Marc Kielburger, co-founder of WE and Me to We, spoke to Carleton frosh at fall orientation’s keynote address on Sept. 6.
Both Marc and his brother Craig received honorary doctorates from Carleton in 2012.
“We feel very much part of [Carleton] university and we come here on a regular basis,” he said.
Kielburger began his keynote by saying “we have won the lottery of life” and we should use our good fortune to “make the world a better place.”
Throughout the evening, he highlighted the lessons he’s learned about “how to bring light to communities in a profound way,” and discussed the implementation of WE villages and hospitals, which were developed in part by WE’s charitable sector, WE Charity. He added that “the greatest gift you can give is the dignity for someone to not need your help” and the “opportunity to never need help again.”
Kielburger expanded on “building a culture of social change” using WE Schools as an example, as WE has built over 650 schools in 45 countries—making a difference in communities on a global scale, he said.
The speech continued with a story of Kielburger’s trip to build a school in the Andes, where he heard the term Minga for the first time. He said a woman in the village defined Minga as the “coming together of people to work for the benefit of all.” He said that in English there is no equivalent to this word, but the closest thing is a “riot for good.”
Kielburger said in an interview with The Charlatan that it is important to speak at universities because many social justice movements have emerged from post-secondary institutions.
”Look at what happened in terms of the civil rights movement in America, all the way down to getting Nelson Mandela out of prison in South Africa, there has always been college and university students who have been the leaders when it comes to social justice and engagement,” he said.
Kielburger said it is very important to keep encouraging students to find a cause and issue that they care about.
“It’s so easy to get caught up in the first day of class, tests, exams, reading lists and so forth,” he said.
Kielburger said the first step for students to get involved in their community is to define one issue and one cause then to educate themselves so they become well versed on the issues.
“Part of the responsibility of being a university student is to have concrete and informed opinions on these issues,” he said. Kielburger added that changing the world isn’t just about good intentions.
“It’s actually about tangible issues and causes that come by understanding numbers, statistics, information, and more of a business focus,” he said. “We really encourage students to not just be focused on their major, focus on what you want to do, and let that dictate the courses you take.”
Kielburger said he believes that “Carleton has a very proud tradition of activism” on both “local and global issues, and we need to make sure that tradition continues.”
