or the people delivering it are so inaccessible," Simmons said. "But there are practical steps you can take at the grass-roots level to get involved. My wife and Paul Farmer are very effective at getting that message home, and I think students will respond to that."
Mountains Beyond Mountains is the first non-fiction book selected in the 13 years of USC's First-Year Reading Experience and could become a springboard for promoting more service-learning opportunities for students.
"We're exploring ways to expand service learning--I'm hoping we can leverage this First-Year Reading Experience to do that," said Karl Heider, associate provost and dean of undergraduate studies.
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| David Simmons |
This year's gathering will mirror last year's in which the entire freshman class was invited to participate. Efforts are being made to hold more of the discussion groups in or near the Coliseum to reduce the number of groups trekking across campus to a classroom in the late August heat. To accommodate the freshman class, at least 150 discussion groups will be held following brief lectures by Farmer and the Simmonses.
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| Kimberly Eison Simmons |
"This will be a wonderful opportunity for the University to expand its vision of community service and service learning to include the international level," Simmons said. "And we need to stress that it's important to get involved and stay involved [in community service] because real change usually comes only in the long term--it has to be fought for and struggled over."
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Ferris Joye, a senior art student, created the winning poster for this year's First-Year Reaading Experience.
