The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize is remembered fondly by the nuns who taught her in Atchison.

“She had this radiant smile that would light up the room,” said Sister Kathleen Egan of her former student, Wangari Maathai.

Maathai, who was awarded the prize Friday, attended Mount St. Scholastica Academy from 1960 to 1964, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology.

The college, a small girls’ school, merged in 1971 with St. Benedict’s, a men’s college, to become Benedictine College. Maathai’s son, Weweru, attended the school in 1989 and 1990.

Maathai was honored by the Nobel Committee for her work championing the environment and human rights. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, which promotes tree planting as a means to improving women’s conditions and the environment in Kenya. In the early 1990s, Maathai was beaten by police and arrested for protesting the taking of park space for other development in Nairobi, the nation’s capital. She won 98 percent of the popular vote for parliament in 2002 and was subsequently appointed assistant minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife. Maathai has been honored with more than a dozen awards from organizations around the world for her human rights and environmental work.

After graduating from the Mount, Maathai earned her master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1971, she became the first woman from East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate, which she earned from the University of Nairobi.

In a recent letter to the sisters in Atchison, Maathai wrote of her experience, “Being a student at Mount St. Scholastica certainly influenced my life … I think this is partly where I got my deep sense of service and my detachment from things material. On a daily basis, I saw women working hard for higher goals and inner peace.”

Egan said of Maathai, “She was a focused lady even in her teens, so it is not surprising that she’d go back (to Kenya) and work to improve the environment and the state of women.”

Egan added, “I think this place nourished not only her intellect, but her spirit. Our motto is ‘Work and pray.'”

Sister Joachim Holthaus served as prefect at the school and lived in Maathai’s dorm. Holthaus said, “Wangari was a very charming girl. When she first came, she was like a young country girl. It was different then, because we didn’t have much experience with persons of color. But she soon won the respect of the other students.”