This afternoon I attended the annual fundraiser for the Clinton School of Public Service.  The event raises money for scholarships and is held at the Little Rock Convention Center in downtown Little Rock, just a few blocks from the school.  Last year, author, commentator and radio host Mitch Albom gave the keynote address.  It was one of the most remarkable speeches I’d ever heard.

This year, in a refreshing and untraditional move, the Clinton School decided to allow one of its own students to give the address.  But the student wasn’t just any student, she’s Beatrice Biira, a woman from Uganda who gained national fame for the re-telling of her family story in the children’s book “Beatrice’s Goat.”

Biira was raised in very poor conditions in Africa.  Her family couldn’t afford the tuition to send her to school.  Until 1991, when the Arkansas-based charity Heifer International introduced 12 goats to 12 families in Biira’s village.  Her family was one of the fortunate recipients and because of the proceeds from the sales of the milk, she was able to go to school.

As a result, Biira came to America and attended a post-graduate high school year in New England before receiving a full scholarship to Connecticut College, the prestigious liberal arts school in New London where she graduated in 2008.  In 2005, she was the subject of a feature on “60 Minutes”.