Leymah Gbowee walked to the podium with strong steps, wearing a colorful, floral dress suit. Her patient presence radiated the confidence of a powerful leader and mother.
Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize winner and renowned women's activist, spoke on Wednesday evening to a crowd of more than 450 people at Meharry Hall in a Timothy and Sharon Ubben Lecture.
Before the lecture, President Brian Casey described this visit as a "very, very special night for this institution."
Gbowee spoke on her experiences promoting peace and women's rights in her home country of Liberia. Gbowee has emerged as an international leader at the forefront of women seeking political power and won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work as an activist.
In her motivational and reflective talk, Gbowee offered advice to college students on how to dedicate themselves to a life promoting peace. She emphasized the duality of the lifestyle, candidly offering the realities of challenging, but rewarding, work.
"Dedicating your life to peace is one of the most beautiful things, but it's one of the most difficult things," Gbowee said.
Similarly to other activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, Gbowee began her journey towards becoming an activist out of anger. Quickly learning that peace cannot be created through anger, she began to understand the true purpose of her mission.
"If you want to get money go into banking. All you get is awards here," Gbowee said. "I have not raised a million dollars, but if you look at all the people I've helped, it totals over ten million dollars. That's satisfaction."
Gbowee also emphasized compassion, generosity, a sense of a higher power and patience as necessities for a life dedicated to peace.
"You have to reach a place where sometimes you say to yourself, ‘Slow down,'" Gbowee said. "Because you're biting your nails as you're following some of the conflicts you worked on and you're being called constantly by people in those conflict situations but you never, ever stop. It's part of you. You can't rest until you see good come out of something."
Students and faculty were inspired by what Gbowee had to share.
"It's beyond words," freshman Clayton Knappenberger said. "She managed to take something so meaningful and emotionally touching and bring humor to it. Her humility was amazing, and it was an honor to hear her speak."
Freshman Korrine Spears agreed.
"I was amazed by Leymah Gbowee," Spears said. "She was very inspiring, and has more wisdom than I could ever hope to have. The world needs more people like her, people who will stand up and make a change."