So this week, my blog post will be all about Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu and, although she was born on August 26^th in 1910, she considers her true birthday to be on August 27^th, the day of her baptism. She was born in Skopje, which is the current capital of he Republic of Macedonia, but at the time, it was a part of the Ottoman Empire. She was the youngest child of Nikollë and Dranafile Bojaxhiu; however, her father passed away when she was only eight years old.

From a young age, Mother Teresa was fascinated by stories about missionaries and their lives, especially their service in Bengal. By the time she was twelve years old, she was convinced that she would commit her life to service and become a part of a religious order. She fulfilled her promise at the age of eighteen when she left home to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. That was the last time she ever saw her mother and sister. She chose to be tamed after St. Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. However, since one of the other nuns in the convent had already chosen that name, she chose the Spanish spelling, Teresa. She took her vows on May 14^th, 1937 while she was teaching at the Loreto convent school in Entally, Eastern Calcutta. Seven years later, she was named headmistress of the school.

On September 10^th, 1946, Mother Teresa experienced what she called, “the call within the call” while she was traveling to her annual retreat. She realized that she needed to leave the convent to work with the poor in 1948 and began wearing a white cotton sari with a blue border. She received basic medical training at the Holy Family Hospital and became an Indian citizen before she started working in the slums. She started with a school in Calcutta, but eventually began helping the destitute and starving. One year later, she was joined by a group of young women who helped her. They became the foundation of a new religious order. On October 7th, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission to start the diocesan congregation that eventually became the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa stated that its mission was to care for “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.”

This congregation that began with only thirteen members grew to encompass over 4,000 sisters who carried out its mission in their every day lives. She opened up multiple different homes in Calcutta including the Home of the Dying, a home for those suffering from Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, called the hospice Shanti Nagar, and the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children’s Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a safe place for orphans and homeless youth.

In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. In 1971 she was awarded the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize to commend her for her work with the poor, display of Christian charity, and efforts for peace. She later received the Pacem in Terris Award in 1976. In 1979, Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize for “for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace.” She refused the ceremonial banquet and instead asked that the $192,000 that would have been used for the banquet be donated to the poor in India. After suffering for years with heart, lung, and kidney problems, Mother Teresa died on September 5^th, 1997 of a heart attack.

Mother Teresa was an incredible woman who dedicated her life to the service of others. She always stood by her beliefs, regardless of how they were received, and continued her selfless work until she was physically incapable of doing so. Since her death, she has rapidly advanced along the path towards sainthood, and I have no doubt that she will complete that journey.

While my past posts have been about inspirational people who have been very successful and subsequently and donated substantial amounts of money to the poor.  Or if not that, I have blogged about someone who has very bravely stood up for a cause in which they believed.  Now, this person is a little different from those kinds of people.  While Raffaele Esposito has not earned an incredible amount of money and generously donated it to people in need, nor has he been forced to courageously risk his life for a cause in which he believes, he has affected our lives in a very different, yet still incredibly impactful manner.

Raffaele Esposito was born in Italy many many years ago.  He was the owner of a popular tavern.  His tavern was called the Pizzeria di Pietro e Basta Cosi.  He owned this tavern during the nineteenth century.  Now I do not know if you have figured this out, or if you already knew, but Raffaele Esposito is widely considered to be the father of modern pizza.  Now let us take a step back in history to discuss what led Raffaele Esposito to earn this title.

The first time we know for a fact that the word pizza was used was in 997 AD.  This occured and in the town of Gaeta in Italy and then not long after in multiple different parts of Italy, especially in the central and southern areas.  Pizza evolved from the focaccia, which was a flat bread that was know by the Romans as “panis focacius.”  Romans added toppings to their focaccia, including olive oil or native spices, which is still seen in our pizzas today.  However, Italy’s version of focaccia, especially the focaccia from Naples which included tomato, cheese, and other toppings, became incredibly popular.

Now, here is where Raffaele Esposito comes in.  Raffaele Esposito was the most well-liked pizza maker in Naples and is credited with being the first person to make this pizza.  Since it was so well-liked, he was called to make one of his infamous pizzas for the visit of King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Italy in the year of 1889.  He prepared three different pizzas, one of which included tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and basil to look like the red white and green of the Italian flag.  Raffaele Esposito was so delicious that Queen Margherita sent him a letter stating that his pizzas were incredible.  Raffaele Esposito used her letter to promote his pizza and his restaurant.  He even named his pizza after the queen, “Pizza Margherita”.  This event supposedly created a widespread fad for pizza, which simply never went away.  It is due to Raffaele Esposito’s experiments with ingredients and his presentation of the dish for the queen that led to its popularity.  His restaurant still exists today; however it is now called Pizzaria di Brandi.  The restaurant still has Queen Margherita’s letter on display to commemorate Raffaele Esposito’s success.

While Raffaele Esposito may not have done something incredible like donate large sums of money or stood up for people’s rights, but he has affected our life in a different way.  He invented one of the most popular foods in America today, pizza.  And for that reason, I believe that Raffaele Esposito is someone who has added to our lives and deserves to be included in this list.

For years, there have been wars and oppression throughout the world. But each time there is oppression and lack of freedom in the world, there are people who stand up for what is right. Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education who has repeatedly stood up for her beliefs, even when her life was in danger.

Malala Yousafzai was born in the Swat District in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She was born into a Sunni Muslim family of Pashtun ethnicity. Her first name, Malala, was chosen by her parents after a famous Pashtun warrior woman from southern Afghanistan. Yousafzai was fluent in Pashto, English, and Urdu, thanks to her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, and his drive to educate all his children. He was an educational activist who ran a chain of private schools called the Khushal Public School. He always allowed Yousafzai to stay up late at night and discuss politics with him after her brothers went to bed. These late night discussions clearly had a major impact on her life because at age eleven, she began speaking up about education rights for men and women. Her first speech was at Peshawar, at a local press club. Newspapers and television channels throughout the region covered her speech.

Later that year, her father volunteered Yousafzai to be a journalist from the perspective of a young schoolgirl to document the Taliban’s ever growing influence in the area. Since the Taliban leaders were banning music, television, and the education of young women, Yousafzai’s father and some of his colleagues thought that having a young schoolgirl document the way her life was affected by the Taliban would expose their actions to the public. Yousafzai agreed, and her first entry was posted on January 3, 2009. She continued documenting these events until March, only two months later.

After the completion of her blog, a New York Times reporter approached Yousafzai and her father about filming a documentary. They agreed and she wrote about her move to the countryside. She also mentioned that she was very bored since she was not able to read books. She and her family later personally visited representatives from the United States to plead with the officials to help reinstitute the quality and equality of the education.

After her documentary, she was interviewed multiple times to publicly support education for women and young girls. She was then nominated the National Youth Peace Prize, the first nominee from Pakistan.

As she was more recognized, people began sending her death threats. In October 2012, she was shot in the first attack on her life. A member of the Taliban boarded a bus and said that if she did not identify herself, all the people on the bus would be shot. It was an immense testament to her character that when he announced this, no one told him who she was. Of course, she wanted to save the others on the bus so Yousafzai identified herself to the masked man and was immediately shot in the head, through her neck, and out her shoulder.

She was sent to the United Kingdom and eventually healed. This assassination attempt further brought awareness to Yousafzai and her cause and a petition was started with the slogan “I am Malala” that demanded that no child would be left out of school. She continued advocating for education and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at only 17 years.

I don’t think it requires much explanation as to why I chose to write about Malala Yousafzai. She began advocating for equal education from an incredibly young age was willing to sacrifice her life for the betterment of others’ lives. She proved to be selfless again and again as she continued to advocate for education, even after numerous death threats. Then when an attack finally occurred on her life, she healed and went right back to her cause.

When you hear the name “Oprah Winfrey”, several words come to mind. Successful. Generous. Empowering. Influential. Oprah Winfrey has had a notable impact on the lives of many people. Since she was born into a poor family in Mississippi, many people would have said that her opportunities would be limited. Clearly, she proved them wrong and has become one of the most influential people in the world.

Oprah Winfrey was raised by a single teenage mother in an inner-city neighborhood. She was originally named “Orpah” after the biblical character, but it was often mispronounced, producing the name, Oprah. For the first six years of her life, Winfrey lived with her maternal grandmother in a family so poor, that she was often forced to wear dresses made of potato sacks because of the lack of money. Her maternal grandmother taught her how to read before she was three years old, and although she was made fun of for the way she dressed, members of her church admired her and even gave her the nickname “The Preacher” for her ability to memorize and recite bible verses. When she was six years old, she moved to another inner-city neighborhood, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her younger half sister, Patricia, was born.

At a young age, Winfrey was molested multiple times by a family members and family friends. At the age of fourteen, she became pregnant, but her son was born prematurely and died soon after his birth. After years of abuse, she ran away from home. She was then sent to live with her biological father in Nashville, Tennessee, where he fathered her in a strict but encouraging manner, making her education her highest priority. Under her father’s parenting, Winfrey became an honors student and found that she excelled in speaking. She won an oratory contest, which rewarded her with a full scholarship to Tennessee State University, a historically African-American institution.

While in high school, she was noticed by the local radio station WVOL, which hired her to work part-time. She was later recruited to be a co-host on the local talk show, People are Talking. When she relocated to host AM Chicago, she changed the show’s rating from last place to the highest rated show in Chicago. She was then offered a deal to have her own television show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and was an instant success.

Winfrey did multiple interviews with celebrities and starred is a few movies and television show episodes. All the while, her television show continued to become more and more popular.

Oprah became a millionaire at age 32 when her talk show first went national. In 2000, she was believed to be the wealthiest African American of the 20^th century with a net worth of $800 million. Forbes’ international rich list listed Winfrey as the world’s only African American billionaire from 2004 to 2006 and as the first African American woman billionaire in world history. She has also been named as arguably the most influential and powerful woman in the world.

Not only does Oprah have an exceptionally inspirational story, but also she chooses to give back and share her success to others who are in the position that she once was. Since she was once poor, she understands the plight of many of the people who live in poverty and she chooses to share her wealth and help everyone to alleviate their suffering. For this reason, I think that she is an incredibly admirable person. I believe that people should aspire to be like her, not because she is successful, but because she is known to be an extremely generous person.