On Wednesday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m., Wagner College will celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with its annual Agent of Change Awards program. The keynote speaker for the evening will be former neo-Nazi T.J. Leyden. The award winners will be Professor Cheryl Nadeau, of the Evelyn L. Spiro School of Nursing, and senior history major Justina Licata. The program, which will be held in Spiro Hall, Room 2, is free and open to the public
T.J. Leyden, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, will tell his audience on the tough but fulfilling journey he took from a world of hate into a world of hope. As a leading recruiter, organizer and propagandist for the white supremacist neo-Nazi movement, Leyden spent 15 years promoting hate, bigotry and racism. After turning his back completely on the white power movement, Leyden worked for nearly seven years with the Task Force Against Hate at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, then on his own promoting tolerance with StrHATE Talk Consulting. A true agent of change, Leyden will speak about turning away from hate and how each of us have the power to make a difference.
Professor Nadeau's work with the African Refuge Partnership in Community Health, and her willingness to challenge her students to move beyond their comfort zones by working in the Park Hill houses, moved the Agent of Change committee to select her for this year’s award.
The committee chose Justina Licata for the Agent of Change award because of her role on campus as a student leader and in the classroom as an ardent academician.
Former neo-Nazi speaks Wednesday, Jan. 28
January 26, 2009
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