Today's Challenges --Tomorrow's Glory: Think Globally and Act LocallDr. Young Woo Kang (Author)

Blinded in a schoolyard soccer accident in South Korea, Young Woo Kang realized what hardship and pain really meant at an early age. After leaving his hospital bedside, his mother died of a stroke, and in desperation, the orphaned Kang tried to commit suicide. However, after finally refusing to allow the events of a tragic childhood to destroy him, he was accepted at Yonsei University in Seoul. Then, society treated the blind as outcasts. After graduating with honors, Kang became a Rotary Foundation Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a master’s degree in Special Education and Rehabilitation and a PhD. in Education. He became a Chair Professor and Dean of South Korea’s Taegu University, Supervisor of Special Education in Indiana, an adjunct professor at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, and the founding president of the Education and Rehabilitation Exchange Foundation. In 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Kang and the U.S. Senate confirmed him to serve on the National Council on Disability. His advocacy work includes serving as senior advisor at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, Vice Chair of the World Committee on Disability and as board member of Goodwill Industries International. His wife Kyoung taught the visually impaired; their son Paul is a leading ophthalmologist, and their younger son, Christopher, serves as Special Assistant to President Obama for Legislative Affairs. So what message does the author want readers to come away with when they reach the last page of Today’s Challenges—Tomorrow’s Glory? “That their dreams to become global leaders can come true,” he says. If we practice and follow the principles and steps he describes in this highly motivational book, it’s guaranteed we’ll be inspired to turn our own disabilities, weaknesses, or adversities into advantages, strengths, and positive assets as well. “Extraordinary people are not born,” says Kang, “but raised and made through faith and education.”