John Wood’s greatest piece of advice for students is to do things that scare them.

Wood put Philanthropy Week at Syracuse University in full swing with the inaugural Phanstiel Lecture, which featured Wood, founder of Room to Read, an organization aimed to help children in developing countries earn a fair education in an unfair society.

He spoke to a full audience Tuesday evening at Hendricks Chapel about his nonprofit organization and his goals for the next five to 10 years.

‘Education is the issue that affects every other issue,’ Wood said. ‘It has a ripple effect on everything.’

Wood, a former executive at Microsoft, left the technology industry to chase his dream to build schools and libraries, and to transform the lives of millions of children. Since Room to Read was founded in 2000, Wood and his group have built more than 1,500 schools and 13,000 libraries, while influencing more than six million children.

‘We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, but it’s not enough,’ he said.

Wood said his goal is to reach more than 10 million kids by the end of 2015, and he said he believes they are on the right track.

Wood gave students in the audience some advice about how to reach their goals and how to gain the success he believes everyone deserves.

He talked about his appearance on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ and said he was scared before going on because the previous guest did not get along too well with Winfrey. Wood went on anyway to promote his book, and Winfrey, as a result, donated three million dollars to Room to Read – one of the biggest donations in its history.

His other piece of advice was not to be afraid to ask for help. He talked about his run-ins with CEOs of major companies, asking for their frequent flier miles so he could travel around the world for free.

Martin-Abdul Davis, a senior finance and marketing major and president of Alpha Phi Alpha at SU, said he and his fraternity have donated more than $25,000 in the past three years to charities to benefit the local community. That effort, Davis said, resonates with Wood’s message of not being afraid to ask for help.

Duane Ford, a freshman policy studies major, said people should only invest their time and effort if the group of people they are helping are willing to do it themselves.

Wood’s last piece of advice came from one of his mentors, who told him, ‘Whatever you do, it’s going to be difficult, but you should do it anyways.’

nrcardon@syr.edu 

Published on April 10, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Nick: nrcardon@syr.edu