A former student of author and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who passed away Saturday at the age of 87, continues to share the lessons she learned from him, and hopes his memory will serve as a call to action for others as it does for her.

  • Libby Shannon studied at Eckerd College with Wiesel
  • Today, Shannon shares lessons learned from Wiesel with her students
  • "[Wiesel] treated us the same way he treated presidents and prime ministers"

Libby Shannon was a 21-year-old college senior in the early 2000s. She wasn't sure what direction life would take her, but someone else knew: author, teacher and Nobel Prize for Literature winner Elie Wiesel.

"He saw in each of us so much more than we would ever see in ourselves," Shannon said.

She took two classes with the late Nobel laureate, bookending her studies at Eckerd with his instruction. For 23 years, Wiesel gave a lecture to every freshman class about his book "Night" and held a question-and-answer session.

He also taught a smaller, shorter course in January. Shannon took that course in her senior year. He held his students to the same standards as world leaders.

"I have an obligation to this world too," she said. "He treated us the same way he treated presidents and prime ministers. There was never any question that this expectation was both real and achievable."

Today, she keeps a signed copy of Elie Wiesel's All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs. Inside, Wiesel's inscription reads "For Libby Shannon, Who will teach, Elie Wiesel."

Shannon did indeed go on to be an educator. She's now the Associate Chaplain and the Director of the Office for Advocacy and Gender Justice at Eckerd College.

"The lessons I learned from him and continue to learn from him shape who I am as a teacher," Shannon said. "It shapes my relationships with my students."

Shannon said she learned so much for Wiesel, and continues to share his lessons with her students. She learned to stay hopeful, and to expect good in the world. She learned that "we have to stand up and we have to say something because people's lives depend on it."

"Dr. Wiesel's memory is a blessing, but more than that it's a call to action," she said. "We can't just let these stories be stories that were told. But they have to keep shaping us, that's the legacy he leaves, here and everywhere else. To keep doing, to keep acting, to keep speaking, to keep being better."