Anti-Genocide activist and humanitarian Carl Wilkens, a Rwanda Civil War Survivor, urged MTSU students to enter a world ‘Outside My Shoes.’ Wilkens, the only American who chose to stay in Rwanda when the country’s civil war erupted in April 1994, address the MTSU audience, March 28, in the State Farm Lecture Hall of the Business and Aerospace Building.

Wilkens is the founder of Spokane-based “World Outside My Shoes,” which is “a nonprofit educational and professional development organization committed to inspiring and equipping people to enter the world of ‘the other,'” according to its website, www.worldoutsidemyshoes.org .

The former head of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, Wilkens has received the Dignitas Humana Award from Saint John’s School of Theology Seminary and a 2005 Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for his work.

He has been interviewed for “The Few Who Stayed: Defying Genocide,” an American Radio Works documentary that aired on National Public Radio; “Ghosts of Rwanda,” a “Frontline” documentary that aired on PBS television; “BBC Newshour;” “The Windsor Star;” and “The New York Times,” among others.

This event was sponsored by the MTSU College of Liberal Arts, the Distinguished Lecture Fund, the MTSU Department of Political Science, the Student Government Association and ROTARACT.