YOU NEVER KNOW WHERE A STUDENT’S UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON EDUCATION WILL TAKE HER.
For 2007 international studies and political science graduate Emily Nohner, it ended up being Bangladesh.
Concerned
about the social costs that come with Wal-Mart’s famously low, low
prices, Nohner and a group of other University of Dayton students
devoted to human rights sought to respectfully confront H. Lee Scott
Jr., president and CEO of Wal-Mart, about his company’s working
conditions in developing countries. What could have been a predictable
showdown between the leader of the iconic American company and a group
of earnest college students became a surprisingly productive dialogue
on issues of business ethics and global poverty. As a result of the
meeting, Nohner accepted an invitation from the CEO to fly to
Bangladesh and investigate factory working conditions with ethical
auditors.
In Bangladesh, Nohner discovered the issues were much
more complex than she envisioned, observing, “From the moment you
arrive at the airport, you’re welcomed by a fence that’s holding back
hundreds of workers who are screaming at the people arriving because
they know that if they were on an airplane, then they were wealthy
enough to give jobs or money. And so immediately the impact of poverty
is overwhelming.”
As the recipient of the 2006 Truman
Scholarship, Nohner was awarded $30,000 toward graduate studies to
prepare her for a career in public service. Truman Scholarship winners
are selected on the basis of leadership potential, intellectual ability
and the likelihood of “making a difference.”
