Many of the world’s leaders in world service will converge on the Stephen M. Ross School of Business on Oct. 13 for a daylong symposium exploring where the heritage of global service and the next steps on the continuum.
“National Symposium: The Future of International Service” is open to the public and the panels do not require registration. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Ross School’s Blau Auditorium with remarks by Harris L. Wofford, the former U.S. Senator and special assistant to President John F. Kennedy on civil rights, who was a Peace Corps architect and also served as a special representative to Africa.
Morning sessions on the impact and lessons of foreign service will feature such panelists as Roopal Shah, executive director of Indicorps, the Indian service volunteer service modeled after the U.S. Peace Corps; and Michelle Nunn, the CEO of the Points of Light Institute and co-founder of the HandsOn Network.
An invitation-only luncheon featuring remarks by former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo runs from noon-1:30 p.m. Ghanaian drummers will salute arriving luncheon plenary participants at the U-M Museum of Art.
Afternoon panels resume at 1:30 p.m. to discuss universities’ roles in world service as well as new initiatives and policy proposals regarding such service. Those panels are scheduled to include such speakers as Sonal Shah, director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation; M. Peter McPherson, president of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and the former Michigan State University president; and U-M President Mary Sue Coleman.
Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams plans to close the symposium with a presentation on the future of the Peace Corps.
The event is sponsored by the university, the Brookings Institution and the National Peace Corps Association, with support from the Building Bridges Coalition.
