One perk of being at Penn is that one often gets to see, meet and hear first-hand from world-renowned scholars and influential leaders - Anderson Cooper, the CEO of Coca Cola company, just to name a few.
And this semester, Nicholas Kristof will be added to that list - the award-winning journalist will speak at the Ambani Auditorium in Huntsman Hall tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Kristof currently writes for The New York Times, and his op-ed columns appear twice a week. He has been the recipient of various awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes -- the first in 1990 with his wife Sheryl WuDunn for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement, and the second in 2006 for his coverage of the genocide in Darfur.
From Asia to Africa, Kristof's main interests concern foreign affairs and human rights. Along these lines, he will talk tonight about international development in an address called "The World As I See It."
The event is hosted by the Penn International Development Coalition in conjunction with the University Honor Council and the Provost's Global Forum.
According to SCUE member and College sophomore Matt Eldridge, Penn IDC is an umbrella group created to implement initiatives pertinent to international development studies.
The group is a "hub" for student involvement, research and collaboration in the field - students involved will be informed about related groups and opportunities available through or at Penn, Eldridge wrote in an e-mail.
"As students at Penn are highly interdisciplinary in their approach of problems," Eldridge wrote, "Penn IDC hopes that students will realize that they can apply the highly valuable tools they have gained at Penn to create change in the world."
Eldridge added that Penn IDC anticipates that Kristof's visit will "encourage students to think about and apply themselves creatively to the problems that often prevent development in countries around the world."
