Conor Grennan, author of Little Princes: One Man’s Journey to Find the Lost Children of Nepal, visited St. Bonaventure’s campus Monday to deliver a speech to the class of 2015.
Little Princes tells the story of Conor’s first experience with the children at the Little Princes orphanage in Nepal. Before long, he comes across a horrifying detail: These children are not orphans. Child traffickers fooled their families and sold the children into slavery.
When Conor realizes that he has a responsibility to these children, he embarks on a journey to return the lost children to their parents. He endures civil war, Maoist leaders, limited food, and the treacherous mountains of Nepal to bring them home.
He and his organization, NGN—Next Generation Nepal—have returned an alarming 250 trafficked, abused, and malnourished children to their homes.
But he won’t brag about it.
“My favorite thing about Conor’s story was it was so down-to-earth and honest,” said Abby Cohen, assistant director of First-Year Experience. “He doesn’t see himself as a hero, just someone who discovered his passion and chased it.”
Koty Mann, freshman theology and psychology major, agreed with Cohen.
Mann said he loved that Conor’s inspiration came from a calling he felt, he said. “His attitude was, ‘They needed help. I want to help them,’” he said.
Mann felt especially connected to Grennan’s story. “I volunteered in Nicaragua twice with my youth group,” he said. “It was sort of eerie how similar our experiences with children were.” Mann volunteered at a child care center called Mustard Seed Community as recent as this past August.
Mann said he learned a lot in his faith journey while volunteering, just like Conor.
“I couldn’t understand how anyone could be so happy while being so poor,” he said. “But these people knew their faith and their family, and they loved without hesitation.”
Mann was one of the 13 winning essayists from the summer reading assignment, along with Patricia Rosetti, a freshman undeclared arts major. Reading the stories of malnourished and neglected children hit home with Rosetti, as she remembered the day her little sister came home.
Rosetti’s parents adopted Katie Ella from Russia when she was nine months old. Rosetti, only at age three, felt instant sorrow and love for her baby sister who had before been uncared for and hungry, she said.
“Just like Conor with the children in the hospital, if my parents hadn’t adopted her, she probably wouldn’t have survived,” she said.
Katie is now a healthy and happy 16-year-old who tells people she’s special because she was adopted, Rosetti said.
She also connected on an academic level.
“I liked how he said you don’t have to know what you’re doing with your life just yet,” she said. “He had a hard time in college, but he stumbled upon his calling and encourages us to do the same.”
Grennan’s speech was honest and lighthearted, and funny but moving, students agreed. He told his own amazing story, but made the students laugh and feel comfortable around him, they said.
The All Bonaventure Reads committee, made up of students and faculty, chose Little Princes this spring.
“We were looking for a topic that would hit home and something college freshmen could relate to,” said Cohen.
Cohen explained the book fell into their laps. “Nancy Casey got a free copy in the mail one day, and she decided to bring it in,” she said. Cohen said the committee liked the cover of the book, read the first couple paragraphs, and didn’t stop reading until the end.
Not long before, Casey and Cohen attended a national first-year experience conference in Atlanta, Georgia. There, they heard Grennan speak, and knew his style would appeal to freshmen.
“I think the best way to reach the students is to be honest and transparent,” Grennan said, followed by a short explanation that the reason he decided to volunteer in the first place was to impress women at bars.
Grennan admitted that he has regrets about his time in school, but that he ended up discovering his passion along the way.
“Every choice I made, I wanted to be able to look back and be proud of,” he said.
Little Princes is now translated into 11 different languages, and a portion of the proceeds go directly to the Next Generation Nepal organization.
Grennan and his wife, Liz, have a 2-year-old son named Finn, and a 5-month-old daughter named Lucy. Grennan said he thinks about his own children often when helping to rescue children in Nepal.
“I want people to take the message to heart,” Grennan said. “They aren’t just faces—they’re real kids.”
Grennan said he knows saving every child in the world isn’t something he is necessarily capable of, but his mission is to save one child at a time. “And to one family, that child is the whole world,” he said.
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