LEXINGTON, Ky.—Fifty-one college juniors, from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, are in Lexington this week to attend the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship’s second annual Student Congress at Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky, June 20-27.
The students are recommended by the senior U.S. senator from their state and colleges and universities throughout the country and, while at the Student Congress, are exposed to a curriculum in diplomacy, dialogue, listening skills, negotiation and mediation.
The curriculum, designed by Transylvania, the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce and the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at UK and Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate, focuses not only on theory, but also on the practices of statesmanship, including Henry Clay’s ideals of debate, diplomacy, communication and beneficial compromise.
Students will hear from top speakers, including Rusty Barber, U.S. Institute of Peace director of Iraq programs; John Marks, president and founder of Search for Common Ground, an international conflict prevention organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels; Ambassador George Staples; and Steven Hochman, assistant to former President Jimmy Carter and director of research at the Carter Center.
Local speakers include U.S. District Judge and Transylvania alumna Karen Caldwell; Transylvania president Charles L. Shearer; Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce director Carey Cavanaugh; Lexington and Washington, D.C., lawyer Kent Masterson Brown; award-winning newspaper editor John S. Carroll; Lexington Herald-Leader cartoonist Joel Pett; and Transylvania professors Don Dugi and Scott Whiddon.
The students will also view taped remarks from The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor and Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Ruler of Dubai.
For more information, contact the public relations office at (859) 233-8120.