Mount St. Joseph students reach out to Malala Yousafzai

When Malala Yousafzai recovered from being shot by the Taliban because she was living her belief in girls' education, she became a global symbol of her cause.

The now-17-year-old also became a hero to 35 students in two service clubs at Flourtown's Mount St. Joseph Academy. Since early July, the girls have been campaigning to have Yousafzai visit their school when she is in Philadelphia next month to receive the Liberty Medal.

They are tweeting. They are using Facebook. In their glitziest move, 13 of the girls created a six-minute video invitation and posted it on YouTube. As of Tuesday, it had been viewed 3,120 times.

The video shows the girls looking into the camera and making statements such as, "Will you, Malala, come to our school to speak about the importance of girls' education and to inspire us even more?"

It was a heartfelt request.

"We have looked up to Malala as an inspiration," said senior class president Colleen McBride, 17.

The admiration started last year as teachers had students listen to recordings of Yousafzai speaking, and many chose to read her book, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, in one of their classes.

Yousafzai, whose father is an educator, long had talked about girls having a right to go to school. In 2009, she used a pseudonym while writing a blog for the BBC about life under the restrictive Taliban in northwestern Pakistan.

Though the Taliban banned girls from attending school, Yousafzai continued to speak out, now using her own name. The assassination attempt came after she gained international praise for her outspokenness.

In October 2012, gunmen believed to be from the Taliban got on her school van and asked for Malala by name. One walked to her and shot her several times, injuring her head and face, her neck and a shoulder.

After recovering from her injuries, Yousafzai gained more attention as an advocate for girls' education. In June, the National Constitution Center announced she had won the 2014 Liberty Medal, which will be presented to her at an Oct. 21 ceremony.

Yousafzai's story resonated with the students at Mount St. Joseph, a Catholic girls' school.

"It hit home for us because we are a school founded on the education of women," McBride said.

"She persevered and took that experience, and it made her a lot stronger," said Kelly Dougherty, 17.

Yousafzai's story even prompted some of the girls to reexamine their own lives.

"A couple of weeks ago, I was whining about having to go back to school," said Annie O'Sullivan, 17.

Then, she said, she thought about her own good fortune to attend a private high school at which tuition is $16,530 annually.

O'Sullivan said she stopped whining.

When students heard that Yousafzai would be in Philadelphia for the Liberty Medal, they decided to invite her to speak at their school.

In the video, the girls also show a map that highlights a route from Philadelphia to Flourtown, a "mere 30-minute drive away," the narrator says.

They created a #MountforMalala Twitter account, on which they have posted news about Yousafzai and information on education.

Their tweeting high point so far came when the Malala Fund and its cofounder and CEO, Shiza Shahid, responded to their posts. In one, the fund thanked the girls for "the inspirational video," said Katie Mars, 17.

Even if Yousafzai cannot visit the school, several girls plan to go to the National Constitution Center on Oct. 21 to show support for her. And the school is trying to simulcast the event, sell tickets to it, and give the money to the Malala Fund, said theology teacher Kate Shevlin, who helps advise the Malala campaign.

"Even if this is as far as it gets," Mars said, "it's so worth it."