CONWAY, Ark. (February 24, 2013) - Hendrix freshman Sean Alexander and Robert Taylor are among the 60 student leaders and activists that will participate in the Debating for Democracy (D4D) National Conference March 21 and 22 at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts in New York City.
The two-day conference features panels and workshops with leading experts on topics including building advocacy campaigns, civic engagement, social entrepreneurship, and public policy, designed to give students the tools they need to effectively advocate for causes they are passionate about.
The D4D National Conference is sponsored by Project Pericles, a consortium of 29 colleges and universities committed to including social responsibility and participatory citizenship as essential elements of their educational programs. The made possible through the generous support of the Eugene M. Lang Foundation.
All participating students wrote and sent letters to their elected officials on topics including Assault Weapons Ban, Environmental Issues, Immigration Reform, and the Violence Against Women Act. Students use lessons from the conference to further their advocacy work.
Rajeev Goyal, author of The Springs of Namje: A Ten-Year Journey from the Villages of Nepal to the Halls of Congress and director of Push for Peace Corps, will deliver the keynote address. The National Conference also features a legislative hearing in which teams of students from different Periclean colleges and universities compete for $5,000 in prize money that they can use to develop advocacy and educational campaigns around their issues. Teams will present their ideas for addressing some of the most important public policy issues facing the United States to a panel of former government officials: U.S. Representative Thomas Downey; U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Constance Berry Newman; Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland Kurt L. Schmoke; and U.S. Senator Harris L. Wofford.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the fifth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country's "Up and Coming" liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2012 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country's best 377 colleges, the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's Top 650 Colleges, and the 2013 edition of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.