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Ms. Kussman with frosh students Shelby Martin, Deirdre Ngo and Rebecca Inderhees.
Deirdre Ngo counting some change.
Ms. Kussman counting change with students Shelby Martin, Deirdre Ngo and Rebecca Inderhees.
Shelby Martin holds the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen.
The Pennies for Peace fundraising drive spearheaded by the freshman class of Notre Dame High School, San Jose raised $1,326.48. Students were inspired by Greg Mortenson co-author of New York Times best-seller, "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School At A Time" and co-founder and Executive Director of nonprofit Central Asia Institute. At an assembly earlier this school year, Mortenson told the freshman class about his quest to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson shared with the class how after getting lost on climb 1993 on Pakistan's K2, he has dedicated his life to promote community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Hearing Greg Mortenson talk about building schools in communities where girls are being given the opportunity of an education for the first time, deeply moved my students. They wanted to do what they could to help. Educating girls is something my students here at Notre Dame an all girl's school in Downtown San Jose can truly embrace," says Patti Kussman, Modern Language Department Chair.
Greg Mortenson shared an African proverb with the Freshman class at Notre Dame San Jose, "If you educate a boy, you educate an individual, but if you educate a girl, you educate a community." When a boy goes to school, it's assumed he will leave his village and work. But a girl stays. She grows into a woman, bears healthier children, and encourages them to be educated.
After Greg Mortenson visited Notre Dame San Jose last year the students wanted to find a way they could support his work. The $2,850 raised by this year’s Annual Charity Powder Puff Football classic was given to Greg Mortenson’s non-profit agency Central Asia Institute.