Tyler Kendall
Editor-in-Chief
Conor Grennan, cofounder of Next Generation Nepal (NGN), visited NCHS on Thurs. Feb. 27 to speak about his book, Little Princes. Next Generation Nepal is a nonprofit organization that, “preserves family unity and strengthens communities by connecting trafficked children with their parents and culture in post-conflict Nepal,” according to the mission statement on the NGN website.
Mr. Grennan is a resident of New Canaan, and freshman Abby Crowley helped to coordinate his visit. “For our midterm we were put in book club groups, but my group wasn’t interested in any of the choices,” Abby said. “I suggested that we could read Little Princes because I knew Conor from our Church. I then asked him if he would come and speak, and he was so cool about it and said he would love to.”
The visit was a result of the students’ motivation and willingness to help plan the event. “Really the students, the girls in that group, did the arranging for it,” English department chair and English teacher Heidi D’Acosta said. “That’s what was so nice about this, it wasn’t me forcing this author on a group of kids. Even though not all the students read the book, everyone did read an excerpt, because I felt that was respectful to the author, and that’s how it went.”
The offer to visit came as a pleasant surprise for Mr. Grennan. “It’s always amazing to me that anyone reads this book I guess,” he said. “It’s because when I was living this all, and then when I wrote the book, I was sort of surprised that anyone would be interested in this little story about these kids in Nepal. Then, to find out that the kids at the high school were reading it was amazing to me because high school’s that kind of place where you really start to figure out what you want to do with your life. Hopefully people can see the book, and read the book, and see that there are a lot of opportunities out there, and if you just start doing it, you can actually almost by accident accomplish something.”
Mr. Grennan spoke to the group of freshman English classes about his experience in Nepal, and the events that led to starting NGN. “It’s always fun to sort of talk about a country maybe a lot of people haven’t yet been to,” Mr. Grennan said. “But I think the other thing about it is that people can understand that they don’t have to be a certain kind of person to do something like this. That was always really important to me to demonstrate, that you can really make a difference without being a special kind of person; without having a special skill set or something like that.”
Mr. Grennan’s visit was enjoyable for the students. “I just think that his personality while telling his stories is really relaxed and very modest,” Abby said. “He just seemed so approachable when he visited. Even his writing relates to his personality, but by hearing him speak, you get little tidbits and even more of his personality like his humor which was nice.”
Mr. Grennan’s story proved to be inspirational for the students. “I just think that what he did with the child trafficking was so interesting,” Abby said. “How even though people told him that he wouldn’t be able to make a difference with this, or that the child trafficker would come and stop him, he still never quit.”
Mr. Grennan not only spoke about his journeys in Nepal, but also his journey with writing the book. “It was a great experience,” freshman Jack Hoelzer said. “I learned a lot about his time with the orphans, but also the writing process.”
The writing and editing process was especially highlighted during Mr. Grennan’s visit, due to the importance he places on what he has learned. “I also wanted to say a couple of things that I learned in the writing process because there are things that I wish somebody had told me at the time,” Mr. Grennan said. “I guess what I have learned from it is that if you do like writing, there’s only a couple of things that you really have to do, which is first, you have to just write, and you have to just keep writing.”
Mr. Grennan also spoke about the importance of editing, noting that Little Princes went through 23 drafts before it was published. “The other thing that you have to do is make sure that you’re never turning in the first draft of something that you write; that you always write at least one more draft of it,” he said. “Those are things that I learned that can really make you a good writer. They’re such simple things that I just wish that more people had told me them when I was young.”
Abby felt the writing component was an important piece of Mr. Grennan’s visit. “Me personally, I hate writing drafts, so I thought that it was good to know that he came in with 23 drafts, and that it turned into one of my favorite books,” she said. “It’s inspiring and motivates me to write.”
Although there was no set plan about what Mr. Grennan was going to speak about, Mrs. D’Acosta felt that he perfectly tied his conversation into the writing process. “I think when students hear an author, it should be the experience of the author, and that makes the writing so authentic,” she said. “I think sometimes in school writing is very cut off from real world purposes because, you know, you can’t talk to Herman Melville, or Shakespeare, or Mark Twain. So the opportunity to hear somebody who wrote the book makes that process of writing real, accessible, and full of flaws, like it really is.”
Little Princes will continue to be a book offered in Mrs. D’Acosta’s English class. “Here we have a local author with a great message about helping others that goes way beyond his experience in Nepal,” she said. “For me, the girls excitement taught me, wow this is a good read, and I would completely offer it again and do something similar.”
Overall, Mr. Grennan’s experience was positive at NCHS on Thursday. “I had a great time,” he said. “I love speaking to the high school kids because there is so much potential in your life at that stage, and especially in a place like this, in a school like this, the opportunities are huge and in front of you guys. To me, it was an amazing opportunity to at least be able to put a little bit of input into that thinking process.”
