Justice at Home—Global Issues On a Local Level

It's Human Rights Week at Gordon College. Starting today Monday, March 26, the week includes national speakers and business leaders, as well as voices and insights from within the Gordon College community. This year’s theme, “Justice at Home,” highlights global issues on a local level. Organized and hosted by The Human Network, a student-run club, this is the third annual Human Rights Week for the College.

Gordon's chapel speaker for Human Rights Week is Mike Yankoski, author of Under the Overpass: A Journey of Faith on the Streets of America. Under the Overpass shares a personal journey of two college students who took a semester off to experience homelessness, as seen from the street, in six different U.S. cities. Yankoski, an international speaker and advocate for a Christ-centered response to the world's great needs, also serves on the board of directors for World Vision US.

Ashlie Busone ’14 is vice president of The Human Network and leads a spiritual life group studying Zealous Love, another book by this week's Chapel speaker. “Yankoski is the perfect headline speaker for this year’s theme,” said Busone, a secondary education and Spanish double major from New York. “His background has common threads for many students here. He grew up in a middle-class home, studied at a Christian College, experienced study abroad, and has a servant’s heart. He offers practical ways to exercise justice at home, in College and over seas.”

Other events this week include a special viewing of the documentary At the End of Slavery; a conversation with Dean Cycon, founder and CEO of fair trade coffee company Dean’s Beans; a special presentation by Denis Frediani, director of Prison Aftercare Ministries for Vision New England; an Educational Summit, “Sowing Seeds of Justice;” a Red Cross blood drive; Chapel services; morning devotionals; and a human rights panel, “Home and Abroad,” featuring Gordon faculty and staff living on the North Shore and making a difference for human rights today.

Gordon student Mary Frediani '12, inspired her freshman year by a faculty panel during the first Human Rights Week, today sits at the club president. “Not all people are given the same rights. The Human Network is part of the larger, worldwide movement to seek justice for those who aren’t able to speak up, or for those whom no one is listening to.”

Human Rights Week starts Monday, March 26, and ends on Friday, March 30, with a special Education Summit at 7 p.m. in the Ken Olsen Science Center. A full listing of Human Rights Week events is available online at www.gordon.edu/humanrightsweek.

For information on the Human Network, contact Club President Mary Freidiani at [email protected].

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Located on Boston’s North Shore, Gordon is one of the nation’s premier Christian colleges, offering majors in 38 fields with graduate programs in education and music education. Gordon is strategically located on the Eastern Seaboard—just 20 miles from Boston, and a few hours away from the financial and political capitals of the Western world (New York and Washington, D.C.)—providing students with extraordinary access to leading-edge learning and professional opportunities. We set ourselves apart from the many outstanding institutions of higher learning in New England by combining first-rate training in the liberal arts and sciences with an informed Christian faith.

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