- Overcoming Obstacles & Adversity
PROFILES IN COURAGE
Fact: *Profiles in Courage- written in 1955 by John F. Kennedy about U.S. senators throughout our
history who crossed party lines risking unpopular consequences to do what they perceived to be right.
Benjamin Carson- Pediatric Neurosurgeon
Date of birth: September 18, 1951
*recommended read/watch:
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
“There is no such thing as an average human being.
If you have a normal brain, you are superior.”
Benjamin Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan. His mother Sonya had dropped out of school in
the third grade, and married when she was only 13. When Benjamin Carson was only eight, his parents
divorced, and Mrs. Carson was left to raise Benjamin and his older brother Curtis on her own. She
worked at two, sometimes three, jobs at a time to provide for her boys.
Benjamin and his brother fell farther and farther behind in school. In fifth grade, Carson was at the
bottom of his class. His classmates called him "dummy" and he developed a violent, uncontrollable
temper. When Mrs. Carson saw Benjamin's failing grades, she determined to turn her sons' lives around.
She sharply limited the boys' television watching and refused to let them outside to play until they had
finished their homework each day. She required them to read two library books a week and to give her
written reports on their reading even though, with her own poor education, she could barely read what
they had written.
Within a few weeks, Carson astonished his classmates by identifying rock samples his teacher had
brought to class. He recognized them from one of the books he had read. "It was at that moment that I
realized I wasn't stupid," he recalled later. Carson continued to amaze his classmates with his newfound
knowledge and within a year he was at the top of his class.
The hunger for knowledge had taken hold of him, and he began to read voraciously on all subjects. He
determined to become a physician, and he learned to control the violent temper that still threatened his
future. After graduating with honors from his high school, he attended Yale University, where he earned
a degree in Psychology.
From Yale, he went to the Medical School of the University of Michigan, where his interest shifted from
psychiatry to neurosurgery. His excellent hand-eye coordination and three-dimensional reasoning skills
made him a superior surgeon. After medical school he became a neurosurgery resident at the worldfamous Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. At age 32, he became the hospital's Director of Pediatric
Neurosurgery.
In 1987, Carson made medical history with an operation to separate a pair of Siamese twins. The Binder
twins were born joined at the back of the head. Operations to separate twins joined in this way had
always failed, resulting in the death of one or both of the infants. Carson agreed to undertake the
operation. A 70-member surgical team, led by Dr. Carson, worked for 22 hours. At the end, the twins
were successfully separated and can now survive independently.
Carson's other surgical innovations have included the first intra-uterine procedure to relieve pressure on
the brain of a hydrocephalic fetal twin, and a hemispherectomy, in which an infant suffering from
uncontrollable seizures has half of its brain removed. This stops the seizures, and the remaining half of
the brain actually compensates for the missing hemisphere.
In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Carson is in constant demand as a public speaker, and devotes
much of his time to meeting with groups of young people. In 2008, the White House announced that
Benjamin Carson would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Dr. Carson's books include a memoir, Gifted Hands, and a motivational book, Think Big. Carson says the
letters of "Think Big" stand for the following:
Talent: We have been endowed all of us not just with the ability to sing, dance or throw a ball, but with
intellectual talent. Start getting in touch with that part of you that is intellectual and develop that, and
think of careers that will allow you to use that.
Honesty: If you lead a clean and honest life, you don't put skeletons in the closet. If you put skeletons in
the closet, they definitely will come back just when you don't want to see them and ruin your life.
Insight: It comes from people who have already gone where you're trying to go. Learn from their
triumphs and their mistakes.
Nice: If you're nice to people, then once they get over the suspicion of why you're being nice, they will
be nice to you.
Knowledge: It makes you into a more valuable person. The more knowledge you have, the more people
need you. It's an interesting phenomenon, but when people need you, they pay you, so you'll be okay in
life.
Books: They are the mechanism for obtaining knowledge, as opposed to television.
In-Depth Learning: Learn for the sake of knowledge and understanding, rather than for the sake of
impressing people or taking a test.
God: Never get too big for Him.
Maya Angelou
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OCCUPATION: Author, Poet, Dancer, Actor
BIRTH DATE: April 4, 1928
EDUCATION: George Washington High School, California Labor School
PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Louis, Missouri
BEST KNOWN FOR
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Maya Angelou is a poet and prize winning autobiographical novelist.
She is the author of the critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Writer, dancer, African-American activist. Born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis,
Missouri. Angelou spent her difficult formative years moving back and forth between her
mother's and grandmother's. At age eight, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was
subsequently killed by an Uncle. The event caused the young girl to go mute for nearly six
years, and her teens and early twenties were spent as a dancer, filled with isolation and
experimentation.
At 16 she gave birth to a son, Guy, after which she toured Europe and Africa in the musical
Porgy and Bess. On returning to New York City in the 1960s, she joined the Harlem Writers
Guild and became involved in black activism. She then spent several years in Ghana as editor
of African Review, where she began to take her life, her activism and her writing more seriously.
Maya Angelou's five-volume autobiography commenced with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
in 1970. Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971), was
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1993, Angelou read 'On the Pulse of Morning' at Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration, a
poem written at his request. It was only the second time a poet had been asked to read at an
inauguration, the first being Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. In 2006,
Angelou agreed to host a weekly radio show on XM Satellite Radio's Oprah & Friends channel.
She also teaches at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where she has a lifetime position
as the Reynolds professor of American studies.
Drawing from her own life experiences, Angelou published Letter to My Daughter in 2008. She
wrote the work for the daughter she never had, sharing anecdotes and offering advice. Well
received, the book earned several honors, including a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding
Literary Work-Non-Fiction.
““I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS” by Maya Angelou
The free bird leaps
on the back of the win
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hill - for the caged bird
sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Maya Angelou quotes:
"If you don't like something,
change it. If you can't change it,
change your attitude."
"We may encounter many defeats but
we must not be defeated."
"I've learned that people will
forget what you said, people will
forget what you did, but people
will never forget how you made them
feel."
Oskar Schindler
(1908-1974)
*recommended watch:
“Schindler’s List”
In December 1939, as occupied Poland was being torn apart by the savagery of the Holocaust,
Oskar Schindler, the unlikeliest of role models, took his first faltering steps from the darkness of
Nazism towards the light of heroism. “If you saw a dog going to be crushed under a car,” he said
later of his wartime actions, “wouldn't you help him?”
Before the outbreak of war, Poland had been a relative haven for European Jews—Krakow's
Jewish population numbered over 50,000. But when Germany invaded, destruction began
immediately and it was merciless. Jews were herded into crowded ghettos, randomly beaten and
humiliated, capriciously killed. Jewish property and businesses were summarily destroyed, or
appropriated by the SS and 'sold' to Nazi 'investors', one of whom was the fast talking,
womanizing, money hungry Oskar Schindler.
An ethnic German, Schindler was born April 28, 1908, in Austria-Hungary, what is now Moravia
in the Czech Republic. Schindler grew up with all the privileges money could buy. He was born
Catholic, but from an early age he inhabited a world of sin. His exploits with women are the stuff
of barroom legend.
He married Emilie Schindler at nineteen, but was never without a mistress or two. Hard drinking
and inefficient, he had the soul of a gambler, winning big and losing bigger. He had presided
over the demise of his family business and become a salesman when opportunity came knocking
in the guise of the war.
Never one to miss a chance to make money, he marched into Poland on the heels of the SS. He
dived headfirst into the black-market and the underworld and soon made friends with the local
Gestapo bigwigs, softening them up with women, money and illicit booze. His newfound
connections helped him acquire a factory which he ran with the cheapest labor around: Jewish.
Schindler (center) with German army officers.
At first he seemed like every other usurping German industrialist, driven by profit and unmoved
by the means of his profiteering. But somewhere along the line, something changed. He
succeeded in his quest for riches, but by the end of the war he had spent everything he made on
keeping 1,300 Jewish men and women alive. “He negotiated the salvation of his 1,300 Jews by
operating right at the heart of the system using all the tools of the devil—bribery, black
marketeering and lies,” said Thomas Keneally, whose book about this paradoxical man was the
basis of the movie Schindler's List.
Not long after acquiring his “Emalia” factory—which produced enamel goods and munitions to
supply the German front—the removal of Jews to death camps began in earnest. Schindler's
Jewish accountant put him in touch with the few Jews with any remaining wealth. They invested
in his factory, and in return they would be able to work there and perhaps be spared. He was
persuaded to hire more Jewish workers, designating their skills as “essential,” paying off the
Nazis so they would allow them to stay in Krakow. Schindler was making money, but everyone
in his factory was fed, no-one was beaten, no-one was killed. It became an oasis of humanity in a
desert of moral hell!
Office workers from the “Emalia” factory.
As the brutality of the holocaust escalated, Schindler's protection of his Jewish workers became
increasingly active. In the summer of 1942, he witnessed a German raid on the Jewish ghetto.
Watching innocent people being packed onto trains bound for certain death, something
awakened in him. “Beyond this day, no thinking person could fail to see what would happen,” he
said later. “I was now resolved to do everything in my power to defeat the system.”
By the autumn of 1944, Germany's hold on Poland had weakened. As the Russian army
approached, the Nazi's tried desperately to complete their program of liquidation and sent all
remaining Jews to die. But Schindler remained true to the “Schindlerjuden,” the workers he
referred to as “my children.”
After the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto and the transfer of many Jews to the Plaszow
concentration camp, Schindler used his influence to set up a branch of the camp for 900 Jewish
workers in his factory compound and made his now famous list of the workers he would need for
its operation.
The factory operated in its new location for one year, making defective bullets for German guns.
Conditions were grim, for the Schindlers as well as the workers. But Schindler saved most of
these workers when he transferred his factory to Brunnlitz (Sudetenland) in October 1944.
When the war ended, Schindler fled to Argentina with his wife and a handful of his workers and
bought a farm. In 1958, he abandoned his land to return to Germany. He spent the remaining
years of his life dividing his time between Germany and Israel, where he was honored and taken
care of by his “Schindlerjuden.”
He died in Hildesheim in 1974.
Schindler (second from right) with a group of “Schindlerjuden.” His extraordinary story might
have died with him but for their
gratitude. In trying to answer the
inevitable question, why did he do
it, one of the survivors said: “I
don't know what his motives
were... But I don't give a damn.
What's important is that he saved
our lives.”
Perhaps the question is not why
he did it, but rather how could he
not. And perhaps the answer is
unimportant. It is his actions that
matter now, testimony that even
in the worst of circumstances, the
most ordinary of us can act courageously. If Oskar Schindler, flawed as he was, did it, then so
might we, and that is reason enough to hope.
Chesley B. Sullenberger III “Sully”
After logging some 19,000 hours of acclaimed but anonymous service in the skies, Chesley B.
Sullenberger III became a hero in a New York minute.
On Jan. 15, the pilot, known as "Sully," safely guided all 155 passengers and crew aboard US
Airways Flight 1549 to an emergency water landing in the city's frigid Hudson River. The Airbus
A320's twin engines had apparently shut down after sucking in a flock of birds.
Several passengers saw the left engine on fire. Sullenberger discussed with air traffic control
the possibilities of either returning to LaGuardia airport or attempting to land at the Teterboro
Airport in New Jersey. However, Sullenberger quickly decided that neither was feasible, and
determined that ditching in the Hudson River was the only option for everyone's survival.
Sullenberger told the passengers to "brace for impact", then piloted the plane to a smooth
ditching in the river at about 3:30pm. All passengers and crew members survived. He later said,
"It was very quiet as we worked, my co-pilot and I. We were a team. But to have zero thrust
coming out of those engines was shocking—the silence." Sullenberger walked the unflooded
part of the passenger cabin twice to make sure everyone had evacuated before retrieving the
plane's maintenance logbook and being the last to evacuate the aircraft.
Sullenberger, described by friends as "shy and reticent" has been noted for his poise and calm
demeanor during the crisis. In a CBS 60 Minutes interview, he was quoted as saying that the
moments before the crash were "the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-thefloor feeling" that he had ever experienced. Speaking with news anchor Katie Couric,
Sullenberger said, "One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've been making
small, regular deposits in this bank of experience: education and training. And on January 15
the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal."
Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger
Personal Champion/Motivational Speaker
“DREAM BIG & NEVER QUIT!”
*recommended watch:
“Rudy” movie
Against all odds on a gridiron in South Bend, Indiana, Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger in twenty seven seconds,
carved his name into history books as perhaps the most famous graduate of the University of Notre
Dame. The son of an oil refinery worker and third of 14 children, Rudy rose from valleys of
discouragement and despair to the pinnacles of success. Today, he is one of the most popular
motivational speakers in the United States. It took years of fierce determination to overcome obstacles
and criticisms, yet Rudy achieved his first dream - to attend Notre Dame and play football for the Fighting
Irish. As fans cheered RU-DY, RUDY, he sacked the quarterback in the last 27 seconds of the only play
in the only game of his college football career. He is the only player in the school's history to be carried off
the field on his teammates' shoulders. In 1993, TRISTAR Productions immortalized his life story with the
blockbuster film, RUDY. Written and produced by Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh, the award-winning
team who brought us HOOSIERS, the critically acclaimed RUDY received "Two Thumbs Up" from Siskel
and Ebert and continues to inspire millions worldwide. In 2005, Rudy was named one of the best 25
sports movies of the previous 25 years in two polls by ESPN (#24 by a panel of sports experts, and #4 by
espn.com users). It was ranked the 54th-most inspiring film of all time in the "AFI 100 Years" series.
Today, a highly sought after motivational speaker, Rudy, the man, entertains international corporate
audiences with a unique, passionate, and heartfelt style of communicating. He reaches school children,
university students, and professional athletes with the same enthusiasm, portraying the human spirit that
comes from his personal experiences of adversity and triumph. His captivating personality and powerful
message of "YES I CAN" stays with his audiences forever.
In addition to his motivational speaking, Rudy has co-authored several books, including: RUDY'S
INSIGHTS FOR WINNING IN LIFE, RUDY'S LESSONS FOR YOUNG CHAMPIONS, and RUDY &
FRIENDS, and has produced the DREAM POWER tape series. He has recently established the RUDY
FOUNDATION, whose mission is to help children of all ages around the world reach their full potential.
The Rudy Foundation develops and supports programs that positively impact the lives of children
cognitively, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
The Rudy Award Program was created by the Rudy Ruettiger Foundation to recognize children who
make an outstanding, exceptional effort to do their personal best everyday, overcome obstacles, set
goals, stay on track to reach their Dreams and build the qualities of Character, Courage, Contribution,
and Commitment into their lives everyday. The Rudy Award is about a child's heart, will to change, and
desire for self-improvement.
**“Rudy” is considered by many, including myself, to be a personal champion; one that we can all look to
as an example that “if we work hard, good things will happen” (Sanderson) no matter the situation. It
doesn’t matter if we ever step foot on an athletic field, there is a value to pushing yourself harder, to be
better than others think you can be and in the process discover that you are an amazing person with
talents that perhaps you didn’t even realize were laying dormant inside of you!”
Mr. Thomas
MOVIE QUOTES FROM “RUDY”:
Father Cavanaugh: This university, it's not for everybody.
RUDY: Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to go to school here. And ever since I was a kid,
Everyone said it couldn't be done. My whole life, people have been telling
me what I could do and couldn't do.
I've always listened to them, believed in what they said.
I don't want to do that anymore.
WHEN RUDY FEELS LIKE QUITTING AFTER ALL HIS HARD WORK…
Rudy: I don't see the point anymore.
Fortune: So you didn't make the dress list.
There are greater tragedies in the world.
Rudy: I wanted to run out of
that tunnel for my dad.
To prove to everyone-Fortune: Prove what!?
Rudy: That I was somebody.
Fortune: Oh, you are so full of crap.
You're 5-feet nothing.
A hundred and nothing.
And you've got hardly
a speck of athletic ability.
And You hung in with the best college
Football team in the land for 2 years!
And you're gonna walk out of here
with a degree from the University of
Notre Dame.
In this life you don't have to prove
nothing to nobody except yourself.
And after what you've gone through,
if you haven't done that by now...
...it ain't gonna never happen.
Now go on back.
Rudy: I'm sorry I never got you
to see your first game.
Fortune: Hell, I've seen too many games
in this stadium.
Rudy: You said you never saw a game.
Fortune: I've never seen one from the stands.
Rudy: You were a player?
Fortune: I rode the bench for two years.
- Thought I wasn't being pIayed
because of my color.
I got filled up with
a lot of attitude, so I quit.
Still not a week goes by,
I don't regret it.
And I guarantee a week won't go by,
you won't regret walking out...
...letting them get the best of you.
Now, you hear me clear enough?
Rudy: Yeah.
QUALITIES OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP- Overcoming Obstacles & Adversity
PROFILES IN COURAGE
Benjamin Carson- Pediatric Neurosurgeon
Date of birth: September 18, 1951
*recommended read/watch:
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
1. List and react to the obstacles and adversity that Dr. Ben Carson had to
overcome. How did it make him realize his faults and how did it make him work
harder? Why do you think Carson needed to experience these things?
Maya Angelou
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OCCUPATION: Author, Poet, Dancer, Actor
BIRTH DATE: April 4, 1928
EDUCATION: George Washington High School, California Labor School
PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Louis, Missouri
BEST KNOWN FOR


Maya Angelou is a poet and prize winning autobiographical novelist.
She is the author of the critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
2. List and react to the obstacles and adversity that Maya Angelou had to
overcome. How did it make her realize her faults or things that happened that
she could not change and how did it make her work harder? Why do you think
Angelou would say she may have needed to experience these things even
though it caused so much personal pain?
Oskar Schindler
(1908-1974)
*recommended watch:
“Schindler’s List”
3. List and react to the obstacles and adversity that Oskar Schindler had to
overcome. How did it make him realize his faults or things that happened that
he could not change and how did it make him work harder? Why do you think
Schindler would say he may have needed to experience these things even
though it caused so much personal pain?
Chesley B. Sullenberger III “Sully”
4. List and react to the obstacles and adversity that “Sully” had to overcome.
How did it make him realize his faults or things that happened that he could not
change and how did it make him work harder? Why do you think “Sully” would
say he may have needed to experience these things even though it caused
others so much personal pain?
Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger
Personal Champion/Motivational Speaker
“DREAM BIG & NEVER QUIT!”
*recommended watch:
“Rudy” movie
5. List and react to the obstacles and adversity that “Rudy” had to overcome.
How did it make him realize his faults or things that happened that he could not
change and how did it make him work harder? Why do you think “Rudy” would
say he may have needed to experience these things even though it caused
himself and others personal pain?