On Monday, March 25, The Spires at Berry College team along with several future residents of The Spires attended the Berry College Integrity in Leadership Lecture Series.
The speaker at this year’s event was Parisa Khosravi, a world-renowned journalist and CNN’s former Senior Vice President for International News Gathering. Throughout her career, Parisa directed historic coverage of countless award-winning news stories such as the fall of East Bloc, the Rwandan genocide, the earthquake in Haiti, and the Arab Spring.
Parisa shared her experience in practicing integrity and compassion in leadership throughout her career, and also shared personal stories about how people’s perception of her was colored at first, but changed as they better understood the person that she is.
At the end of her program, Parisa shared a deeply personal story of her son, who is non-verbal and has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum. For the first 14 years of his life, Parisa’s son wasn’t able to communicate, and the entire family wondered what was behind his silent face. Once her son, Payam (“Piece of News” in Persian), worked with teachers who helped him discover his voice through spelling, the family discovered that her son had so much to give through empathic communication.
These poignant types of lectures and cultural events happen weekly on the Berry College campus and are a great benefit to future residents at The Spires—who will live just 1/3 of a mile from the main campus.
For more information about Parisa Khosravi, visit parisakhosravi.com, and for more information about the Berry College Life Ready (BCIL) program, go to berry.edu/lifeready/priorities/integrity.
