Interfaith Youth Core Director Eboo Patel to Speak at The College of Wooster Feb. 18

Will address a variety of topics, including need for religious literacy and power of inter-religious cooperation

WOOSTER, Ohio - A new youth movement is sweeping across the country, and this one could change the world. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, secular humanists and others are choosing communication over confrontation, and a leader in that movement is coming to The College of Wooster in February.

Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, will be in Wooster on Feb. 18 to share his ideas about common action based on shared values among different faiths and to reinforce the notion that violence and bloodshed are never inevitable. He will deliver a free public lecture at 8 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center (525 E. University St.) as part of the Spring Academy of Religion series. He will also speak to several classes and participate in discussions about religious diversity and leadership among students, faculty, and administrators.

"The Office of Interfaith Campus Ministries has been developing programs and services for the multi-faith community of students, faculty, and staff for more than 14 years," said the Reverend Dr. Linda Morgan-Clement, campus chaplain at Wooster. "Eboo Patel's visit is a further step in the college's exploration of effective education in a diverse society. He will engage us in thinking personally and institutionally about how to enhance our ability to educate and nurture interfaith leaders."

Patel's Interfaith Youth Core is a Chicago-based organization that seeks to nurture the global interfaith youth movement. As the group's charismatic young leader, Patel has attracted the attention of religious and government leaders, including President Obama, who recently appointed him to the Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, where he is working to make the President's focus on interfaith cooperation a reality.

Named by U.S. News and World Report as one of America's Best Leaders of 2009, Patel is the author of Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation as well as "The Faith Divide", a blog on religion for The Washington Post. He holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship, and has also written for the Harvard Divinity School Bulletin, The Chicago Tribune, The Clinton Journal, The Review of Faith and International Affairs, and The Sunday Times of India. In addition, he has appeared on National Public Radio and CNN.

Patel serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation USA. He has spoken at the TED Conference, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, and at universities around the world. He is an Ashoka Fellow - part of a select group of social entrepreneurs whose ideas are changing the world. In addition, he was named by Islamica Magazine as one of 10 young Muslim visionaries shaping Islam in America, and was chosen by Harvard's Kennedy School Review as one of five future policy leaders to watch. He is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, was honored with the 2009 Roosevelt Institute's Freedom of Worship Medal, and will receive the prestigious 2010 Grawemeyer Award in Religion this spring.

For additional information about Patel's visit to The College of Wooster, please contact Linda Morgan Clement by phone (330-263-2602) or e-mail.