Blog written by Outreach Coordinator and UNC at Chapel Hill student Erin Murphy.
Two weeks ago The New York Times columnist and human rights advocate Nicholas Kristof visited the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UNC students poured into the crowded venue to hear Kristof talk about his latest book, Half the Sky, and UNC’s STAND chapter quickly took advantage of this rare opportunity.
Kristof’s talk conveniently landed right in the middle of our regular chapter meeting times, and rather than compete with him for attendees, we encouraged all of our members to attend his talk in place of our meeting. After all, who can compete with this guy? We then at our meeting this past week used this opportunity to discuss the impact of Kristof not only in advocating for his book’s topics (primarily women’s rights issues and empowerment), but also his advocacy for issues related to STAND and the greater genocide prevention movement. Most people in the meeting had previously heard of Kristof, but many did know about his support for the movement, which he fairly frequently expresses in his column.