Rwanda President Kagame will Speak and Receive a Degree from University of the Pacific on April 14. First Lady Madame Kagame will Host a Fundraiser with Students
Many Americans Have Become Familiar with the recent history of Rwanda through the film Hotel Rwanda. At the University of the Pacific, President Kagame will discuss progress Rwanda has made in the last ten years as well as receive an honorary degree. Madame Jeannette Kagame, the First Lady of Rwanda, will also attend a fundraiser the same day for Rwandese AIDS widows and orphans, hosted by both students of the School of International Studies and the International Club at St. Mary’s High School.
Stockton, CA (PRWEB) March 15, 2005 -- Many Americans have been moved by the
powerful performances in the award winning film Hotel Rwanda. Few understand how
far Rwanda has progressed in the past decade. Hotel Rwanda abruptly ends with
soldiers moving in to stop the genocide. Those soldiers, of the Rwandan
Patriotic Front (RPF) were led by then General Paul Kagame, who was ultimately
elected President of Rwanda in 2004. But the story of Rwanda only begins where
Hotel Rwanda ends.
For the past ten years President Kagame has worked to
rebuild his country, achieving remarkable success. One of the major
accomplishments of his leadership has been to establish a constitutional
committee that wrote a new constitution for Rwanda. Last August, just ten years
after the genocide, President Kagame was elected as the first President since
the genocide. He and the First Lady, Madame Kagame, lead the effort to assist
genocide survivors, AIDS victims and children.
In recognition of these
accomplishments, University of Pacific President Donald DeRosa will present
Kagame with an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree. It will be the first time and
American university has conferred an honorary degree on Kagame.
DeRosa
and Kagame will also announce a student exchange program with the Rwandan
Ministry of Education. It will be the first such program with an American
university. Rwanda’s minister of education, Romain Murenzi will be
present.
Kagame will then give an address at the university titled
“Rwanda: From Despair to Hope”. Kagame will describe how Rwanda is recovering
from genocide, and he will talk about his recent visit to Sudan, where the
international community is once again faced with the problem of mass
violence.
“President Kagame has led the country for the past decade, and
under his leadership the government and people of Rwanda have written a
constitution, established free education for all children, elected more women to
national office than any country in the world and are meting out justice to the
perpetrators of the genocide. He is widely regarded as the leader of a new
generation of african presidents dedicated to poverty reduction, human
development and female empowerment,” said Margee Ensign, Dean of the University of Pacific’s
School of International Studies and an advisor to many international
development efforts in Central Africa,
The School of International
Studies Gerber Lecture Series at the University of the Pacific is proud to
present President Paul Kagame on April 14 at 6:00 p.m. in the A.G. Spanos
Center. The presentation is free of charge and open to the public.
Tickets are required and can be picked up at the box office or at www.tix.com. Tickets can be found by
typing in “Kagame” in the keyword box.
For more information please call
the School of International Studies at 209 946-2818 or visit the web site at www.pacific.edu/sis
For directions and a map of the
University of Pacific campus, go to http://pacific.edu/mapsdirections/maindirections.asp
About
the University of the Pacific School of International Studies (SIS) The University of the Pacific’s
School of International Studies is the only four-year undergraduate school
on the West Coast dedicated to international studies, international relations,
global studies, and intercultural relations. The School of International Studies
provides a curriculum that helps students develop global awareness and literacy,
strong analytical skills, and real world living experience.
The School of
International Studies is the only undergraduate school in the United States that
requires all students to study abroad as part of the curriculum. The study
abroad program, (www.pacific.edu/student life/international/studyabroad.asp at
the School of International Studies offers more than 150 program sites in over
70 countries, ranging from France to South Africa, and China to Costa Rica. SIS
has worked with the Minister of Education of Rwanda to design a study abroad
agreement which will allow Pacific students to study at any Rwandan university
and allows Rwandan students to come to Pacific. This agreement is a first in the
U.S. The agreement will be signed when the President and Minister of Education
Murenzi are at the University of the Pacific on April 14th.
The School of
International Studies also has a graduate-level program that offers a Masters
Degree in Intercultural Relations, that partners with the Peace Corps to offer a
Peace Corps Masters in Intercultural Relations(www.pacific.edu/sis/mair/peace-corps-and-masters-degree.htm)
The program enables graduate students to combine Peace Corp service with
graduate study at the University of the Pacific.
Rwanda’s first lady,
Madame Jeannette Kagame, will be accompanying her husband. She will appear at a
reception to raise funds to assist AIDS widows and orphans in Rwanda. The
fundraiser has been organized by students at Pacific’s School of International
Studies and St. Mary’s High School in Stockton. Tickets are $25 for students and
$75 for the general public and are available through the Pacific Box
Office.
There is no charge to attend President Kagame’s speech, but
tickets are required and can be obtained at the door or in
advance.
Tickets for both events are available through the Pacific Box
Office. Call 209.946.2474 or visit http://www.tix.com and enter “Kagame” in the search window.
The Pacific Box Office is located in the Long Theatre at 1040 Brubeck Way on the
Stockton Campus. It is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m.
Editor: The news media are invited to attend and cover the speech. A
news conference (restricted to working press only) will be held in George Wilson
Hall at 5 p.m. (PST). If you are planning to come, please notify Dr. Joe
Brennan, executive director of marketing and university relations, by calling
209.946.2746 or sending email to e-mail protected from spam bots
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb218310.htm