On Wednesday, by good fortune, CA hosted two different guest speakers on campus and I was fortunate enough to hear both of them. Carlotta Walls LaNier, of Little Rock 9 fame, and Vietnamese-American author Andrew Lam, both spent time with studets, faculty and parents, much to the benefit of all who attended. Relying on a format that was both informative and entertaining, the Carlotta Walls LaNier SPEAK series event also featured CA parent and Denver Post editor Greg Moore conducting an interview with Mrs. LaNier live on stage. This interview was then followed by an Oprah-like Q&A session with the audience. Among many memorable moments, Mrs. LaNier recalled the many episodes of being taunted and harassed at Little Rock Central High School, even with a National Guard escort at her side virtually every minute. Through it all, hers is a tale of perseverance and courage. The education mattered so much to her that she was willing to tolerate the abuse. Indeed, she was the only one of the Little Rock 9 who maintained Honor Roll status during her time at the school. (To be fair to the others, there were many cases of biased teachers deliberattely lowering the African-American students' grades.) At the conclusion of the event, Mrs. LaNier showed her Congressional Medal of Honor, which she and the other 8 Little Rock students received several years ago.  This is an important episode in the history of civil rights in this country, and we are grateful that we were able to hear firsthand from one of the people on the frontline of this struggle.

Andrew Lam was back to CA for the third time in seven years. On the heels of publishing his new collection of short stories entitled Birds of Paradise Lost, Andrew read several excerpts from his work and also recalled his story of coming to the US from South Vietnam in 1975, just after the fall of Saigon. Andrew was only 11 at the time and he and his family left everything they knew to escape the Viet Cong and relocate in California.  I have attempted to document his visit in a short video link on the "Videos" section of the portal. (Because of technical challenges this may not be available until Monday, Dec. 16.)