John Dau Inspires Greenville Middle School and High School to Never Give Up

By Natalie Wysokowski and Isabella Antonelli

December 11th, 2017 - Greenville, New York News

On Monday, October 16th, 2017, John Dau visited Greenville High School to tell his story of being a Lost Boy of Sudan. By the end of his speech, Greenville students were left with a feeling of motivation to keep pushing forward through the many struggles of life.

After Dau’s presentation, he spent time personally meeting with and speaking to individual students. He was overjoyed to get to know everyone and was so pleased with how welcoming Greenville was towards him. Several students spent many hours to put together a gift for Mr. Dau upon his arrival, stringing together a long chain of 1,000 positive messages personally written by every Greenville Middle and High School student. When he was presented with this thank you gift, Dau was left in tears. It was a heartwarming experience for everyone.

With such an interesting and courageous story to share, there were so many questions we had for Dau. After his presentation, members of the Greenville journalism elective were able to speak with Mr. Dau privately. He explained that he survived such a harrowing experience because “God was planning for me to be something. I never gave up and fought through things.” He further explains, “We used to sing songs to keep us going and the ones who gave up died, and we accepted that. God was disciplining us.”  He also noted that many of the other Lost Boys who survived have managed to remain in touch with each other. “[They] make it work because nowadays it is easy to communicate with technology,” and they even organize “four or five reunions each year.” As well, he is not the only Lost Boy who has used this experience to build something positive, “Some have built schools and organizations,” though he stands out amongst the group as Dau states, “because they didn’t have the opportunity to. I am lucky to have the success I do because I am an early bird.”

As a school community, his message relates to an initiative that we have recently begun to spread amongst each other called ‘Spartan Strong.’ If John Dau and the other Lost Boys of Sudan can build a light from so much darkness we as a school community can certainly come together and support each other with positivity and confidence.