“Education is the most powerful weapon with which to change the world, ” said the late Nelson Mandela. It is well documented that the way to tackle poverty, hunger, and health issues is to invest in educating girls. Yet, according to one world-wide literacy project, 42 percent of the girls in the developing world are not enrolled in school.

I am especially excited to welcome Colorado Academy alumna Martha Adams (CA ’86) back to campus on January 29, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. for a SPEAK lecture about her documentary, Girl Rising. The film captures the stories of nine girls around the world who battle in remarkable ways to access education, and in doing so, they break barriers and create change. 

 

The topic underscores for us at CA our often-expressed gratitude to be a part of this school and community, and we are honored to know that Adams describes finding her voice as a documentary producer through her education at CA. Below is more from an interview with Adams for CA’s Journal. I hope you’ll join me in welcoming Adams back to campus and attend this special event.

 

 “CA doesn’t teach kids what to think,” said Adams. “It teaches them to think as individuals and to think with a critical eye.” Adams graduated in 1986. Nearly 30 years later, she can still recount in detail the first two minutes of the first class she ever walked into at CA. Suffice it to say, it involved music and teacher John Blossom standing on a table with a group of ninth grade English students, trying to communicate only through music and the written word.

 

“CA starts with the thought that everyone who walks through the door has value,” Adams said. “Then the school asks, ‘How do you uncover this student’s value?  What does it look like and sound like?”

 

Today, Adams cannot contain her enthusiasm for her current project, Girl Rising, a feature-length documentary profiling nine young girls around the world and showing the power education has to change their lives and the countries where they live. The film is the heart of a global action campaign designed to break the cycle of poverty by educating girls, and thereby change minds, policy and lives.

 

Producing the film took Adams to Haiti, Nepal, India, Peru, and Cambodia. She is now involved in distribution of the film, and she raves about a new approach called “Gathr Films” which gives individuals the power to book a film into a local theater. “If it all continues to grow at the rate we are growing, we hope to distribute around the developing world,” Adams said. “We can use this film and our content to end the subjugation of girls.”

 

Adams’ passion for this project harkens back to her days at CA, when she first learned about the Civil Rights movement in the South and asked her own parents, “Where were you when people were marching? How did you help?” “I definitely take those questions to heart today,” she said. “This—helping girls around the world—this is the revolution of our time.”

 

 

 Please RSVP for this event by clicking here.