points of view
Commentary
Rudy's Roots
While a U-M student, Wallenberg yearned to be meaningfully useful.
"I feel so at home in my little Ann Arbor," he
said, that I am beginning to sink roots here and
have a hard time imagining my leaving it. But I
am not doing anything very useful here."
His usefulness would come to be felt by thou-
sands in war-torn Budapest. Wallenberg
found countless ways to shelter terri-
fied men, women and children trying to
survive in what was, by then, the last
surviving ghetto of Jews in Europe. At
one point, frustrated that he could not
help more, he apologized for saving
only the young.
"I want to save a nation," he said.
Ann Arbor
ighty-two years ago, a Swedish teenager
walked onto the campus of the University
of Michigan to begin his freshman year.
His presence continues to be felt — in
Ann Arbor, our state and the world.
Raoul Wallenberg is considered one of
the most notable humanitarians of the
20th century because of his heroic work
in sheltering Hungarian Jews during
World War II. As a Swedish diplomat, he
repeatedly risked his life to save a com-
munity slowly being liquidated through-
out Europe by Nazi genocide. He is
•
believed to have rescued some 100,000
A Lasting Imprint
Mary Sue
— more human beings than any one per-
None us can fathom Wallenberg's brav-
Coleman
son has ever saved.
ery or the source of his moral courage.
A decade before world war upturned
He was, and is, a hero of the highest
millions of lives, Wallenberg was an architecture
order. He showed us, more than any Michigan
student known to his Michigan classmates as
graduate, that one person can make a difference.
"Rudy." He was remembered for his friendship
What does Raoul Wallenberg have to do with
and desire to make a difference. Like many col-
today's students or how they lead their lives upon
lege students, he was conflicted as graduation
graduating?
neared because it meant leaving a place he had
They share a heritage. They have walked the
come to love. Yet he knew his education was
same campus, studied some of the same great
designed for a larger purpose.
words and ideas, and explored Detroit and other
communities beyond.
More significantly, today's college
students experience a brand of educa-
tion that goes well beyond the class-
room. It is one that stresses critical
thinking, the diversity of ideas and the
critical necessity of a global perspec-
tive. As Wallenberg himself said of
Michigan, "I really feel that I've learned
something."
A fascinating report was issued last
month by the National Intelligence
Council about what the world might
look like in 2030 — a time when today's
college students will be fully into
careers, families and personal passions.
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The Power Within
50
January 31 • 2013
Analysts say the upcoming years will
be shaped by one overarching global
trend: individual empowerment. The
middle class will grow, more people will
be better educated, and new technolo-
gies will present untold opportunities
for both work and play. This is a world
where, more than ever, individuals will
make a difference with their creativity
and actions.
These individuals will be today's grad-
uates. The world will look to them for
solutions to climate change, new mod-
els of public education, innovative cures
and therapies, and moral leadership.
Raoul Wallenberg's freshman registration photo
at U-M, fall 1931
Like Raoul Wallenberg, they cannot imagine
the challenges that await them or predict their
reactions. But they can, and must, draw on the
knowledge that they, like this great humanitarian,
really have learned something. They must dem-
onstrate the values of service, commitment and a
readiness to lead.
At Michigan, Raoul Wallenberg's legacy is cen-
tral to our heritage of service. And we are com-
mitted to sharing his story with the students of
today and tomorrow as well as the larger world.
This includes a new annual award, the Wallenberg
Fellowship, for a graduating senior who shows
exceptional promise, character, accomplishment
and capacity for public service. At $25,000, the
award is one of U-M's largest for undergraduates.
Today's students must believe that they, like
Wallenberg and as educated, empowered individu-
als, can — and will — make a difference, in trans-
forming our state, our nation and our world with
their ideas and actions. E
Mary Sue Coleman is president of the University of
Michigan. A campus exhibit, "To Me There's No Other
Choice: Raoul Wallenberg, 1912-2012," is open to the public
through March 1. To learn more, visit
www.wallenberg.umich.edu/exhibition.html.