Bringing Rwanda home

Life hasn’t been the same for Michael Graham, a senior from Enterprise, Oregon, since he read an article about Romeo Dallaire. Lt. Gen. Dallaire was the commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission to Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. While the rest of the world turned its back as 800,000 people were murdered in 100 days, says Michael, “Dallaire could have cut and run, but instead he did the most difficult thing possible: he stayed.”

Inspired by Dallaire’s courage, Michael felt compelled to do more than just read about it. “I wanted to do something substantial,” he realized. With grant funding from the Student Academic Affairs Board (SAAB), Michael traveled to Rwanda and spent three months filming a documentary that will tell the story of the survivors a decade after the genocide. A second grant enabled him to bring Dallaire to Lewis & Clark to share his experiences with an audience of more than 600 people.

For these efforts, Michael received the College’s first award for humanitarian service--the Dallaire Award. “Very few schools fund projects like this,” says Michael. “Lewis & Clark has been great about providing opportunities to get involved with people, not just ideas. Their support has been amazing.”