PHILADELPHIA (April 22, 2009) - The Honorable Marjorie O. Rendell, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, and First Lady, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, will deliver the Pi Sigma Alpha Distinguished Lecture at Saint Joseph’s University on Friday, April 24, 2009, at 8 p.m. in the Haub Executive Center of McShain Hall. Pi Sigma Alpha is the political science honors society at Saint Joseph’s.
The lecture, which is sponsored by the Thomas Family Fund, is entitled “Civic Education in the 21st Century.” As First Lady of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Judge Rendell seeks to improve civic education for Pennsylvania students in grades K-12. She was instrumental in creating the Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy, an organization whose goal is for every school in Pennsylvania to prepare its students to understand and participate in their communities, society and government.
"I am delighted that Judge Rendell will join us for the forty-third annual induction dinner of Saint Joseph's chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha,” said Francis Graham Lee, professor of political science. “I have been honored to work with Judge Rendell in a program sponsored by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to improve the teaching of civic education in Pennsylvania's middle and high schools."
Judge Rendell earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor from the Villanova University School of Law. President William J. Clinton nominated her to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1997. She became Pennsylvania’s First Lady in 2003, when her husband Edward G. Rendell was inaugurated as Governor, and again in 2007, after he was re-elected as Governor.
Background: Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851, Saint Joseph's University advances the professional and personal ambitions of men and women by providing a demanding, yet supportive, educational experience. One of only 129 schools with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and AACSB business school accreditation, Saint Joseph's is home to 4,500 full-time undergraduates and 3,200 graduate, part-time and doctoral students. Steeped in the 450-year Jesuit tradition of scholarship and service, Saint Joseph's was named to the 2008 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for General Community Service. The University strives to be recognized as the preeminent Catholic comprehensive university in the Northeast.
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Contact: Patricia Allen, Associate Director of University Communications, 610-660-3240, patricia.allen@sju.edu
