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Hans
Massaquoi
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MIAMI,
Fla. (Dec. 21, 2001) -- Florida International University will
feature author and former Ebony magazine editor Hans Massaquoi
and NASA's Capt. Winston Scott as part of the 11th Annual Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Birthday Celebration
Jan. 17-18, 2002 at the University Park and Biscayne Bay campuses.
Massaquoi will speak on Fri., Jan. 18, at FIU-University Park
as part of the MLK Commemorative Breakfast, which begins at 8
a.m. The event, as it is each year, is sold out.
Scott will serve as keynote speaker for the Second Annual MLK
Youth Forum at the Wolfe University Center Ballroom, FIU-Biscayne
Bay, on Thurs., Jan. 17, 9 a.m.
Scott's talk will be followed by a Peace Walk, co-sponsored by
the Student Affairs Staff Development Committee. The Forum and
Walk are free and open to the FIU community.
Thursday evening at 10 p.m., there will be a "Celebration
Jam" in the Wolfe University Center Ballroom, FIU-Biscayne
Bay. All proceeds from the party will benefit the MLK Scholarship
Fund. Admission is $5.
Massaquoi is the author of "Destined to Witness: Growing
Up Black in Nazi Germany." Although he retired as managing
editor from Ebony in 1997 after 39 years, he still serves the
magazine as a contributing editor. Massaquoi's book tells of his
story of struggle, self doubt and survival that follows him well
beyond his years under the sinister scrutiny of the Third Reich
to America, which was struggling with its own racial issues. He
graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana with a bachelor's
degree in Journalism and Communications in 1956.
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Capt.
Winston Scott
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Notables
that he has interviewed include several heads of state (Presidents
Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, William Tolbert of Liberia and Walter
Scheel and Friedrich Von Weizsacker of Germany) as well as such
civil rights leaders as King and Malcom X, star entertainer Diana
Ross and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
Scott's keynote address the previous day at the MLK Youth Forum
is titled, "To the Stars: Achieving Your Dreams". Raised
in Miami, where he graduated from Coral Gables High School, Scott
became a NASA astronaut, rising to the rank of Naval Captain.
Scott was in the Endeavor flight that was a nine-day groundbreaking
excursion in which the crew retrieved the Space Flyer Unit satellite,
deployed and retrieved the OAST-Flyer satellite and conducted
two space walks to demonstrate and evaluate techniques to be used
in the assembly of the International Space Station. Scott's work
in space is regarded as a case study in leadership and expert
communication, qualities most clearly exhibited in the much-publicized
manual capture of the Spartan satellite in the 1997 Columbia mission.
He currently serves as Vice President of Student Affairs at Florida
State University.
For more information on any of the events, please contact Multicultural
Programs and Services at FIU-University Park, GC 216, or call
(305) 348-2436.
FIU is one of America's leading public research universities and
ranks third among all doctoral-granting institutions in degrees
earned by traditionally minority students. Two-thirds of its 33,000
students are Black or Hispanic.
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