Annual fall convocation speaker announced

August 25, 2016 

DEFIANCE, Ohio - On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Defiance College will formally welcome the class of 2020 to campus at the fall convocation ceremony. This year’s theme is "Setting Your Path to Success." Students will be asked to reflect upon three primary questions: 1) Why are you at Defiance College, 2) How do you need to grow, and 3) What differences do you want to make in our world.

After being officially welcomed by President Richanne C. Mankey and Interim Vice-President of Academic Affairs Tim Rickabaugh, students will hear from the keynote speaker, Wes Moore. The keynote speaker is sponsored by the Ralph and Lorna Peters Memorial Endowment as well as the E.S. Dix Lectureship. The community is invited to attend and hear Moore speak. The event will begin at 11 a.m. in the Karl H. Weaner Community Center.

Moore is the author of the students' first year common read "The Other Wes Moore." In his book, Moore compares and contrasts his life experiences with another man (the other Wes Moore) that grew up at the same time, in the same Baltimore environment, but, traveled down a very different path in life.

Born in 1978, Moore and his sis­ters were raised by their wid­owed mother. Despite early aca­d­e­mic and behav­ioral strug­gles, and many opportunities to head down the wrong path, Moore grad­u­ated Phi Theta Kappa in 1998 from Val­ley Forge Mil­i­tary Col­lege, and Phi Beta Kappa from Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity in 2001, where he also played foot­ball and earned a bachelor’s degree in inter­na­tional rela­tions. He then became a Rhodes Scholar, study­ing inter­na­tional rela­tions at Oxford University.

Upon completion of his stud­ies, he became a para­trooper and cap­tain in the United States Army, and served a com­bat tour of duty in Afghanistan with the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Air­borne Divi­sion. Moore then served as a White House fel­low to Sec­re­tary of State Condoleezza Rice. He serves on the boards for the Iraq Afghanistan Vet­er­ans of Amer­ica (IAVA) and Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity, and founded an orga­ni­za­tion called STAND that works with Bal­ti­more youth involved in the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

Defiance College, chartered in 1850, is an independent, liberal arts institution in Northwest Ohio offering more than 40 undergraduate programs of study as well as graduate programs in education and business. Defiance College has received national recognition for its educational experience of service and engagement. The college website is www.defiance.edu.