The blustery winter weather and a few flurries didn’t deter the more than 1,400 visitors, students and employees from attending Montgomery County Community College’s annual Presidential Symposium on Diversity featuring Tara Westover, the author of  the NY Times bestseller, “Educated” on Nov. 12.

Due to the overwhelming interest, the Symposium, which was free and open to the community, was moved to MCCC’s gymnasium in the Health Sciences Center at the Central Campus in Blue Bell to accommodate as many people as possible. Additionally, the presentation was livestreamed to MCCC’s West Campus in Pottstown and The Culinary Arts Institute in Lansdale where more than 65 people watched remotely.

In the months leading up to the Symposium, MCCC held several activities on campus, including a short essay contest for students and employees in which participants were asked to write about a specific experience that shaped them as individuals. There also was an Instagram photo contest for which everyone was invited to post photos of images that motivated them to pursue their education. Additionally, several book discussions were held for employees and community members.

The participants of the essay and Instagram contests attended a luncheon with Westover immediately prior to the Symposium. The five student essay contest winners – Ava Pendelbury, Alexandra Hewitt, Sam Rapine, Delila Matara and Katherine Howard – shared excerpts from their essays.

Following the luncheon, Westover spoke in the packed gymnasium, sharing stories from her youth and describing how her education changed her life.

“Education has a big effect on our lives, but we don’t always see it because it is so gradual,” she said.

Westover was born to Mormon survivalist parents who were opposed to public education and therefore she did not attend any formal school. She spent her days working in her father’s junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, who was a midwife and healer, until she decided to get an education and experience the world outside of her community.

To attend college, Westover taught herself enough mathematics, grammar, and science to take the ACT and was admitted to Brigham Young University. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom and continued learning for a decade, graduating magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and subsequently winning a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a Ph.D. in history in 2014.

During her presentation, she described how her isolated upbringing affected her when she started college. She didn’t know about the Holocaust or why Rosa Parks would be arrested for a taking a seat on a bus. Her lack of history and worldly knowledge presented challenges, but she did not give up.

“Don’t mistake the middle part of your story for the end,” she said. “When you experience failure, remember to ask yourself what part of the story are you in.”

During the question and answer session, she answered a question about how to go about writing a memoir.

“You should write daily and read, not a lot of books, just a few that you like and read them many times,” she said.

Following the event, MCCC student Nicoletta Pelchat said she enjoyed the luncheon and the presentation.

“I thought she was relatable, and I enjoyed her use of humor throughout,” she said.

In addition to MCCC students, three schools attended the symposium – Agnes Irwin School, Rosemont; C.B. Community School, Manayunk; and Dock Mennonite Academy, Lansdale.

“She had so many amazing quotes, and I wrote them down,” said Carlie Cocco, a senior from Dock Mennonite Academy. “One of my favorites was ‘education should not make you arrogant; it should make you curious and empathetic.’”

“My favorite quote was ‘you don’t know where your passions will take you but having no passion will take you nowhere,’” said Hannah Landis, also a senior at Dock. “This will help me think about what I want to do as I make decisions about college.”

MCCC’s annual Presidential Symposium is a capstone event that advances and facilitates ongoing public dialogue on diversity and inclusiveness among students, employees and community members. Past keynote speakers have included Rinku Sen, Derrick Pitts, Wes Moore, Richard Blanco, Charles Johnson, Jacqueline Woodson-Brown and Judy Shephard. 

Westover’s book, “Educated,” was long-listed for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and has spent more than 83 weeks on The New York Times Best-Sellers list. Former U.S. President Barack Obama named “Educated” as one of the books on his summer reading list of 2018.