BROOKLYN AND PATCHOGUE, NY – FEBRUARY 13, 2008 – St. Joseph’s College has announced that Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Janet Wallach, will be visiting the College during the week of March 10-13, 2008. As part of her visit, Wallach will deliver a public lecture on “Seeds of Peace: Turning Enemies Into Friends” at both its Brooklyn and Long Island Campuses. Beyond public lectures, Wallach will spend the week exchanging ideas and sharing her unique insights with students, faculty and administrators on a wide range of issues. Following her talk at the Long Island Campus, she will be presented with the Esse Non Videri Non-Violence Award for her contributions to peace.

A celebrated scholar specializing in Middle Eastern affairs, Wallach is a renowned journalist and author of eight books who has interviewed heads of state and leading Middle East personalities and been a frequent contributor to The Washington Post Magazine and written for various other periodicals including the Smithsonian Magazine and Working Woman. Her book, Desert Queen, is the biography of Gertrude Bell, the British official most responsible for the creation of the modern Middle East. Co-founder and president emeritus of Seeds of Peace, a preeminent international youth organization that helps teenagers from regions of turmoil learn the skills of conflict resolution and peace, Wallach has also appeared on numerous television and radio programs in addition to holding speaking engagements at places such as the Explorers Club, the National Arts Club and the English Speaking Union. She is a graduate of New York University.

Named after the College’s motto, “To be, not to seem,” the Non-Violence Award is presented annually to individuals who exemplify compassion, social engagement and spirituality in the pursuit of social justice and peace. Past recipients include religion commentator S. Camille, peace activist S. Mary Fritz, humanitarian and civil rights activist Joop van der Grinten, award-winning journalist and author Antoinette Bosco and Dead Man Walking author S. Helen Prejean.

Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows connect a liberal education with the world beyond the campus by bringing thoughtful and successful practitioners to colleges for a week of classes and informal discussions with students and faculty. Fellows, who include government officials, business leaders, journalists, environmentalists and medical ethicists, are matched with small colleges chosen for their commitment to the goals of the program. Together they help to equip students for the social, political and economic settings they will enter and illuminate the roles they may play as professionals and informed citizens.

In 2007, the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) accepted an invitation from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to administer its nationally renowned Visiting Fellows program, which has been developing and conducting programs in higher education since 1945. More than 200 colleges have participated in the Visiting Fellows program since 1973. This is the fifth consecutive year that St. Joseph’s has hosted a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at the College.

Wallach will deliver her talk on “Seeds of Peace: Turning Enemies Into Friends” at the Brooklyn Campus of St. Joseph’s College in the Tuohy Hall Auditorium on Tuesday, March 11; she will present the same lecture to the College’s Long Island Campus in the McGann Conference Room, O’Connor Hall on Thursday, March 13. Both lectures will be given at 12:40 p.m.

About St. Joseph's College

St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility, and service. With campuses located in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn and in Patchogue, Suffolk, Long Island, the College offers degrees in over 22 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs through its School of Arts and Sciences and its School of Professional and Graduate Studies.