Back in Power: Human Rights Prof. Returns to KSG
Tim Coates
Issue date: 10/4/06 Section: KSG News
After nine months as a foreign policy fellow for Illinois Senator Barak Obama, Samantha Power has returned to KSG.
One of the great advantages of sitting in a Kennedy School classroom is hearing a Professor's war stories. Having dipped their toes into the world of public service, they return to teach with the grist that keeps us enthralled. Power, Professor of Human Rights Practice and author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, will bring back her own brand of grist to class this spring.
"I wanted to continue to write and to speak so I basically did it as a fellow," Professor Power told The Citizen last week, before being whisked away to offer her expertise in a documentary.
The opportunity to work for Obama began on a day when Power was struck with grief.
"It came about in November of 2004 - the morning after George Bush was reelected President. I don't remember if it was a cold, gloomy, tornado laden day, but it certainly felt like it."
"I had gone to Broward County Florida and put little flyers that said 'vote for John Kerry' on peoples' doors. After all the hopes of that day - because for a long time we thought Kerry was going to win in a landslide - it was a crushing, really deceiving, cold dark stormy day lived in Florida. So I just said to myself, you gotta do something."
Unlike many others working on Kerry's campaign, Power elected to leave the Kennedy School and head to Capital Hill.
"I mentioned it to a friend of mine who knew a friend of Obama's. I got an email a few weeks later, actually couple months later, and it was his scheduler saying next time you're in Washington, Obama would like to see you."
"I met him for what was supposed to be a half hour meal. It ended up being a 3.5 hour meal and I was just completely blown away by him. I went into the meal thinking that to work for the most junior member of the minority party, as superstar as he is, in a time of alleged war, is not an easy thing to do. So what can I possibly do? But after 10 minutes in his company I was like, 'do you need an intern?' Do you need someone to answer phones? I'm told I can write, I can probably make a good legislative correspondent."
One of the great advantages of sitting in a Kennedy School classroom is hearing a Professor's war stories. Having dipped their toes into the world of public service, they return to teach with the grist that keeps us enthralled. Power, Professor of Human Rights Practice and author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, will bring back her own brand of grist to class this spring.
"I wanted to continue to write and to speak so I basically did it as a fellow," Professor Power told The Citizen last week, before being whisked away to offer her expertise in a documentary.
The opportunity to work for Obama began on a day when Power was struck with grief.
"It came about in November of 2004 - the morning after George Bush was reelected President. I don't remember if it was a cold, gloomy, tornado laden day, but it certainly felt like it."
"I had gone to Broward County Florida and put little flyers that said 'vote for John Kerry' on peoples' doors. After all the hopes of that day - because for a long time we thought Kerry was going to win in a landslide - it was a crushing, really deceiving, cold dark stormy day lived in Florida. So I just said to myself, you gotta do something."
Unlike many others working on Kerry's campaign, Power elected to leave the Kennedy School and head to Capital Hill.
"I mentioned it to a friend of mine who knew a friend of Obama's. I got an email a few weeks later, actually couple months later, and it was his scheduler saying next time you're in Washington, Obama would like to see you."
"I met him for what was supposed to be a half hour meal. It ended up being a 3.5 hour meal and I was just completely blown away by him. I went into the meal thinking that to work for the most junior member of the minority party, as superstar as he is, in a time of alleged war, is not an easy thing to do. So what can I possibly do? But after 10 minutes in his company I was like, 'do you need an intern?' Do you need someone to answer phones? I'm told I can write, I can probably make a good legislative correspondent."
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