By Doug Graham

news@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Maggie Fleming has studied in Scotland, worked with an organization from Switzerland and helped AIDS victims in Africa. On Thursday, she returned to her alma mater, Pittsburg State University, to speak about her international service.

“All of our actions do make a difference, whether we mean for them to or not,” said Fleming, who now works as a human-rights adviser for U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.

Fleming, a 2001 graduate of PSU, was the featured speaker at the 2008 Apple Day Convocation. She read journal entries from her trips to Africa.

“The people there (have had the greatest impact),” Fleming said. “You see a lot of struggle and strife that they deal with, whether it be in Togo or the Congo or Tanzania. ... Their resilience in life is impossible to walk away from without being impacted by it.”

Fleming said she has been to Africa several times to study, with the Peace Corps and for various nongovernmental organizations. The last time she went to Africa, working with a group called Medair based in Switzerland, she helped isolate and treat victims suffering from a form of the plague.

Fleming said she jumped at the chance to visit her hometown after being invited to speak at Apple Day.

“Pittsburg is still very much home, wherever I go,” she said.

“I think it’s great that we do have PSU graduates who do go abroad and try to help overseas,” said DeAnthony Nelson, a junior in music and international business who attended the ceremony Thursday. “She had some very great, interesting stories.”

Apple Day

Apple Day is an annual Pittsburg State University tradition now in its 102nd year. While Apple Day originally was started to honor legislators fighting for PSU funding, the event now showcases the best of what PSU has produced in students, faculty and graduates.