To start this school year, the Catholic Memorial community read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and hosted its author, William Kamkwamba. The memoir shares the story of a schoolboy who overcame adversity to build a windmill that generated electricity for his village in Malawi, Africa. Kamkwamba’s story vividly illustrates how a boy’s determination, ingenuity, and faith overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. His journey reminds us how important an adaptive mindset and steadfast resolve can be.
Guided by a library book, Kamkwamba created a windmill from a bicycle, a dynamo, and parts found in a junk yard. He applied the science and engineering that he had read about to create a game-changing adaptation, which transformed his life and his community forever.
At CM, Kamkwamba encouraged our students to search for solutions to real problems, by harnessing their own creativity and engaging in the iterative design process. He also encouraged them to explore the world, to take things apart, to build prototypes, and to search for their “why.” He helped seventh graders build gliders to float in a wind tunnel. He tested and reviewed the Tesla coils built by eighth graders as well as their cardboard cars designed to carry pennies. He applauded our faculty for bringing the concepts of electromagnetism, flight, and force dynamics to life through our project-based learning curriculum. Kamkwamba endorsed our hands-on, constructivist
approach and how project-based learning teaches students to fail fast, value teamwork, embrace creativity, and in the process gain grit.
Kamkwamba’s visit brought to life many pressing global issues and affirmed our belief that engaging in local service work creates pathways to new potential. Inspired by Blessed Edmund Rice, CM students perform 16,000 hours of local service each year. By studying Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, and Mother Theresa, our students come to embrace the poor, learn about social injustices, and advocate for those who have no voice. By applying design thinking to service, we ask our boys to begin their efforts by reflecting on the end goal. Informed by their faith, the goal they design for is for a world in which suffering is lessened and where equality, peace, and justice flourish.
A passage from the Gospel of Luke 12:48 is often evoked at Catholic Memorial as a reminder of our why: “to whom has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” CM firmly believes that our responsibility is to cultivate the hearts, minds, and the souls of our students, so they are motivated and inspired to search for solutions to ease human suffering. We are intentional in the design of our academic, social, and spiritual programs here, because we understand that the totality of the CM experience informs, forms, and transforms the lives of our students, now and well into the future.
