Smithtown Students Get a Living Lesson in Perseverance

Tenth-grade students at Smithtown High Schools East and West learned about the history of conflict in Rwanda and received a heartfelt message about perseverance from someone who lived it.

Joseph Sebarenzi, whose parents, seven siblings and countless other family members were among 800,000 Tutsi brutally murdered by extremist Rwandan Hutus during 90 days of genocide in 1994, recently visited both schools to give his firsthand account of how he turned around his life, and so many others.

Sebarenzi spoke about returning to Rwanda following the massacre, and his election as speaker of parliament, a position he held from 1997 until 2000. Today, he is a professional public speaker who discusses reconciliation and conflict management with thousands of students at high school, colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. In addition, Sebarenzi serves on the faculty at the School for International Training in Vermont, teaching reconciliation and conflict management courses.

In 2009, Sebarenzi’s memoir “God Sleeps in Rwanda: A Journey of Transformation” was published, chronociling his survival of civil wars and genocide, his professional career, including his years in politics, and insights about conflict prevention and reconciliation.

Photo courtesy of the Smithtown Central School District: Rwandan civil war survivor and reformer Joseph Sebarenzi is pictured here with Smithtown HSW students (from left) Ally Hicks, Nina Paterakis, Victoria Gortakowski, Matt Godas, Tom Bernard, Sam Papadopoulos, Tara Killeen and Laura Irwin.